POWNAL – A New York couple with ties to Maine has purchased Chilton Furniture, a Maine retailer of Shaker-style furniture.

Jennifer and Jared Levin of Larchmont, N.Y., purchased Chilton from Bill and Susan Martens of Pownal. Bill Martens’ father, also named Bill, bought it in 1920, when it was a paint business in Portland. Chilton has retail furniture stores at 184 Lower Main St. in Freeport and 410 Payne Road in Scarborough.

The Levins, in their early 40s, closed on the property on Sept. 29. For now, they run the business from New York, with Nate Gobeil of Scarborough, the general manager since 2011, overseeing the stores. Jennifer Levin is company president. The Levins did not divulge the sale price.

“We made Nate an equity partner,” Jennifer Levin said from her home last Thursday. “We’re basically in touch all day long, and we make a trip up to Maine twice a month.”

Bill Martens, 80, said that it was simply time to retire.

“The Levins are very capable of carrying the business on, and I have every confidence in Nate Gobeil,” Martens said. “They get it. And I’m looking forward to watching them take the business to new heights.”

Store managers Lorinda Nelson and Jill Kennedy will stay on, and the Levins plan to expand from 11 to 14 employees in the two stores combined. Chilton purchases as much of its handmade cherry furniture as possible from Maine, at shops in Bowdoinham, North Yarmouth, Buxton, Oakland and East Baldwin.

Jennifer Levin, a former corporate attorney, said that she plans to hire a consumer advocate to monitor product quality, and a warehouse manager, and invest in the two properties, including a “modest refresh” of the buildings and landscaping. Chilton will introduce e-commerce to the company’s website, www.chiltons.com.

She and her husband, who works in finance, will consult on the operation of the company, Jennifer Levin said.

“Both of us have a say,” she said. “It’s a team effort. But I am the big-picture person.”

Levin sees big growth potential.

“We are particularly excited about the opportunity to grow the Internet business,” she said. “Out-of-state sales have doubled in recent years to 25 percent of the total. We hope to build that momentum through online and catalog sales, and a greater investment in regional advertising.”

Gobeil is enthused.

“The Levins have gone from 0 to 60 really fast,” he said. “These guys are awesome, and I really see just great things.”

Jennifer Levin, a Bates College graduate who grew up in New Hampshire, said she hopes that when people think about Shaker-inspired furniture, they think Chilton. About three-quarters of the company’s stock is Shaker style, but all of it is Shaker-inspired, she said.

“It has the same utility, quality and simplicity of form following function,” she said. “This is something that I am passionate about.”

The Levins have daughters aged 10, 7 and 4. She spent childhood summers with her grandparents in Ocean Park, and the couple continue that tradition with their girls.

Levin said she was seeking businesses for sale last March, and ran across Chilton on Country Business, Inc.

“I was randomly searching for something that was available in Maine,” she said. “I’ve always wanted to get back to Maine, and I convinced my husband to meet the Martens in March. We met Nate first, and went back and thought he could handle every phase, and we interfaced with Nate and his team on how to manage the business. As it progressed, we started to fall in love with the company.”

Levin said she appreciates the Martens’ love of Shaker furniture.

“It brought tears to my eyes when we closed this transaction,” she said. “Bill said to me, ‘Take care of my baby.’”

The Chilton lineage traces back to the James Chilton family, who were passengers on the Mayflower, which carried the Pilgrims from England to America in 1620. According to legend, Chilton’s daughter, Mary, was the first to set foot on Plymouth Rock.

Mary Chilton’s descendants started Chilton Paint Co. in Portland following the Civil War. The elder Martens purchased Chilton Paint in 1920, and his son began working there in 1956.

In 1970, Chilton Paint began selling unfinished furniture at 49 Exchange St.

“I always had an interest in Shaker furniture,” Martens said. “I knew a lot of people in the industry.”

Martens purchased the Freeport property in 1983, converting the barn to a furniture business. He bought the Scarborough store four years later.

Interestingly, the Chilton Furniture family history continues through Gobeil. His wife, Suraiya, traces her lineage back to the Chilton family.

Gobeil is the son of Ron Gobeil, who ran Gobeil’s Furniture Galleries in Gray for 38 years before closing in 2011.

Jared and Jennifer Levin, new owners of Chilton Furniture, stand outside the Freeport store.