PITTSTON – This splendid Queen Anne Victorian is a landmark in town, and not only in town: Last year, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The 7,000-square-foot home known as Moody Mansion was built in 1890-91 for Leonard Moody, b. 1839, a local boy who moved away and made a fortune in real estate in Brooklyn, N.Y.  (He has been compared to a Donald Trump of the Gilded Age.)

Documents indicate that this property included 100 acres of pasture and playing fields (tennis, golf); a stable whose second-story theater could seat 200 people; a windmill; and a separate house for servants. The home was Moody’s summer retreat, an inland counterpart to the grand cottages on the Maine coast.

The years following Moody’s death in 1905 saw changes. The property was sold at auction in 1911 (for $2,800 and an Oldsmobile). The house became a convalescent hospital in 1920, and a retirement home in 1977. After the commercial kitchen was installed, a restaurant operated here. A 1990s homeless shelter was quickly shut down.

When private owners bought the house, they undertook extensive renovations, and also rented to boarders. Last August, a stabbing death occurred here. The act was deemed self-defense, and so no charges were brought.

Today, the Moody Mansion on its 4.4 acres, with a huge barn, a connected two-bedroom dwelling, and frontage on the Eastern River, is offered for sale at $248,000.

Much restoration work, including most of the roof and several first-floor rooms, has been done. Much work remains; but so does the remarkable property’s potential for a variety of uses.

To learn more about the home at 1135 East Pittston Road, Pittston, please contact Sherri Dunbar of Tim Dunham Realty (Wiscasset office) at 380-7931 or at Sherri@DunhamRealty.com.

Produced by the Marketing Department of the Kennebec Journal and the Morning Sentinel, the Central Maine Home of the Week is provided at no cost.

Photos by Melanie Sochan, staff photographer.

Please send feature home suggestions to jrolfe@pressherald.com.