In 1970, an article about West Point, a small village in Phippsburg, described it as impervious to change. “The fact remains,” it said, “that ever since old William Wallace came up from Ipswich, Mass., in 1795 and named the area Wallace’s Point, and the Gilliams came over from Ragged Island, there hasn’t been much but Wallaces and Gilliams here … it looks like the people of the village have no intention of changing tradition.”
But change has come to the village of West Point, particularly the actual point that ends at Cat Cove and is circumscribed by Wallace Circle. Only seven residences are occupied year-round, and 12 out of approximately 33 properties with homes are up for sale. Others have already been sold to people from other states and serve as summer residences. Not that this is necessarily unpalatable, notes one of the remaining year-round residents, who emphasizes that the people who own these seasonal homes are good people and have become a valued part of the community.
Eight of the properties up for sale are owned by Scott Michaels (formerly Stanley Scott, but he changed his name while pursuing a career in acting), who is related to the Gilliams’. Although properties have been sold to out-of-staters through the years, the circle retained its fishing village character until Michaels, who now owns a string of properties that go across the center of the point from the east coast to the west, began buying property in 1984. He remodeled two houses and the old dance hall as luxury rental units complete with elaborate furnishings, large decks and expanded square footage and height.
One of these rental units, Syb’s Place, originally a goat shed, became a fish house before being rebuilt as a simple residence before being transformed by Michaels. It was recently listed for $989,000. Another, the Sou’Wester, was a one-story dance hall built in the early 1900s by Herman Smith, who built several other residences on the point and the general store. In the 1950s, locals still held box suppers at the dance hall to raise money for neighbors who had suffered a misfortune such as a house fire or losing a boat. The dance hall had already been converted into apartments when Michaels bought it and added more space and porches with stone columns. The Sou’Wester has been listed as a package with the restaurant/store, a four-bedroom residence and a guest cottage/office for $2.5 million dollars. The third rental unit, now called Scott’s Place and listed at $880,000, was a residence belonging to his family. It boasts an enormous deck that has been the scene of elaborate wedding receptions and graduation parties.
Michaels retained the original character of other properties, but in 2004, he purchased and remodeled the West Point General Store as an upscale restaurant with detailed nautical décor and a wooden ceiling created from 1795 barn boards. He rebuilt and enlarged the deck and dock where boats can tie up, and added a sea wall made from granite salvaged from a dismantled crib bridge in Benton, Maine. (Some year-round West Point residents said they thought someone’s furnace had blown up when they were roused from sleep the night a large truck dumped the granite at the site.) Beneath the restaurant there is space for a small general store. At first, Michaels intended to repaint the restaurant red like the original store, but later, he decided to use a California-style siding.
Before the store and restaurant were due to open in August of 2004, Michaels decided to sell it, the Sou’Wester, a small office building and a residence, The Village House, saying the project had become too draining emotionally, physically and financially. In December he put his remaining properties up for sale, including New England Reverse Osmosis, a water company he developed that serves his properties plus three other homes on the point. He plans to concentrate his energies on a business he runs with other partners, Concierge-Worldwide, that designs fundraising travel programs for nonprofit organizations.
While some people intensely dislike the transformation in style that Michaels has brought to West Point, others think the renovated buildings add to the community, particularly since they have brought tourists and employment to many local workers in their construction, maintenance and seasonal cleaning. Michaels notes that every building he bought was falling down, saying it was a wonder the entire back of the store, where folks used to sit for coffee and meals, didn’t fall off. “It was sagging between four and eight inches,” he says. “The nails were pulling loose.”
A combination of factors has led other people on West Point to sell their properties, but the primary causes are high waterfront taxes and the decision to cash in on high property values and move inland. Others have more personal reasons: Mary and Emery Nickerson wanted to sell their business at the store because both were working second jobs in addition to running the store, and it took too much time from their families. Mary’s parents, Clint (who grew up on the point) and Dot Richardson, have decided to move inland to be closer to their children. Besides, Dot Richardson says, “When you used to go to the store, all the old folks would be sitting there. Now they’re all gone.”
But some people are adamant about not selling out, no matter how many realtors approach, no matter how high the price. Ellen Talbot (formerly Wallace), who has lived on the point all her life, says she is keeping her home for her family. In her 70s, she continues to work to scrape up enough money to help pay for taxes and heating oil. “This is my home,” she says emphatically. “Why would I want to move away? Where would I go?”
Everyone — summer residents, people from the surrounding area and those who occupy the remaining seven year-round residences on the point, (all are descendants or related by marriage to the original families) — is waiting to see what will be the next life for Michael’s properties, especially the store, which has always been a gathering place for this small community. At a December auction of the first three properties he decided to sell, more West Point residents attended than interested parties. (Nothing was sold; there weren’t enough bidders.)
Meanwhile, like so many coastal communities, the village has a divided existence. Fishermen store and work on their traps on a few individually owned small working wharves, and lobsters are bought by a wholesale distributor out of Boston on the wharf next to the store. (The wharf is locally owned, but a 99-year lease was granted several years ago to the business that operates from the location.)
Joggers puff around the circle in summer and kayaks are launched at Cat Cove, where local fishermen used to get together to launch new boats built on the point. People in stretchy outfits congregate for yoga on the beach that has been the scene of so much fishing activity.
Change has come to West Point. What next?
