Some family names are so familiar to the residents of a town that when and how they came to be partof the town is forgotten. The Captain Paul Dodge House is a perfect example of how over time one family can become so much a part of their surroundings that you can't help but bump into one of them or something named after them every time you leave the house. In Newcastle and Damariscotta the name of Dodge is found everywhere, from Dodge Point to Dodge Cove, founders of a local bank, to Lincoln County News columnists, to the lists of names on veteran memorials. After first arriving in Newcastle in 1777, two hundred years later the local phone book is filled with Dodges and you can't find a cemetery within 15 miles that doesn't have at lease one headstone with the name Dodge on it.
Paul Dodge was born in 1745 in Ipswich, Massachusetts, a town that was over flowing with other Dodges. There were so many Dodges in Ipswich that when he married in 1765 his wife's maiden name was Dodge. In 1775 when he was commissioned a Second Lieutenant he found himself reporting to First Lieutenant Robert Dodge who reported to Captain Richard Dodge. All three of them were brothers-in-law.
After his enlistment ended Paul Dodge moved to Newcastle where he, his wife Sarah and their five children were the only Dodges in town for a time. The home he built stayed in the family for several generations and over the years members of the family left their mark on the home, not by keeping track of how much the children had grown with pencil marks on a door jam but by carving their names on the woodwork around the dining room fireplace. Their marks, though faint after hundreds of years, are still visible today although barely legible.
The Captain Paul Dodge House is a marvelous example of the architecture of the period. This handsome Georgian Colonial sits privately on 6.8 acres of lawns, gardens, and shade trees and abuts the Dodge Point Preserve, providing miles of woods to walk through, access to beaches and a dock on the Damariscotta River. Built sometime around 1777, this home has been completely and authentically restored with attention given to the details that make the house so special. There is an elegant chef's kitchen and 2.5 modern baths, beamed ceilings, pumpkin pine floors and 3 working fireplaces. With a new heating system, and freshly painted interior and exterior, you can move right in. There is a charming apartment over the separate 2-bay garage, and a post-and-beam garden shed next to the raised-bed gardens. Close to the wonderful year-round town of Damariscotta.
For more information or to schedule a private showing of this property contact Tom Field tomfield@cheneycompanies.com or call 207-563-1003
