The McLellan-Sweat Mansion (1800-Present)

The McLellan-Sweat Mansion was designed by architect John Kimball, Sr., for Hugh McLellan, a wealthy Portland Merchant. It was built in 1800 for the cost of $20,000. The mansion is a federal style brick townhouse located on High Street in Portland, Maine. The mansion is a three-story brick structure with a granite foundation and a low-pitch hip roof. This became the new standard for household architecture among Portland’s elite. The house appears to be 52 feet wide and 42 feet tall. The interior of the home includes a flying staircase and extensive carved woodwork. Kimball learned this technique from pattern books by Abraham Swan and William Pain. This reveals the beginning of the neoclassical style in this country. 

Asa Clapp purchased the home in 1820 for $4,500. From 1823 to 1880, General Joshua Wingate and his family resided there. In 1880, Lorenzo de Medici Sweat purchased the home for him and his wife. Lorenzo de Medici Sweat was a Portland lawyer and representative to Congress, so they lived in Washington, D.C., for the winters, and decided to use the mansion as their summer home. His wife, Margaret Jane Mussey Sweat, was a writer, world traveler, and literary and art critic. She was also a benefactor for the first public art museum in Maine. 

On September 30, 1907, his widow made sure to leave the mansion and the necessary funds to the Portland Society of Art for the L.D.M Sweat Memorial Galleries to be created in its place. The L.D.M Sweat Memorial Art Museum was constructed in the back end of the mansion and opened on April 22, 1911. As of 1970, the house is recognized as a National Historic Landmark and was added to the National Register of Historic Places.

Today, the McLellan-Sweat Mansion, also known as the Portland Museum of Art, shows the durability of this architectural landmark, as it shows many generations of habitation. It is also doing precisely what Margaret Jane Mussey Sweat wanted it to do: build precedent for future generations of philanthropy and a foundation of what the Portland Museum of Art could be. The L.D.M Sweat Memorial Art Museum is connected to the Portland Museum of Art and the other house museum exhibits they have to offer. They are open Tuesday through Sunday from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM, and ticket prices range from $4 to $10. 

"Leaving Legacies: The Margaret Jane Mussey Sweat Society — Portland Museum of Art." Portland Museum of Art. Last modified July 22, 2019. https://www.portlandmuseum.org/magazine/2019/8/12/leaving-legacies-the-margaret-jane-mussey-sweat-society.

"McLellan-Sweat Mansion, Portland, 1971." Maine Memory Network. Accessed July 17, 2020. https://www.mainememory.net/artifact/23284.

"McLellan-Sweat Mansion." Museums of the World | Museu.MS. Accessed July 17, 2020. https://museu.ms/museum/details/925/mclellansweat-mansion.

"McLellan-Sweat Mansion." Portland Women's History Trail. Accessed July 17, 2020. https://pmwht.org/places/state-street/s23-mclellan-sweat-mansion.html.

"National Historic Landmarks Program (NHL)." Wayback Machine. Last modified April 16, 2003. https://web.archive.org/web/20100923160800/tps.cr.nps.gov/nhl/detail.cfm?ResourceId=889&ResourceType=Building.

NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES INVENTORY. "NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES INVENTORY - SWEAT MANSION NOMINATION FORM." Accessed July 17, 2020. https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/GetAsset/2353ed84-93be-4bc6-ae3d-1c3ebed8e969.