Wedding Cake House: Maine’s most photographed home seeks new life as seasonal attraction

KENNEBUNK, Maine — If all goes according to plan, one of the state’s most iconic homes will become open to the public for the first time.

The Kennebunk Planning Board on June 26 discussed a proposal by the owners of the Wedding Cake House to transform the historic home at 104 Summer Street into an inn and community venue.

Specifically, Hunt and Katie Edwards, of WCH, LLC, are seeking a contract zone, which would allow them to pursue the project.

Currently, the structure is in the town’s Suburban Residential Zone as well as its Historic Preservation Overlay District.

A proposed contract zone needs to be recommended by the planning board, advanced to a ballot by the select board, and approved by voters at the polls.

Town documents offer a glimpse of the house’s history. Once called the most photographed home in the state of Maine, the structure is formally known as the George W. Bourne House and gets its nickname from its wedding cake-like appearance.

According to local legend, Bourne, a sea captain and shipbuilder, had the house built in 1825 to “atone for having not taken his bride, Jane, on a proper honeymoon.”

“While the exquisite carpentry work may not, in fact, have been done as a romantic effort to appease Mrs. Bourne, the result of Mr. Bourne’s efforts are no less amazing,” Attorney Gregory Braun, who is representing the Edwards couple, said in a letter to the town.

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The home has been restored on several occasions, most recently in 1984. Braun said his clients currently live in the house and see themselves as caretakers of the property.

James Hunt Barker – Hunt Edwards’ uncle – bought the house in 1998. The nephew began renovating it in 2019.

Braun said the couple is hoping a reinvented Wedding Cake House will create a revenue stream that will help them preserve the structure’s historical significance.

“Since taking possession of the property, the family has invested extensively in repairs and maintenance of the historic home,” Braun wrote in his letter. “Maintaining the home’s unique characteristics requires no small financial investment, and that financial investment far exceeds what someone would reasonably spend to maintain a single-family residence.”

If a contract zone is approved by voters, the inn and community venue would be seasonal, not year-round, and events would be held only during the daytime, according to Braun.

The inn and venue likely would be open from June 1 through Dec. 15, allowing both to be in operation during the Kennebunkport's annual Christmas Prelude celebration.

Members of the Planning Board are expecting to take a site walk on the property on June 29. The board has scheduled a public hearing for the proposal during its meeting on July 24.

WCH is asking to be excused from the town’s design standards of a minimum 200 square feet for room sizes. Braun told the board that rooms in the house vary between 120 and 150 square feet.

Braun said his clients are hoping to have the room-size requirement waived, so that they can keep the home “exactly as it is.”

“We think that’s a big part of the attractiveness of the property, and to try to change it, really, would be detrimental to it,” Braun said.

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In its application, WCH defines its proposed community venue as a “building or place, either indoors or outdoors, used by public and private organizations and members of the general public for meetings, gatherings, special events and functions, indoor and outdoor dining and dancing, including, by way of example, but not limited to, weddings, bridal showers, and organizational outings.”

WCH has submitted a site plan to the town, showing a parking lot layout and proposed tent area. There are no proposed changes to the property’s structures, according to town documents.

During discussion, Planning Board member Janice Vance called the Wedding Cake House a “beautiful home.”

“I’m so glad you’re going to put money into it and open it to the public,” she said.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Wedding Cake House proposed as new inn, venue in Kennebunk, Maine