Website lists the ‘most famous historic houses’ in each state. Here’s Maine’s

There are plenty of historic houses in Maine. There’s the Montpelier estate in Thomaston, where Gen. Henry Knox lived. (He became the first secretary of war in President George Washington’s cabinet.) Today’s building is a replica built in 1929; the original was built in 1794.

 Located on Route 131 in Thomaston, Montpelier is the site of the General Henry Knox Museum. (Brian Swartz | BDN)

Located on Route 131 in Thomaston, Montpelier is the site of the General Henry Knox Museum. (Brian Swartz | BDN)

Then there’s the Sarah Orne Jewett House in South Berwick where the writer was born and lived. Also in South Berwick is the Hamilton House — built for shipping merchant Jonathan Hamilton, overlooking Salmon Falls River.

But the most famous of all, according to the home design site HouseBeautiful, is probably not just one of this state’s, but the nation’s, most well-known historic houses. Of course it’s the Olson House in Cushing.

An artist from Illinois poses as Christina while being photographed by her husband at the Olson House in Cushing, in this BDN file photo. (Susan Latham | BDN)

An artist from Illinois poses as Christina while being photographed by her husband at the Olson House in Cushing, in this BDN file photo. (Susan Latham | BDN)

This is the place where Andrew Wyeth painted the famous “Christina’s World” in 1948, which is now owned by the Museum of Modern Art in New York. The home, meanwhile, is owned by the Farnsworth Art Museum, which describes how Wyeth’s “series of drawings, watercolors and tempera paintings featuring Christina Olson, her brother Alvaro and the house itself, occupied Wyeth from 1939 through 1968.”

HouseBeautiful gave the Victoria Mansion in Portland an honorable mention. Built as a summer home for Ruggles Sylvester Morse, a luxury hotel proprietor, its website says it “is widely recognized as the most important expression of the Italian villa style in American domestic architecture.”

Holiday decorations surround two visitors standing on a stair landing inside Victoria Mansion, 109 Danforth St., Portland, on Nov. 23, 2012.  (Debra Bell | BDN)

Holiday decorations surround two visitors standing on a stair landing inside Victoria Mansion, 109 Danforth St., Portland, on Nov. 23, 2012. (Debra Bell | BDN)

What is your favorite historic home in Maine?