Ossipee Trail, Standish, Maine

Today's house in Standish, Maine has some things about it that just can't be explained. Let's just call them unusual features that may or may not remind us of Halloween.

Unusual features like the dining room's ceiling mirror,

or the room devoted to ironing and butter churning...

to say nothing of the room festooned with grapevines, where a mannequin in a wedding dress stands guard over a doll in the middle of the room.

You just know that typewriter is only used to repeat a phrase over and over:

Not your average listing photos, right? (Although I have seen stranger.) Here's where the photos start to make a little more sense and the house's former use as a floral and antiques business becomes a little more evident:

Located in an historic district, the house is suitable for a variety of uses, and not just spooky ones.

It has 5,085 square feet, with 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms.

The third floor has fantastic storage space...

...and some inexplicable things happening here, too:

So which room would I makeover, if it were mine? (Besides the witch room.) The mannequin room...

...where I'd keep the vines and florals, just in a more expected way:

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It's a good thing I'm not a real estate agent. If you were remotely interested in one of my houses, I'd be handing you a binder full of facts like "the cornice forms pediments on the two-bay gable ends whose tympanums have a triangular panel." (This house's agent didn't bother with that and just let the unusual features speak for themselves.)

In my binder, I'd also tell you that the house is the 1810 Bailey-Swasey House, part of the Standish Corner Historic District -- a group of five houses from the late 18th and early 19th century. 

Across the street is the 1789 Daniel Marrett House with its "big house, little house, back house, barn" plan.

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As a retail business, our house was connected with two others to form the SunRise Corner shops. 

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This is the School House shop with its old-fashioned candy store:

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Our listing house was the antique store in the complex, with a sign over its side entrance. (It looks so much better now without those shutters!)

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The rooms used to be packed full of floral designs and antique treasures:

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It looked beautiful at Christmas...

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...and appropriately unusual at Halloween, of course.

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The listing is here.