Why Did This Nearly Hidden Rustic Maine Home Break The Internet?

Maine has a lot of really unique homes.  Yes, we have saltboxes, Victorians, ranch houses, and really basic modern homes.  But, we also have some super wild coastal mansions, some homes that were originally constructed as churches, and milti-million dollar log cabins.

However, this home is probably the most unique we have ever seen.

Listed by Sotheby's, the home at 135 Hartview Circle in Orland is a one of a kind wilderness retreat that sits on a nearly 120 acre lot.  According to the listing, the home sits on Craig Pond.

At the heart of the property is a 6.600 square foot home that is seamlessly integrated into surrounding landscape.  As you look at the photos, you will notice that much of the home and yard fixtures make use of the stones on the property.  One of the other cool parts about the main house has no distinct line between inside and outside.

The listing says, in part:

The entire property is defined by stunning topography, dramatic geologic formations, including two mountains, spectacular cliffs & mature forest canopy, and thousands of feet of private water frontage.  Dive from a shoreline boulder into the deep water of Craig Pond. Enjoy the national park-like terrain and habitat. Venture to nearby Great Pond Mountain & look back with wonder at the splendor of this magnificent property. Loons, owls, eagles, osprey, kingfishers, and a full orchestra of songbirds call the thoughtfully-managed sanctuary home. Listed parcel and entire acreage, also available for purchase, includes multiple potential building sites for creating a compound on prime parcels of equal appeal.

While we'd love to continue to tell you about the place, a picture really us worth a thousand words, so check out the photos of the place.

As of October 2022, the list price is $7.9 million.  If you were to put $1,800,000 down your monthly payment would ONLY be $45,000.

So, how did the home break the internet?  Well, it is currently one of the most viewed homes on the Zillow website.  So far, it has over 12,000 views.  Many of the other homes on the site only have a few thousand views.

Maine really is a visitor friendly state.  We do have the moniker "Vacationland", after all.  Yes, we get a lot of middle class families that make period trips to our rugged coast, cool small towns, and heavily forested state parks, but we also attract a lot of very wealthy people.

For generations, the ultra-rich of the larger New England cities would have a mansion in Maine.  Each summer, their families would move to the vacation home in order to get away from the heat and smell of cities like Boston, Worcester, and Providence.  The trend continues today.  However, instead of industrialists, the state now attracts actors and public figures.

We don't really know who owns the property, but we can only imagine it is someone whose name we know well.