Cushman Tavern

Cushman Tavern is a large 2½ story wood frame house standing at the southwest corner of Webster Corner Road and Middle Road (Maine State Route 9) on a 0.5-acre (0.20 ha) parcel that straddles the town lines of Lisbon and Sabattus. The main block of the house has a side-gable roof and twin interior chimneys. It is attached by a series of ells (one two stories, the next one) to a barn. The main facade faces west, and has a center entrance flanked by sidelight windows and topped by an entablature that is interrupted by a half-round transom.[2]

The house was built about 1825 by a Mr. Dwindal, and was purchased two years later by Samuel Cushman. Cushman and his descendants operated a tavern on the premises for many years; it has long since been converted into a single-family residence. The house's principal feature of significance lies in a series of murals that adorn the hallways of the first and second floor of the main block, and the stairwell that connects them. They were executed by Orison Wood, an itinerant fresco artist known to be active in the area in the second half of the 1820s. Cushman family lore recounts that the painter arrived in 1826, offering his services. Wood was trained by his father in the art of fresco, but took is ideas about content and form from the writings of Rufus Porter, whose artwork still graces walls across northern New England. These works may have been executed under Porter's supervision.[2]

• National Register of Historic Places listings in Androscoggin County, Maine