Tate House Museum
Each month, Down East editors select our favorite response to “Where in Maine?” Here is our favorite letter from February’s photo.
The care and preservation of Tate House, in Portland’s Stroudwater district, was a life focus for my great aunt, Elizabeth Barker Milliken, through her volunteer efforts with the Colonial Dames. Each summer in the late 1940s and early 1950s, Auntie provided care and stability for my brother and me during a tumultuous time in my family. Often, during those summer days, we accompanied her to Tate House, learning about the king’s pines, ship captains, winter storms, and uncharted waters. It played a strong role in colonial days, housing the family of George Tate, a mast agent for the British Navy. As an adult, returning to Tate House periodically, I am struck by how well restored and maintained it is, what a gem it is as one of the few pre-Revolutionary houses open for tours (which will likely resume when COVID is under greater control). The house, furnishings, and gardens all provide us with insights into American life in the late 1700s. — Betsey Staples Harding, Cumberland, Maine