STANDISH — Donald Essman first saw the Dow Farm at age 23 and set out to restore it after decades of decay. Forty-two years and a lot of work later, the 18th century farmstead has been recognized by Maine Preservation for Essman’s “exceptional” restoration.

The Dow Farm was named this month as one of 14 recipients of Maine Preservation’s Honor Award, which celebrates “outstanding examples of historic preservation and revitalization statewide and [recognizes] the owners, professionals, preservationists and partners who make them possible,” the organization says.

Impressed with the homestead when he came upon it in 1976, Essman, with an interest in historic preservation and restoration carpentry, offered to serve as its caretaker. The Dow family was pleased to have someone move in, especially since the vacant property had been subjected to break-ins.

The house, on Dow Road, was built in 1769. It was an active farm until the 1930s, when it became a summer residence. Without full-time residents, the house fell into disrepair.

But then Essman came along.

When he moved in, his priorities were “whatever was leaking the worst or broken the worst,” he said. “Or the Pepto-Bismol pink that this kitchen was painted.”

The Dow family gave him “free rein” to tackle whatever problems he felt were the most pressing. Over the past four decades, Essman – along with the help of his husband Michael Bendzela and Dow descendents Claudia White and Ken Faulstich – re-painted the house’s interior and exterior, installed a bathroom, re-clad the exterior of the house, re-shingled the roof, built a woodshed and re-established the farm’s pastures and apple orchard, among other projects. The property has been returned to a working farm.

“This is always going to be a lifetime project. The day I die, there’s still going to be projects that need to be finished,” Essman said. The Dow family has granted he and Bendzela lifelong tenancy.

Essman grew up in Concord, Massachusetts, and began doing restoration work in high school when he worked on homes built in the 1680s. He prefers working with older structures because he enjoys “the challenge. It’s not just being an assembler. Most people now building houses are basically assembling ready-made pieces.”

Essman graduated from what is now University of Southern Maine with a degree in Education for Industrial Arts in the 1970s and ran a restoration business for nearly 30 years. He is now retired, although he occasionally assists his old business partner and continues to do repairs on Dow Farm. A stroke two years ago affected his sight and his ability to read and concentrate, but he is still able to complete projects, albeit more slowly than he used to.

One of Essman’s favorite discoveries throughout the restoration was a stash of Prohibition-era liquor bottles in the rafters of the barn.

The house has been modernized somewhat, although Essman, who does not own a cell phone or television, heats the house using coal and wood stoves. He is not one for fancy amenities. The first 10 years he lived there, there was no indoor plumbing. For a long period of time, he did not own a refrigerator, only an ice box. He still owns a kerosene refrigerator.

“This house is not modern by most people’s standards, but I’m quite comfortable being in it,” he said.

“It can be simple, but when they say ‘the simple life,’ it isn’t. It’s probably more complex than what people are doing now because they’re letting machines do the work for them,” he said.

If Essman had his choice, he said, he would prefer to live as if it were the early 19th century except “people would really think I had gone off the deep end.”

He dislikes the fervor of capitalism and wishes people would only purchase necessary goods that will last.

“Nowadays, you’ve got to have the latest and trendiest, and it’s got to be better than everyone else’s. Other than my clothing, and my soft touch is my china, [I only purchase] something I can pass on, not something that’s going to break or be thrown out because it no longer has a purpose. I only like to buy things once,” he said.

Essman continued, “I don’t feel that I am deprived by not having a TV. I feel that it frees me up because when people have a TV, they feel compelled that they have to watch it.”

Scott Hanson of Sutherland Conservation in Augusta, a friend of Essman and Bendzela, nominated Dow Farm for the award and called their work “an exceptional effort.”

He praised the restoration, saying “if you look at what’s happened with every other old rundown farmstead within a half hour of Portland, they’ve all been subdivided into housing and the historic house either lost entirely or so altered it’s not recognizable.”

Hanson nominated Dow Farm without informing Essman, Bendzela, White or Faulstich and felt certain the home was qualified for the award.

In his nomination, he wrote, “the unique relationship built by the Dow heirs and Don and Mike has resulted in a museum-quality restoration of the house and out-buildings, a return to productive farming on the land, and a determination by the Dow heirs to insure the property will remain intact and protected for the future in a conservation easement and trust.”

Essman, however, does not consider his work to be that big of a deal.

“Not having kids, this has been my baby,” he said.

Jane Vaughan can be reached at 780-9103 or at jvaughan@keepmecurrent.com.

Donald Essman’s kitchen at Dow Farm in Standish does not have a refrigerator and features a large cast-iron stove in keeping with its 18th century beginnings. Dow Farm recently received a Maine Preservation Honor Award.

The Dow Farm parlor has been restored to its original look.

Essman has been restoring Dow Farm for 42 years.

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