Spofford Wanning House

One of the oldest houses in Blue Hill is located next door to the Congregational Church on Main Street, just up the hill from the library.

- BY STEELE HAYS

Built around 1800, it's known as the Spofford-Wanning house, but over the last 224 years it has had numerous owners and links to many families who have shaped Blue Hill's history.

The house has survived at least three fires—one in 1911 destroyed the barn, but a new barn was soon erected. A bucket brigade of townspeople passed buckets of water from the church to prevent the fire from spreading to the house.

Daniel Spofford, a carpenter, miller and builder, built the house on land he purchased in the 1790s. He also helped build and operate two of the first tidal mills in the area on the Mill Pond north of Blue Hill Falls. One was a saw mill, the other a grist mill. He was one of the five men Blue Hill residents elected in the 1790s to build the first town meeting hall. Spofford left Blue Hill in 1803 and moved to Bucksport where he died in 1852 at age 86.

Spofford's son Daniel followed his father's vocation to become a mill builder and with Nathan Ellis-built the first mill at what was then called McHard's, now East Blue Hill.