Whimsical Décor Informs a 19th-Century Former Academic Building

The playful furnishings suit photographers John and Cynthia Orcutt’s former place: an old four-room schoolhouse in Kingfield.

Above a Design Within Reach sofa, the branches on a spindly pine in the Orcutts’ triptych of a fiery-red blueberry field echo the branches on a moose antler John and his son found while cross-country skiing in Carrabassett Valley
By Sarah Stebbins
Photos by Rachel Sieben  
From our October 2024 issue

There’s an elephant in John and Cynthia Orcutt’s living room. A reproduction Eames animal in white molded plastic. There’s a black bear too, a chiseled wooden creature the Orcutts spotted in Anson chainsaw artist Brad Clark’s pickup and purchased on the spot. And a green wooden giraffe from Africa that turned out to be crawling with bugs, until the couple wrapped it in plastic and left it outside over a winter. “We like toys and creative things that are visual and fun,” John says. The playful décor suits their place: Kingfield’s 1875 former Primary School House. In 2010, they bought it to serve as a gallery and studio for their fine-art photography business. Eight years later, tired of commuting from their Sugarloaf condo, they closed the gallery and turned the building into their home. Now, they’ve made the difficult decision to move with their menagerie to Idaho, where their daughter and grandchildren live — and where they’re poised to become the most fun grandparents around.

Interior

The interior was gutted when the Orcutts purchased the building, but the school’s tin ceilings and maple flooring remained, the latter dotted with holes where desks had been screwed in. On the first floor, John and Cynthia, a former architect and landscape architect respectively, carved out an open kitchen-dining-living area in what had been their art gallery using partial walls that don’t interrupt the ceiling. Above a Design Within Reach sofa, the branches on a spindly pine in the Orcutts’ triptych of a fiery-red blueberry field (pictured at top) echo the branches on a moose antler John and his son found while cross-country skiing in Carrabassett Valley. 

the exterior of former Primary School House, in Kingfield, Maine

Exterior

The Primary School House operated until 1964. Students entered through a central set of doors that a previous owner replaced with a large window. The porch is also a later addition, as is the weathervane depicting the Orcutt family crest by Freeport woodcarver T.J. McDermott, which perches where a bell tower used to be. Inside were four classrooms, as well as two bathrooms in the basement, which pooled with water after rainstorms. One former pupil remembers a communal pair of galoshes parked at the top of the cellar stairs. 

Dining Area

Cynthia relaxes on an original Eames lounge chair that belonged to her father, with the couple’s Eames elephant at her feet. More safari animals, including wooden figurines from Kenya and a large green giraffe, roam behind her. The oak dining table (illuminated by a sculptural Fogg Lighting pendant), upholstered dining chairs, low oak table, and striped rug are from Hem. Brackets that had supported temporary gallery walls hold a long oak shelf intended for plants, an idea that turned out to be a bit too ambitious. 

Cynthia Orcutt relaxes on an original Eames lounge chair that belonged to her father, with the couple’s Eames elephant at her feet.
Layers of steel, smoke, and charcoal gray on cabinets and quartz countertops from Stone Surface, in Naples, and subway tile and striped Marmoleum flooring from Portland’s Port City Flooring in the kitchen

Kitchen

Layers of steel, smoke, and charcoal gray on cabinets and quartz countertops from Stone Surface, in Naples, and subway tile and striped Marmoleum flooring from Portland’s Port City Flooring, conjure the Orcutts’ black-and-white photographs — and provide a moody foil for amber-glass pendants from Fogg Lighting, in Portland. On the island, bookshelves, plus a built-in maple end table by Industry’s Mark Prentiss, feather the kitchen into the adjoining living area, while, adjacent to the dining space, a row of glass-front cupboards with an integrated wine-glass rack effects a china cabinet. 

John and Cynthia in their homes studio space on the second floor which features a workspace, kitchenette, bath, and bedroom

Studio 

The second floor features a workspace, kitchenette, bath, and bedroom, where the Orcutts used to crash after gallery openings. A partition holds photographs of John’s son’s Major Matt Mason astronaut figures, taken in the late ’60s, superimposed over space imagery. When a movie about the toys starring Tom Hanks was announced a few years back, John saw a market for the shots. “We tried to contact Tom,” he says, “but didn’t succeed.”

John and Cynthia Orcutt standing in front of their neighbors barn, which Cynthia painted birch trees on

Barn

A barn belonging to the Orcutts’ friends and next-door neighbors, the owners of Rolling Fatties burrito restaurant, was moved here at some point, and the windows indicate it may have once been a one-room schoolhouse. John and Cynthia painted a stylized birch motif on the facade facing their property. Birches also appear on a rug from Portland’s Angela Adams in the couple’s entry and show up frequently in their photographs. Now, they’re looking forward to fresh inspiration out west. “The arid mountain landscape really has me baffled,” Cynthia says. “I’ve got to figure it out.” 

Down East magazine, February 2025

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