This blog post is brought to you by Ruth Kennedy Sudduth, who directs LandVest’s Residential Brokerage Division and serves buyers and sellers of distinctive properties throughout New England.

One of the great pleasures of directing the Residential Real Estate Group at LandVest is seeing the truly remarkable properties we have for sale, and understanding their appeal through the eyes of our team of experts in each regional market. LandVest has offices and experts in the markets where the most special properties exist. The best real estate tends to be in locations where beauty and sense of place have been recognized for generations, making for a truly remarkable combination of site and houses. This series of blog entries explores some of these special places and some of the remarkable private properties hidden within them.

Bill Davisson – Greater Portland’s Western Promenade, Hidden Court, Hubbards Rocks, Prout’s Neck, Southern Maine and beyond:

Maine luxury real estate extends far beyond classic gray shingled houses on the water, I came to learn as Bill Davisson tutored me on the Greater Portland, Southern and Coastal Maine real estate market. After years in specialty retail and branded marketing, both in the United States and abroad, Bill knows style. Portland is happening, the result of great restaurants and a vibrant arts scene, anchored by the Portland Museum of Art and a creative international business community. We had lunch with the Maine team at an Italian place called David’s, where the salads were fresh and imaginative, and the fried calamari was gone before you had a chance to grab a second bite. Bill noted that the restaurant scene has exploded in Portland, aided by the strong array of fresh, local sources of food. Back Bay Grill, Bar Lola, Emilitsa, Five Fifty-Five, Fore Street, Hugo’s and Vignola are but a few award-winning eateries of merit. Time at table, combined with the many interesting boutiques, makes for a lively urban scene on a decidedly human scale. Taking advantage of the original incarnation of New Urbanism are the folks living high on the bluff. The clever industrialists of the nineteenth century built their mansions in the Western Promenade neighborhood to enjoy the cool breezes and compelling views of the White Mountains’ Presidential Range on the New Hampshire horizon and the Fore River. The historic houses, walking distance to Portland’s Old Port, are big, brick and dignified, and neighboring houses defining Shingle Style Maine vernacular, many with lovely pocket gardens.

Bill then drove me out of Portland along the inner harbor to Portland Head Light and through a collection of lively waterfront communities. Homes in Cape Elizabeth, South Portland, Scarborough and Prouts Neck range from early antiques to big nineteenth century piles, filled in with twentieth century homes as the neighborhoods shifted from summer communities to primary homes for Portland area residents. Some of the great summer places remain, almost frozen in time, such as Hidden Court, one of the last big estates in Cape Elizabeth. Set at the end of a long driveway, Hidden Court has the feel of a place much older than the late nineteenth century, much as the Lutyens and similar houses in England evoke medieval construction with massive stone, intimate courtyards, archways and leaded windows. This private residence was inspired by Ightham Mote, a National Historic Trust protected country manor of fourteenth century England. Hidden Court is positioned at the entry to Portland Harbor on land granted by King George, circa 1752. The property is mysterious by design, hiding the views of the ocean to make for only little glimpses through windows. Courtyards yield to doorways to hallways, with the full scale of the magnificent views only revealing themselves in stages.

Ten minutes distant, beautiful Prouts Neck is home to generations of returning summer families, and the storied artist Winslow Homer (1836-1910). Indeed, Prouts Neck presents a host of Shingle Style “Grey Ladies,” private residential properties guarding the rocky coast, featured in many Homer paintings. Immediately above Prouts Neck lies Hubbards Rocks, secure on a conserved 36.5± acres and 1,800 feet of Atlantic Ocean frontage, complete with beach and woodlands.

To the south and west, the coastal communities of Biddeford Pool, Ogunquit, Cape Neddick, the Kennebunks and York evoke dreams of life along the rocky coastline of Maine. North and east of Portland, Falmouth, Cumberland, Yarmouth, Freeport, Harpswell, Damariscotta, Southport and the Boothbay region find miles of discovery on the waterfront and beyond.