Marrett House
In 1796, young Daniel Marrett, a recent Harvard graduate, moved to Standish, Maine, to become the town minister. He purchased the most imposing house in town to reflect his status as the community's leading citizen. Three generations of the Marrett family remained in the house for nearly one hundred and fifty years.
In the mid-nineteenth century, the Marretts enlarged and updated the house but chose to leave unchanged many furnishings and interior arrangements as relics of the past. The southwest parlor was redecorated at this time on the occasion of a family wedding, and remains preserved with original Victorian wallpaper, carpet, and furnishings. Each room in Marrett House showcases treasured possessions of the family, including pewter, ceramics, and textiles from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
Marrett House is a classic example of the "big house, little house, back house, barn" configuration, with the house and all service buildings connected. An early twentieth-century perennial garden is located beside the house.
Open
First and third Saturdays, June 1 – October 15
11:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Tours on the hour. Last tour at 4:00 p.m.
The Marrett House is a Historic New England property.
Top photo: Marrett House - In 1796, Reverend Daniel Marrett moved with his young wife Mary from Lexington, Massachusetts, to Standish, Maine, to become the new town minister. This handsome Federal-style house on the town’s main street and its accompanying twenty acres set the proper tone for Reverend Marrett and his family. Mary Marrett died in 1810, leaving Daniel a widower with six children between the ages of two and thirteen. By 1812, the forty–seven-year-old minister had married again, this time to twenty-seven-year-old Dorcas Hastings. Not only did Dorcas enthusiastically mother Daniel’s children, but she and Daniel would have eight more children over the next fifteen years.
Bottom photo: Sitting room - Despite many updates, Avery and Elizabeth maintained a strong reverence for the past and the family’s history. This sitting room room reflects their daughters’ choices in presenting that legacy. Caroline and Helen Marrett never married and remained in the house. Mary and Frances Marrett returned late in their lives. For all the sisters, especially Caroline and Helen, their family history was a source of great pride.