Staff Writer

For only the second time in its history, the Wedding Cake House on Summer Street in Kennebunk is open to the public.

Owner Jimmy Barker loves to talk about his home and all the art and historic relics stacked throughout every inch of the house.

“I have four bedrooms in the house and I live in every one of them,” Barker said.

Barker will open the house to tours beginning today to raise money for local food relief funds. Tours will continue through Sept. 15.

Barker said he gets visitors almost every day during the tourist season. On Monday afternoon a small group stood outside to take pictures of the well-known house.

“Look it’s my fans!” said Barker, laughing.

Tour-goers will get a chance to hear history from Barker or close friends Ken Small and Frank DeSarro about the house and relics found by Barker, including a recently unveiled silver tray he said was originally owned by George Washington.

The tours will be similar to those Barker gave five years ago to help raise funds for Hurricane Katrina relief. Visitors will be invited to sit on furniture and interact with the house and tour guides. Barker said the previous tour, held in the fall of 2005, raised more than $79,000.

Tour guides will lead people through the entire house starting with the front entrance, where everything is handcrafted, from the bent-wood window frames in the large front door to the braided wood detail carved into the corners.

Barker is only the second owner of the house not related to the original family. The first, Mary Burnett and her daughter, Anne, restored the house in the mid 80s and added an apartment for Anne above the carriage house. It has a spectacular view of the backyard, originally the site of the original owners’ shipbuilding business.

The front room of the house features a mural of Kennebunk landmarks –  including the house – that  extends along winding stairs to the second floor. Burnett and her daughter painted the art based on an original mural in the house.

“When I was giving the tour last time I was telling people that Mary did the painting in five hours, which is true. But Mary, who was helping with the tours at the time, came in and she said it was true she had done it in five hours but it had taken months of planning before time,” Barker said.

Barker has heard stories the house is haunted by three families who live together peacefully. Barker didn’t hear ghosts until the day he decided to change the look of the drapes.

“I hung the curtains down and they touched the ground and I just thought it looked boring. Then I heard all these voices saying, “Raise the curtains,” Barker said. Barker said the curtains now change their look almost daily, but he has never seen the ghosts at work.

Throughout the house are a number of interesting artifacts, including a piano played by Liberace, a solid gold tray and numerous paintings, including one of Barker in a fox-hunting scene riding his horse and chasing after hounds.

Barker, 82, said he can still ride horses and will be wearing his pink coat and top hat to greet tour-goers.

Baker also hopes to squelch some rumors about the house.

Stories that the house was built for a sea captain to give his wife a proper honeymoon or a bride jilted on her wedding day hold no truth, he said.

Construction of the Wedding Cake House began in 1815 and was finished a decade later by George W. Borne and his family, who lived next door. When the house was finished, the Bornes gave it to George, 24, and his wife, Jane, as a wedding gift.

When the carriage house burned down in the 1850s and Borne decided to rebuild and add some Gothic-style flair to the house modeled after a cathedral he saw on a trip to Milan.

Baker bought the house in 1998.  The house is assessed at approximately $900,000.

Tours will be given daily from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. for $10 a person. All proceeds will be given to the local food relief funds.

Staff Writer Suzanne Hodgson can be reached at 282-4337, ext. 233.

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