Isaacson, Philip M. and Deborah N., House
2 Benson St., Lewiston, MEAccording to the owner, travelers on Benson Street in Lewiston, Maine often mistake the Philip M. and Deborah N. Isaacson House for a private tennis court or swimming pool. The structure, elevated on a level terrace, presents to the street a wall of vertical redwood siding, broken only at the corners by elongated frosted-glass panels and in the middle by an open portal with a white wooden frame. This structure, one of two high walls surrounding front and rear courtyards, is both an integral part of the house and a method of providing privacy for the occupants of the glass-walled International Style House at the core. Designed in 1960 by the Cambridge-based architect F. Frederick Bruck, and lived in continually by the original owners, the Isaacson House has been essentially unchanged since its completion and retains extraordinary integrity of design, materials, workmanship, location, association, setting, and feeling, as well as original, period furnishings. Within Maine, this is one of very few International-style houses designed for year-round residency and possibly the only example located in an urban residential neighborhood. In addition at this time is it the only known International Style courtyard house in the state. The Isaacson House is eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places at the local level for its architectural significance
as a building that possesses the distinctive characteristics of a type, period, or method of construction.
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 2011.
The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the Nation’s historic places worthy of preservation. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America’s historic and archeological resources.