SKOWHEGAN — Rebecca Corson Somes and her husband, Steven Dutile, had been working for months on the Civil War-era home of former Gov. Abner Coburn.

The mansion, they said, was in poor condition. Corson Somes’ uncle, who died last year, had owned it for decades, and he kept most people out.

After moving to Skowhegan to make the mansion their full-time project this summer, Corson Somes, the personal representative for her uncle’s estate, and Dutile said they felt it was almost in good enough condition to get insurance and begin showing it to potential buyers interested in preserving the property.

Then, while workers were completing repairs on Aug. 30, the home caught fire.

Despite the fire damage, Corson Somes and Dutile said this week they remain committed to preserving the historic home at 24 Main St. But with winter fast approaching, they need help.

“This building wants to stay,” Corson Somes said during a tour of the property Thursday.

The fire, which Skowhegan fire Chief Ronnie Rodriguez said was ruled accidental by state fire investigators, burned for nearly six hours as firefighters from just about every fire department in the region worked to extinguish it.

The roof of the main section of the mansion was damaged and needs to be replaced. The trusses and much of the third floor — where there are three large bedrooms, several closets, a bathroom, and another room — were also burnt.

The second floor, and some of the first floor, suffered water damage from what it took to put out the Friday evening blaze. The smell of smoke lingers throughout the mansion.

Light gleams through the entry Thursday to Coburn Mansion as Steven Dutile talks about fire and water damage to  historic home during an Aug. 30 fire. The fire caused extensive damage to the roof and third floor of the home which was built in 1848 at 24 Main St. in Skowhegan. Dutile says firefighters spent six hours working the fire. Rich Abrahamson/Morning Sentinel

In the week since, Corson Somes, Dutile, and friends and family have worked to take weight off water-damaged ceilings, clean out soot and other debris and stop further damage.

“My concern right now is that (it) won’t make it through the winter if it’s not protected more,” Corson Somes said. “It has great bones. It wants to be standing. It impresses me every day, this building, but it needs more care, and it needs more than I can give it right now.”

STRONG FOUNDATIONS

Corson Somes and Dutile credited the quality of the home’s construction as to how much of it survived such a large fire. Walls were built thick, and the lumber used was 250-year-old trees, meaning it has a tighter grain and is more resistant to fire.

“If it was built nowadays, it would’ve all burned down,” Corson Somes said, adding that firefighters who said the same thing were impressed with the structure.

In total, the mansion has seven bedrooms, four bathrooms, two separate apartments, three kitchens, and a multi-story attached barn, according to Corson Somes and Dutile.

Rebecca Corson Somes, left, and her husband, Steven Dutile, walk near debris Thursday left by an Aug. 30 fire that swept through the third floor of the the historic Coburn Mansion. The pair were in the process of restoring the home that was built in 1848 at 24 Main St. in Skowhegan. Rich Abrahamson/Morning Sentinel

Many of the unique features of the home survived the fire, including tiling on its seven fireplaces, ornate door hinges, stained glass near the main entrance, rounded wood trim along some walls, and a crank-operated doorbell.

The home was built in 1849 by prominent Skowhegan builder Joseph Bigelow in the Greek Revival style, according to an entry in the National Register of Historic Places, to which the home was added in 1974.

“The Abner Coburn House is significant in three respects: as a specimen of Greek Revival architecture at its highest point of development; as the work of a known architect and master carpenter; and as the home of an important figure in Maine’s history,” a nomination form for the national register reads.

Coburn, who served as Maine’s 30th governor from 1863-64 as a member of the Republican Party, lived in the home until his death in 1885 at the age of 81.

The property passed through a few owners before Doug Corson, Corson Somes’ uncle, bought it in the 1960s, his niece said.

Doug Corson, who worked in Skowhegan as a teacher and at one point owned the Skowhegan Drive-In Theater and the Central Maine Artists Gallery on West Front Street, was very active in the community but very private, Corson Somes said. He lived in the house next door and kept an office in the mansion.

“My uncle loved Skowhegan,” Corson Somes said. “He loved Skowhegan.”

Doug Corson, who died in June 2023, said in 2014 interview that he bought the Coburn house to ensure his privacy. Overgrown landscaping was meant to keep visitors out, not to disrespect the property, and the house just needed a good paint job, Corson said at the time.

“This was too much for him,” Corson Somes said. “I would say it has fallen in disrepair.”

Corson Somes, who grew up in Beverly, Massachusetts, and now lives in Danvers, Massachusetts, would visit her family’s camp on North Pond in Smithfield in the summers as a child. But she never visited her uncle at his home, she said. She only found out he owned the former governor’s mansion about 10 years ago.

Doug Corson did not leave a will, according to his niece and probate court records. But Corson Somes said it was understood among family members that she would handle his estate, and she was appointed its personal representative.

‘A LABOR OF LOVE’

Corson Somes and Dutile, her husband, were limited in what they could do in the early stages of probate. Last fall, they came up to Skowhegan from Massachusetts on weekends to tackle some initial tasks, like getting the barn doors to close.

This spring, Corson Somes and Dutile decided to go all in. They bought a camper, which they have been living in across the street from the mansion on property also owned by Doug Corson.

Corson Somes works remotely from the camper as a vice president and comptroller and helps with work on the mansion when she is not working. Dutile, a mechanic by trade who is partially retired, has been working on the house nearly every day.

Rebecca Corson Somes looks at fire damage Thursday as she walks through debris left after an Aug. 30 fire swept through third floor the historic Coburn Mansion. The fire caused extensive damage to the home which was built in 1848 at 24 Main St. in Skowhegan. Rich Abrahamson/Morning Sentinel

For a project this big, they needed to be nearby as much as possible. The home was vandalized this spring, which also factored into their decision to be constantly present.

Each weekend, Corson Somes said she has made a list of tasks to tackle. In the summer months, the two said they have been working on the mansion from early in the morning to as late as when the sun sets mid-summer at 9 p.m.

Dutile said he constantly thinks of respect — for the integrity of the home and for the man who lived there.

“It’s been a labor of love,” Corson Somes said.

The goal was to get the property in safe condition and in good enough shape for it to be insured. The two do not want to live there; their hope is that a person, organization or other entity buys the house with the goal of allowing the public to enjoy it in some capacity.

“We want it to be for the state of Maine,” Corson Somes said. “We want it to be for the people of Skowhegan-Waterville.”

MAKING CONNECTIONS

Coburn was at one point considered to be the richest man in Maine, according to a biography compiled by the Skowhegan Heritage Council. Through his work as a surveyor, family lumbering business, and investments in several other industries, Coburn amassed a fortune of the modern-day equivalent of $100 million and came to own more than 450,000 acres of land in Maine and more than 60,000 acres in Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Washington and Dakota Territory, the biography says.

After his death, Coburn left much of his fortune to Maine institutions. Among several other major donations, he gave $200,000 to what is now Colby College; $100,000 to Maine State College of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts, now the University of Maine; and $100,000 to Maine General Hospital in Portland, according to the biography.

He served on the boards of trustees of both of those colleges, including as president. Among his marks on Skowhegan is the Somerset County Courthouse, still in use, which he built to ensure Skowhegan would be the county’s shire town, rather than Norridgewock.

“It’s just unbelievable,” said Dutile, who spent much of this winter learning about Coburn’s life.

Light gleams through a stained-glass entry Thursday to Coburn Mansion as Steven Dutile talks about fire and water damage suffered in an Aug. 30 fire at the historic home. The home was built in 1848 at 24 Main St. in Skowhegan. Dutile says firefighters spent six hours working the fire. Rich Abrahamson/Morning Sentinel

Rob Washburn, who started Skowhegan’s annual Gov. Abner Coburn Day and chaired the town’s Heritage Council, has researched Coburn extensively and called him a great role model.

“He just did amazing things,” said Washburn, who is also Somerset County’s elected probate judge. “I respect a philanthropist who has all this money who then gives it all away to people.”

Washburn, who said he toured the mansion for the first time just days before the fire even though he knew Doug Corson, hopes Coburn’s old home can be restored, with many people in the area taking pride in his legacy.

Corson Somes and Dutile said that they hope, perhaps, some of the organizations that benefitted from Coburn may want to give back.

In the meantime, the two are working to make local connections — people who can provide both financial support and lend their skills to the project.

A friend started a GoFundMe fundraiser to support the home’s restoration, which had raised about $1,000 as of Friday. Corson Somes is also working on setting up a Venmo account and email address for the project.

Dutile, meanwhile, started a Facebook group called “Governor Abner Coburn Mansion,” where people can communicate about what is happening and offer support.

“If nothing else,” Dutile said, “we love the house.”