At $9.7 million, Camden house now most expensive on Maine market

With the auction last month of a mansion on the nearby island of Islesboro, a Camden home with an ocean view from the eastern slope of Mount Battie is now the most expensive residential property being offered for sale in Maine, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The property, owned by Procter & Gamble heir Joseph D. “Dyke” Messler Jr., is on the market for $9.7 million, the WSJ article indicates. The 23-acre property includes a main house that has three bedrooms and 6,800 square-feet of living space, and a separate one-room guesthouse. On the grounds are “a built-in hot tub, a fire pit, a pool and an outdoor kitchen.”

Messler bought the property in 2007 and then had the house built as an “homage” to Charles and Henry Greene, architects who designed his great-grandparents’ house in Pasadena, California, according to the WSJ.

The Camden property has an overall assessed value of $3.86 million, according to information posted on the town’s online assessing database.

My colleague Tony Reaves recently compiled a list of the most expensive homes for sale in each county in Maine, which shows that large houses with ocean views along the coast tend to fetch higher prices than elsewhere. The Camden/Rockport and Mount Desert Island areas in particular have an abundance of multi-million dollar waterfront houses, as do some coastal zip codes further south.

You can use this interactive Google map I assembled to learn more about some of Maine’s mansions:

Bill Trotter

About Bill Trotter

A news reporter in coastal Maine for more than 20 years, Bill Trotter writes about how the Atlantic Ocean and the state's iconic coastline help to shape the lives of coastal Maine residents and visitors. He writes about fisheries, marine-related topics, eastern coastal Maine communities and more for the BDN. He lives in Ellsworth. Follow him on Twitter at @billtrotter.