Excerpt from Sister Parish Design On Decorating, by Susan Crater and Libby Cameron, illustrations by Mita Corsini Bland.

"In the early days of Parish-Hadley, I would often drive my sporty Sunbeam convertible to Maine, to spend time with Sis and Harry Parish, their family and friends. It was a demanding trip, often defying speed limits in order to catch the 4-o’clock ferry to the island where the Parishes had family property dating from Sister‘s childhood. I loved being there.

There was a charming, small Victorian house on the road near Dark Harbor, the area where the Parishes lived, that was one of my favorite houses along the way. Beyond the house, on the edge of a cleared meadow, was a beautiful small barn with an ample hay loft above the stalls below. The property was owned by a friend Ruth, Mrs. Marshall Field, whose own house was beyond the meadow and the grove of pine trees on the water side of the island. Knowing my interest in the property and her own desire for additional accommodations for a growing family, sis persuaded Ruth to sell! I was thrilled.

Friends and neighbors were all attentive and curious about our plans for the place. Inside, the house was well arranged with a series of modest-size rooms on ;two floors. Sis, and I set about creating colorful, simple rooms. I also really loved the old barn. There were a couple of stalls for animals downstairs and some doors that looked out onto the field. We created a bedroom and a bathroom, a small sitting room, and a kitchen downstairs. When you went up the steps, you came to the second floor, originally a giant hayloft, where we put in a huge window, so it was all the beams and those ceilings that went up 20 feet, and this great view. The entire room was all white and gray, and it was a great room to be in with the wonderful light. It was very Swedish in a way.

But the real point of this is what happened outside. When spring came it was time to paint both the house and the barn. There was much discussion about colors and I thought I’d won the battle. The painters employed were dismayed and suggested - actually insisted -that work begin on the back of the house leaving the barn until the very last. Curiosity was mounting and passing cars came to a near halt while some friends actually ventured to the back of the house to see what was going on. Here is where I should tell you that most of the houses on the island were white or gray or some other pale color. Two of the Parish houses were painted almost canary yellow and the so-called red house just down the road was bright red all with white trim. There was such a commotion about the color I had chosen that the fear of being banned from the island hung heavily overhead.

As spring, unfolded, trees, fresh with new leaves, framed the house, and the meadow was dotted with blossoms. Moods changed, and tension eased slightly. It wasn’t until the job was finished, the painters gone, that one could view the little house with its Victorian detail, gleaming fresh with warm white paint and dark brown. Its clapboard siding was undeniably beautiful, and its rich, creosote color, the color match to an ancient telephone pole a rich black-brown. Even the natives expressed approval and I was happily 'at home' to friends and neighbors. I might add in closing that the house and barn have maintained the 'creosote color' over the years, blending very successfully into the landscape." — Albert Hadley