The earliest accepted construction date for a surviving building in Maine is 1707 - fully one hundred years after the arrival of the Popham Colonists, the first English settlers to Maine. Few early colonial homes even made it to the era of photography. Many of those that do survive are called "garrison houses." These were large, well built homes that was centrally located - a convenient place of refuge during a Native American raid. A garrison is not any particular style of house, anymore than a fallout shelter of the 1960s is an architectural style.

McIntire Garrison
Junkins Garrison
Tozier Garrison

The McIntire Garrison, York, Maine

The McIntire Garrison, in the Scotland District of York, Maine, was built in 1707 at the earliest, though stylistically it has all the characteristics of a seventeenth-century home. Although it appears to be timber-framed, it is actually built of sawn log construction. The house was restored to its early appearance in the early twentieth century.

Junkins Garrison, York, Maine

For close to three hundred years, the Junkins Garrison stood across the street from the McIntire Garrison. This photograph shows what it looked like as it fell into ruin in the late nineteenth century. As can be seen, it is almost a twin of the McIntire garrison.

Tozier Garrison, Berwick, Maine

This mid-nineteenth-century sketch shows the decaying ruins of the Tozier garrison, probably sometime in the mid It was draw by James Judson Lord (1829-1905) of Springfield, Maine, a direct descendant of its builder, Richard Tozier. The Tozier homestead was attacked in 1675 during King Phillip's War and again in 1690 during King William's War. It is quite possible that the original homestead was destroyed in 1675 and/or 1690, and that what is pictured here is the ruins of a garrison built after the Salmon Falls Raid in 1690.