ROCKPORT — Some old houses in Rockport get razed, their foundations turned over to lawn or to make way for new homes altogether. Others get rebuilt, and as progress is made, heads begin to turn. Was this house really so handsome and we just never recognized it? It takes builders and designers like Tom Young to see the potential in the familiar — and aging — New England structures, and restore their original character.

This spring, Young and a crew of subcontractors have been renovating a simple old farmhouse that perches on a steep bank above Rockport Harbor. The Greek Revival, a neighbor of Center for Maine Contemporary Art at 166 Russell Ave., was built circa 1850. Until recently, it was deteriorating quietly beneath its 160 years of history.

“I’ve fallen in love with this house for a lot of reasons,” said Young, who is proprietor of Tom Young Design. He lives across the street in yet another old rambling Rockport house that he and his wife, Mary Ann, lovingly restored over the last decade.

The house he is working on now belongs to Linda and Griff Lesher, who have owned another Rockport home just up the street for five years. They live in Washington, D.C., but are gradually shifting to Rockport Village, which was very much once an industrial working town. Linda Lesher is planning to turn this old house, with its large and airy barn, into a small business, a bookshop and small arts gathering place. 

A soft opening of Barn Swallow Books is scheduled for sometime in July, and it is to be a shop where readers are encouraged to browse, visit, enjoy a cup of coffee, and maybe see a performance or listen to a poet.

And the house and barn are equally works of art, still resting on old cedar and birch beams and logs, even as it gets a structural overhaul.

The history is there: In the steep stairs that lead to the second floor, in the old water cistern that sits in the basement, and over beneath the adjacent barn, where the two-hole family privy remains suspended in open air above the Lily Pond brook, which runs down to the harbor.

And in the barn, a high roof soars over the old horse stalls, and ladders that lead to old hay platforms.

Young appreciates old buildings and their place in the community.

“It is such a beautiful little house to uncover,” he said. “Much of it was built from recycled materials, from another house, probably nearby.”

Downstairs will be the bookshop. Upstairs, the space is being renovated into a small apartment. 

The bookstore will shelve more than 5,000 new and used books, from modern American British and European fiction; American and foreign mysteries and thrillers; seafaring novels; poetry and plays; graphic novels; history (especially early American, Colonial and Revolutionary War); science and math; birdwatching; travel writing; economics and current affairs; and children and young adult books.

“If there's an over-arching theme to the books we plan to sell, it is simply 'good writing,’” said Linda.

The barn, with its high roof, will be a seasonal space for games and puzzles, a display space, for author mingles, and small-scale performances. The shop will have Wi-Fi and there will be plugs inside and outside on the front porch for computer plug-ins. And, there will be water spigots on the side of the house for pedestrians and bikers wanting to fill up their water bottles, or dog bowls.

“Barn Swallow Books will offer coffee and comfortable chairs for browsers, plus an accessible deck with views of the harbor,” said Linda. “Our primary goal is to create a friendly, stimulating neighborhood resource and casual meeting place.”

For Young, the fun — and the challenge — has been in restoring the structure, and to enhance its aesthetic position in the village.

"Rockport Harbor and Village is a walkers paradise for, among other reasons, the village streetscape of old New England style buildings,” he said. “That is a beautiful backdrop to stroll by. So when Linda and her husband, Griff, asked me to save this unique little Greek Revival house with a big old attached, rambling barn, I was ecstatic. Our plan would be to restore the old house and barn to a state much like it looked when newly built, today with the addition of a few comfortable 150 year old sags here and there.”

Young has salvaged much of the house, including the original windows and doors on the street side.

"Old wooden windows have a depth you can't get with new windows," he said. "With proper attention to details, they can be made reasonably energy efficient. And with a little maintenance, they'll outlast new windows, over and over and over."

Inside, he said, the engineering is contemporary, with urethane foam wall cavity insulation, and new plumbing and wiring.

The building will be heated with electric heat pumps that sit outside.

"It's cheaper than wood pellets and firewood," said Young.

New windows and deck are being added on the backside of the building, which overlooks the steep slope to the harbor.

The house is getting a whole new set of clapboards — none of that scraping off 150 years of old paint.

“It will be an easy house to maintain for the next generations,” said Young.

The barn will not be insulated.

“It will be cold as hell in there,” said Young. “That’s how it ought to be.”

While the Center for Maine Contemporary Art is putting its gallery on the market and leaving for Rockland, new enterprise is moving into the village. Barn Swallow Books is evidence of a changing streetscape that builders like Young are intent on keeping true to the essence of the town, a place where residents work and live and learn, and read.

Reach Editorial Director Lynda Clancy at lyndaclancy@penbaypilot.com; 207-706-6657