The words in the center of the web read: For sale.
Owners of E.B. White’s country estate have just placed the 44-acre saltwater farm on the market for $3.7 million, according to Yankee Magazine. Comprised of 12 rooms, six working fireplaces, three and a half baths and 19th-century stenciling on stairway walls, there is, of course, one component of this home that sets it apart from the rest. The property’s barn is immortalized as the setting for one of world literature’s most beloved children’s books, Charlotte’s Web.
“We walk from room to room in what is possibly the most impressive and well-kept barn I have ever seen,” writes Mel Allen, Yankee Magazine’s editor. “There is that rope swing, immortalized in Charlotte’s Web as the one from which Fern and her brother launched themselves from the loft. Here’s where Wilbur’s trough would have been, Mary says, and “right here”—she points—“is the hole where I tell children Templeton the rat would scurry back and forth.”
The interior of the barn, looking out to the fields. Hanging in the doorway is the rope swing made famous in E.B. White’s 1952 children’s classic, Charlotte’s Web. (Mark Fleming/Yankee Magazine)
Described as “conscientious caretakers,” Mary Gallant and her husband Robert have worked to preserve the property, including White family relics, while enjoying each summer and autumn of the last three decades in the House at Allen Cove.
“This house, this barn, this property is very dear to our hearts. These have been the best summers of our lives,” Robert told the magazine.
Serious inquiries for the property should be directed to Martha Dischinger at Downeast Properties in Blue Hill, Maine.
Though chickens and sheep have given way to flower gardens, this North Brooklin, Maine, farm still looks much as it did when its most famous occupant lived here. (Mark Fleming/Yankee Magazine)
A magnificent c. 1795 farmhouse anchors the property that’s now for sale after providing decades of happy memories for the Gallant family. Mary and Robert Gallant say their 22-year-old grandson even pleaded, “Can’t you wait until I can buy it one day?”(Mark Fleming/Yankee Magazine)
The exterior of the barn. (Mark Fleming/Yankee Magazine)
Though the Gallants updated the boathouse decor a bit, they left in place his handmade bench and desk, shown at right. (Mark Fleming/Yankee Magazine)
The South Carolina state flag welcomes visitors to the Gallants’ farm. (Mark Fleming/Yankee Magazine)
The Gallants have put their own stamp on the property—for instance, turning an old woodshed into this breezy sunporch. (Mark Fleming/Yankee Magazine)
Mary Gallant says that while she knows it’s not up to her to decide, she really hopes the new owners keep and continue to use the Whites’ original wood cookstove. (Mark Fleming/Yankee Magazine)
The Gallants have been conscientious caretakers of a number of White family relics, such as this vintage icebox. (Mark Fleming/Yankee Magazine)
The dining room features one of the farmhouse’s six working fireplaces. (Mark Fleming/Yankee Magazine)
The barn and farmhouse seen from the pond. (Mark Fleming/Yankee Magazine)
The fields sloping down to Blue Hill Bay. (Mark Fleming/Yankee Magazine)
Set back from the clamflats is the boathouse where White often did his writing when the weather was fine. (Mark Fleming/Yankee Magazine)
Still in place in the boathouse: White’s reference list of “Newsbreak” department heads for The New Yorker. (Mark Fleming/Yankee Magazine)
The Gallants had this dock built from the boathouse down to the ocean. (Mark Fleming/Yankee Magazine)
Robert and Mary Gallant, who are selling their Maine farm after more than 30 years. (Mark Fleming/Yankee Magazine)
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