History The Conway House is one of the earliest houses in the region. Built about 1770, it stands on Lot 27 one of the first parcels assigned by the Twenty Associates after they had acquired their share of the Muscongus Grant in 1766.

Old land records show that Robert Thorndike, the first white settler in this area acquired the adjacent Lot 26 in 1768. His son, Robert Jr., was born here in 1773, one of the first white children born in the community. Robert Jr. bought Lot 27 in 1807 for $65.00 and lived in the house until 1825. In 1826, Frederick Conway bought the house which then remained in the Conway family until 1916.

Description. The house is a fine example of the 18th century type of rural construction, known as Cape Cod. The interior is fascinating. Roof timbers are fastened with treenails (trunnels).Laths in the wall and ceilings are of hand-split hemlock; beams and heavy sills are handhewn with broadaxe and adze, and early rosehead nails are used in some of the fastenings. The kitchen contains a bake-oven built with early small bricks. Other unique features are: wide floor boards, bean latches, L and H hinges, and one butterfly hinge, and a double brick hearth. Over the front door is the original four-light transom. There is a most unusual curved entrance hall with a "parson's cupboard."

The Conway property was acquired in rundown condition in 1961 by Mrs. Ambrose Cramer and given to the Camden-Rockport Historical Society. The house was restored and furnished with authentic pieces of household items in use in the 18th and early 19th centuries. The restoration was completed in 1962 when the house was opened to the public. The Camden Garden Club landscaped the grounds with native plant materials common to New England before 1860.

Historic Site. In 1969 the Conway House was placed on the Maine State Register of Historic Sites and the National Register of Historic places.

William Conway, brother of Frederick Conway, is remembered for an act of heroism while he was a Navy Quartermaster stationed near Pensicola, Florida in 1861 just prior to the outbreak of the Civil War. When ordered to haul down the Stars and Stripes by a southern secessionist superior, Conway refused declaring, "That is the flag of my country. I have served it all of my life. I will not haul it down." He was aressted and places in irons. He was later released and continue to serve in the Union Navy until the end of the war. A tablet memorializing his brave deed was placed at the corner of Elm and School Streets in Camden in a great Conway Day celebration in 1906.

Description

Historic Site