OVERLOOK

AN INSPIRED MAINE CRAFTSMAN HOME

A serial restorer of old houses decides to build a new one.

When he was a boy growing up in Pasadena, California, Dyke Messler had lunch at his grandparents’ house on Sundays. “I spent Christmas and birthdays there, too,” he says.

Messler’s grandmother’s name was Gamble. Yes: His great-grandparents were David and Mary Gamble, who had commissioned the architects Greene & Greene to design their winter residence, which was built in 1908. The Gamble House is a masterpiece of Arts & Crafts residential architecture, one of the houses by Greene & Greene referred to as “ultimate bungalows.”

But for Messler, the cozy house was just “my grands’. They let us run and explore, nothing was off-limits to us kids.” He says the house, with its exquisite exposed joinery and craftsmanship, and its Japanese-inspired design, became a discovery experience for him.

Following the death of their parents in 1966, Messler’s mother and her five siblings gave the house jointly to the City of Pasadena and the University of Southern California School of Architecture. Messler went East to attend college, then moved to rural Vermont, where he bought and restored a ca. 1820 Cape. Finding Vermont too isolated, he then moved to coastal Maine, where he bought and restored a series of old houses.

When Messler acquired a spectacular piece of land halfway up a mountain overlooking Penobscot Bay, he decided to build a home that would pay homage to his grandparents’ house. Working with Belfast, Maine, architect Dominic Paul Mercadante, Dyke Messler sought to create a 21st-century, East Coast version of the designs of Charles and Henry Greene.

“Dominic and I have worked together for 25 years,” Messler says. “This is our sixth project. It had to be interpetive; the Greenes’ houses were created for the Mediterranean climate of Southern California, and the interiors tend to be dark. I took the liberty of using lighter woods, and we shortened the rafter tails in eave overhangs to allow more sunlight to enter. The roof line is steeper to shed snow.” Messler adds that, while Greene & Greene sheathed their houses in redwood shakes, he chose red cedar, stained lichen green to approximate the Gamble House color.

He and Mercadante started the project in 2008—with a 2,000-square-foot guest house. “We wanted to get a sense of the joinery details, and the cost,” Messler explains. “Fortunately, Maine is loaded with very talented builders, so we worked with people who knew woodwork—but who were happy to be pushed

to this high level of craftsmanship. Greene & Greene’s work is nothing short of brilliant. In the joinery, for example, surfaces are rounded and polished, joints are pillowed and exposed.”

By 2010, Messler and Mercadante could move on to the 6,000-square-foot main house, which was completed 26 months later. “The Gamble House, which is about one-third larger, was completed in nine months at a cost of about $75,000, including the furnishings,” Messler report. “This one cost a bit more!”

Renowned glass artist John Hamm of Whittier, California, interpreted the design of Gamble House’s front doors for Maine, selecting motifs of a pine tree, clouds, and the ocean. The front hall is based on that of the Culbertson House, another of Greene & Greene’s Pasadena houses. Dominic Mercadante designed a staircase that incorporates the favored cloudlift motif, also found on the windows. Charles Greene collected tsuba, Japanese sword guards; they became the inspiration for escutcheons made for all the doors and for the shape of the mahogany dining table.

A patio, multi-level gardens, an infinity-edge pool, a waterfall, a stone barbecue area, and a pond surround the house. Like its West Coast inspirations, Overlook appears to be rooted in the ground, rather than plunked down upon it. “Interpreting the Greene’s work is tricky business,” Messler admits. “More than one new version has failed because it was simply overdone. Ted Bosley, executive director of the Gamble House, was full of praise for this house. That, to me, is the supreme compliment!”

Battered piers built of local fieldstone, rounded rafter tails, cloudlift motifs in windows, and a stunning entry door interpret the work of Charles and Henry Greene 100 years later, and for the East Coast.

With a broad terrace on the first floor and a covered porch on the second level, the back of the house is oriented towards the distant ocean view. INSET Made of Douglas fir, exterior rafter tails are shorter than their California counterparts, but have the unmistakable look of Greene & Greene design, as does the bronze strapping. RIGHT Battered piers built of local fieldstone, rounded rafter tails, cloudlift motifs in the windows, and a stunning stained-glass front door interpret the work of Charles and Henry Greene for the East Coast.

ABOVE The horizontal lines favored by Greene & Greene are evident in a view of the patio outside the back door. An upstairs porch recalls the sleeping porches of the Pasadena houses. LEFT The porch off the upstairs master bedroom is not used for sleeping, but for watching sailboats on the bay. BOTTOM Located at one end of the house, the Japanese-inspired outdoor shower is a favorite amenity used after a swim in the pool.

Unlike the entries of Greene & Greene houses, which were rooms in themselves, this hall is a pass-through flanked by wings. Doors, windows, and interior trim are vertical grain Douglas fir.

TOP LEFT Built first to test the waters for local craftsmanship and to gauge the cost of the whole project, the open-plan guest house is a retreat with many elements similar to those in the main house. LEFT The guest house nestles into the landscape.

Stone terracing created gardens, a pool, and a pond fed by hillside runoff. The guest house at left, opposite the front door, was built first.