CUMBERLAND FORESIDE – Atop the newel post of the main staircase is a silver medallion inscribed with brief details of this home’s history: built in 1938-1940 for Phillips and Marion Payson, by the Boston architectural firm of Perry, Shaw & Hepburn (which also restored Colonial Williamsburg).

Also in the grand foyer of the Exclusive Spears Hill Estate home, behind a gracefully curving door, is a flower-cutting room, where the daily delivery of fresh flowers was prepared before being distributed to decorate the hip-roof mansion’s 16 rooms.

This elegant lifestyle is reflected throughout the gorgeous, 7,888-square-foot, nine-bedroom home, which from its elevation and ocean-view patio looks out across Casco Bay to several islands.  It’s a five-minute stroll down the slope to the town’s quiet sand beach.

The first floor is a stunner throughout. The library, with tiled window seat, lovely built-ins (and hidden bar); and the back-to-front dining room with marble fireplace (there are 14 fireplaces altogether) and floor-to-ceiling bow windows at either end, are just two examples.

A short stroll away, beyond the clay tennis court, are outbuildings: a small, but very fine, chicken coop; two large sheds, one open and one enclosed, to house vehicles, boats and tractors; and a six-stall horse barn with heated bath and changing room, hearkening back to the property’s equestrian-estate origin. (The master bedroom suite has a “riding room” suite, complete with a bathroom and a telephone to the stables, within it.)

Alongside the sheds, leading down to the shore, is a gravel right-of-way, one section of the five or six miles of trails that wind around the original Payson Estate’s 100-plus acres.

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An Open House will be held at the property from noon to 2 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 28; and an on-site Owner’s auction will be held at 2 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 20.

For more information, please contact Jill Daviero of Tranzon Auction Properties (775-4300, jdavierotranzon.com; or David Banks of RE/MAX By The Bay at 553-7302 or at dbanks@davidbanksteam.com.

The Home of the Week is produced by the Marketing Department of the Maine Sunday Telegram.

Photos by Nicholas LaRiviere, Firefly Aerial Solutions.

Send HOW suggestions to jrolfe@pressherald.com.


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