9 Barrell Lane Extension
York Harbor, ME 03911
Phone: 207-384-2454
www.historicnewengland.org/historic-properties/homes/sayward-wheeler-house
Captain John Smith explored this area in 1614 and named it Agamenticus. In 1641 it became the first English city chartered in the Americas. No longer a city, the town of York, named for York, England, is known for its colonial sites, beaches, and picturesque waterways. One of these waterways is the York River, which the Sayward-Wheeler House overlooks. The house was built about 1718 and bought in 1735 by Jonathan Sayward (1713–1797), a judge, merchant, and Tory. In the 1760s he had the house enlarged, embellished, and furnished with finer pieces. He was revered by his family, and after his death his descendants preserved the house as it was when he was alive. Consequently this is one of the best-preserved colonial interiors in the nation. This house was shown to visitors as a museum as early as the 1860s.
In 1900 a grandson (Sayward Barrel) sold the house and its contents to another descendant, Elizabeth Cheever Wheeler. She made some changes, added plumbing and electricity, painted some of the interior white, and added new wallpapers. But the original furnishings, portraits, and other decor remained. This was used as a summer home until 1977, when it was given to the SPNEA.