Specialties
Starting May 27, 2022, the Skolfield-Whittier House is open Tuesday-Saturday, with regular guided tours at 10:00am, 11:30am, 1:00pm, and 2:30pm. Reservations are not required. Tours are limited to 12 people per slot. The Skolfield-Whittier House was home to three generations of a prominent Brunswick family with careers in seafaring, medicine, and education. Among the residents were Alfred Skolfield, a successful sea captain, Dr. Alice A. S. Whittier, Maine's first female pediatrician, and Dr. Frank Whittier, one of America's first forensic pathologists. Closed and unheated for sixty years, the house remains in many ways as it was in 1925 when it was last occupied full-time. Restoration work has been ongoing in the house since 2015. The house's seventeen rooms are viewed during guided tours that provide an unparalleled glimpse into nineteenth-century upper middle class life in Maine. It must be noted that the family's upper middle class status was a direct result of the wealth amassed during the first generation's role in the shipbuilding and shipping industry in the mid-19th century. That industry depended heavily on trade with the American south, which in turn depended almost completely on slave labor. The story of the Skolfields and Whittiers cannot be told fully without acknowledging this difficult history. Our goal is to tell a well-rounded story of the house to give you a full appreciation of its historic significance.