Wiscasset aglow; Castle Tucker

“Tucker Hill View,’’ by Anthony Watkins, in Maine Art Gallery Wiscasset’s “Paint Wiscasset & Plein Air Show’,’ June 29-July 9.

The rather bizarre “Castle Tucker,’’ in Wiscasset. Judge Silas Lee built this Regency-style mansion in 1807 at the peak of Wiscasset's prosperity, when the town was one of New England’s busiest and richest ports, especially for lumber and fishing, as well as a major shipbuilding center. Lee's death, in 1814, combined with the cumulative financial impact of President Jefferson's Embargo of 1807, forced his widow to sell it. The house then passed through several owners hands until 1858, when Captain Richard H. Tucker Jr. , of a Wiscasset shipping family, bought the property. The Tucker family soon updated the interiors and added a new Italianate entrance and then a dramatic two-story porch to what had been the front of the house facing the Sheepscot River.

Looking out from Castle Tucker toward the Sheepscot River.