The Lighthouse in Durham, built by Bob Hackett in 1975 miles from the ocean, went on the market in June and got nearly 8,000 hits nationwide on the property listing during its first week for sale.
DURHAM — Back in 1975, Bob Hackett wanted to live in a lighthouse, so he built one, 10 miles from sea.
It went on the market June 14 looking for a new keeper.
The Lighthouse, as it’s called, is generating plenty of interest — 7,981 clicks on the real estate listing just last week, the most-clicked house of the week anywhere in the country on realtor.com.
“It’s going to take a unique buyer for a unique property,” said Realtor Kathy Gallant with RE/MAX Riverside. “The kitchen’s round, everything’s round — it’s round, round, round, round.”
The house officially measures 35-feet across at the base and 47-feet high, four stories with an observation deck on top. (And yes, there’s a rotating, blinking light on top, too.) It has four bedrooms, 2.5 baths, three fireplaces and an unattached garage on two rural acres.
Hackett built the house out of concrete blocks. Gallant is more familiar with its history since 2003, when the current owners bought it out of foreclosure. It was in rough shape and had turned into a party house.
“They really loved the fact it was a lighthouse in Maine,” she said.
The owners put in new windows, renovated the kitchen. “They’ve been very happy here,” Gallant said.
They’re selling because they need more space and a property with an in-law apartment.
The kitchen is on the first floor, master bedroom on the third. The fourth floor observatory features a walk-out deck and a pull-down staircase that gives access to the all-windows topmost level.
A Boston Magazine blog last week called it quirky and “quite an impressive bargain at $86 per square foot.”
That’s a list price of $235,000.
Gallant said there’s likely to be an open house in late July. To date, she’s seen interest from as far away as Massachusetts.
The new buyer “could be a family — someone who certainly doesn’t want a cookie- cutter cape in a subdivision,” she said. “For someone who wants a truly unique home, you’re not going to find anything else like it.”
Connie Footman, Durham’s town clerk from 1965 to 2006, remembers when Hackett built the Lighthouse.
“People would come in (to the town office) and say, ‘I wonder what he’s doing?'” Footman said. “I would tell them, ‘He told me he’s building a lighthouse because he always wanted to live in one.’ I think we figured everybody to his own.”
Weird, Wicked Weird is a monthly feature on the strange, unexplained and intriguing in Maine. Send ideas, photos and landlocked sea serpents to kskelton@sunjournal.com
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