AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 
September, 1911 
The old Bunk House made into a full-grown cottage 
“The Bunk,” Kennebunkport, Maine 
By W. H. P. Clark 
HE “Bunk,” built for the needs and comforts 
of bachelor days and ways, by gradual 
shifting of partitions and by additions has 
grown into a cottage. 
It was first built for the housing of boats 
and as a place for ‘“‘bunking.”’ It is placed 
on the Kennebunk River bank, where 
the channel runs near it, and 
where there is a small cove 
for the mooring of sail- 
boats. ‘The bank is edged 
with willows and wild roses. 
When the Bunk was first 
built it was looked upon ci 
with frank contempt by the 
natives; it was “‘too low to 
the ground,” the front faced 
the river instead of the river 
“road,” and it was shingled 
like their barns. The water- 
supply was from the roof, 
with gin-pipes painted white 
for storage. 
The original Bunk had on 
the ground floor a large 
room. On the end toward 
the street was an entrance- 
porch which was half the 
width of the building, and a 
“galley” with bunkers along 
one side, a stove, and a ‘‘hur- 
ricane.” The length of the 
building was fixed by the 
length of a shell which was 
hung from the ceiling and 
which obtruded its nose into the galley, being some thirty 
odd feet long. On the river end of the building was a 
veranda and a bridge to a pier on the channel’s edge, so 
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Upper and lower floor plans 
that boats could be got off at the lowest tide. ‘The space 
above the roof consisted of one large room reached by com- 
panionway steps fitted with brass step-plates. This was 
strung with hammocks, not from the “rind of the hammack 
tree,’ but of canvas, battens, and clews. ‘The salt air 
from the near-by ocean, the kerosene of the “hurricane,” the 
tarred clews and the sound of the rote, gave these bunking 
quarters a genuine flavor of 
the deep sea. 
Turning from the river 
road now, we approach the 
Bunk through a rustic gate, 
almost concealed by wild 
rose - bushes, and the path 
spread with white beach 
gravel is bordered on either 
side by perennials. Here 
bachelor’s-buttons give their 
touch of color, there poppies 
sway in the summer wind, 
and a fringe of asters yields 
promise of autumn flower- 
ing. ; 
There is something in the 
very entrance-porch, with its 
flat stones, cement laid, that 
suggests hospitality, and one 
feels certain that the lifting 
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of the brass knocker will 
bring its welcoming re- 
sponse. 
The door opens into a 
small reception-hall, whose 
harmony of color immedi- 
ately attracts; then through a 
wide opening one enters the living-room, with high windows 
facing north, and there are glimpses of glowing color from 
the window-boxes outside. On the left is the staircase 
