Nickels-Sortwell Open House

Celebrate the start of summer at Historic New England’s annual Open House at Nickels-Sortwell House on Saturday, June 6.  Free guided tours leave on the half hour, from 11 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. Last tour leaves at 4:00 pm. 

Nickels-Sortwell House, at 121 Main Street in Wiscasset, was built by shipping magnate Captain William Nickels at the height of Wiscasset’s fortunes in 1807. The house was purchased in 1899 by industrialist Alvin Sortwell, as a summer home for his family. Sortwell’s wife Gertrude and daughter Frances restored the house, decorating and furnishing it in the Colonial Revival style. The Sortwell family enjoyed the mansion as a private home until 1956, when it was given to Historic New England.  Nickels-Sortwell House offers a glimpse of life in the Gilded Age through the early twentieth century, when Wiscasset was a charmed summer getaway.