Matthew Cottrill House

The Matthew Cottrill House stands on the north side of Main Street in downtown Damariscotta. It is a two-story wood-frame structure, with a low-pitch hip roof, clapboard siding, and a granite foundation. The front facade is symmetrically arranged, with five bays. The outer bays have sash windows with shutters, while the main entrance is in the center bay, sheltered by a half-round portico with Doric columns supporting a plain frieze. Above the entrance is a smaller sash window, topped by a half-round fan. A long single-story ell, probably built before the current main block, extends the building to the rear.^[2]

The ell of the house is believed to have been built about 1760, by members of the locally prominent Chapman family. The main block was built in 1801 by Nicholas Codd for Matthew Cottrill. Both Codd and Cottrill were Irish immigrants; Codd was a builder in Boston, Massachusetts who was invited to the Damariscotta area by Rev. Francis Matignon. He is credited with construction of several fine houses in addition to this one, as well as St. Patrick's Catholic Church in Damariscotta Mills (part of Newcastle), the oldest Catholic church in the state. Cottrill and his friend and business partner James Kavanagh (for whom Codd built a house in Damariscotta Mills) were a major economic force in the Damariscotta area, operating mills, shipyards, and ships on the Damariscotta River.^[2]

• National Register of Historic Places listings in Lincoln County, Maine