Holmes-Crafts Homestead
The Holmes-Crafts Homestead is a historic house at the junction of Old Jay Hill Road and Main Street (Route 4) in Jay, Maine. Built in the early 1800s, it is a well-preserved example of Federal-style architecture and was home to James Starr, one of the area’s first white settlers and a prominent lawyer and politician. The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.
The two-story wooden building has five bays, a hip roof, and two chimneys at the rear, with a rear ell. It still retains much of its original exterior and interior details, including clapboard siding, original windows, a Federal-style front entrance with sidelights and a carved panel above, and wide pine floors with old hardware inside.
James Starr bought the house around 1820. He arrived in the Jay Hill area in 1802, ran a tavern nearby, served as the town’s first postmaster, and represented Jay in the state legislature. In 1833, Starr’s son-in-law, Aruna Holmes, a cabinetmaker, bought the property and operated a shop that extended from the ell (the shop is no longer standing).
Today the Holmes-Crafts Homestead is owned by the Jay Historical Society and is open by appointment.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 06:13 (CET).