Topside (Brooksville, Maine)

Topside is located in eastern Brooksville on a property running from State Route 176 down to the shore of Walker Pond, a large body of water on the border with Sedgwick. The main house, one of three buildings on the property, is situated close to the shore. It is a 1+1⁄2-story log structure, set on a fieldstone foundation, with a clipped gable roof shingled in asphalt but shaped to resemble typical thatch roofs. Matching clipped-gable projections are set at the corners of the waterfront side, and a pair of shed-roof dormers appear on the land side. Windows are diamond-pane casement throughout. The logs the house is built out of are unusually large spruce logs that were hand-hewn to fit. The wrought iron hardware fixtures were hand-forged by a blacksmith working on site.^[2]

The main house is joined by a stone passageway to two other buildings, both built with similar materials. One is a single-story guest house with three bedrooms, and the other is a three-story structure that houses a water tower and more guest quarters.^[2]

The property was developed in 1918 for the Patten family to a rough plan developed by Tennessee architect William Crutchfield. Construction was done by a Maine crew without the architect's oversight, and cost about $60,000.^[2]

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