Tate House
Near Portland, Maine
The Tate House in Portland's Stroudwater neighborhood was built in seventeen fifty-five for George Tate, the Royal Mast Agent for the British Crown in New England. His job was to identify and reserve the tallest, straightest white pines in the Maine forests, mark them with the King's broad arrow, and ship them to England for use as masts on Royal Navy warships. It was one of the most consequential imperial roles in colonial New England.
The house itself is an unusually grand Georgian structure for its time and place, with a distinctive indented gambrel roof rarely seen in Maine. Tate lived here until his death in seventeen ninety-four. The house survived two and a half centuries and is now a museum, one of the oldest standing structures in the Portland area.
