Castle Tucker, Photo courtesy of Johansen Krause
WISCASSET — Historic New England’s Castle Tucker opens for the season today with new hours and safety protocols due to the pandemic.
This year, the museum will be open for tours Friday through Sunday. Guided tours will be given on the half hour from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. with the last tour each day leaving at 3 pm. Tours are limited to six people to allow for social distancing. All visitors must wear masks. Tickets must be purchased in advance at historicnewengland.org/property/castle-tucker. Admission is $15 for adults, $13 for seniors, $7 for students and $6 for children. Tours are free for Historic New England members.
Visitors should check in on arrival at the tent outside the building. Masks must be worn to enter the building. Visitors may either bring their own masks or Historic New England will provide them. Tours will enter through the front door and exit through the shed door, past a station with hand sanitizer and a place to dispose of masks. The Castle Tucker shop will not be open this year.
Castle Tucker, located at 2 Lee St. in Wiscasset is a mansion filled with the original furnishings and decoration of the Tucker family, who lived there for 150 years. This unusual house, filled with architectural mysteries, was built in 1807 by one of Wiscasset’s most prominent citizens, Silas Lee, a lawyer, congressman and judge.
In 1858, Captain Richard Tucker Jr., scion of a prominent Wiscasset shipping family, bought the house for his growing family. The Tuckers updated and redecorated to reflect the styles of their time, much of it in a style popularized by one of the earliest American lifestyle connoisseurs, Andrew Jackson Downing. Very little was changed in the house after 1900, including a kitchen with four generations of kitchen technology still in place where it was used. Preserved by three generations of Tucker women, Castle Tucker is one of the most complete and original Victorian homes in the United States.
For more information, call (207) 882-7169 or visit HistoricNewEngland.org.
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