A Magical Tree House in Maine

The skid marks in front of Peter Lewis's hundred-year old farmhouse in Western Maine have recently been paved over...but at least once a day someone stops a car or jumps out of a truck to take a picture, get a closer look or simply gawk.

Peter Lewis: "I had one lady stop and I was raking leaves and she said, 'Is that a treehouse?' And I said, yes. And she said, Oh my gosh, it looks like a little house in a tree. And then she drove off."

This isn't just any old treehouse. This is a work of art - a hexagonal, two story, 250-square foot timberframe tree house suspended in the air on a series of heavy trusses and cables. Inhabited full time by a squirrel named Vinny, and used as a retreat by Lewis and his friends, the treehouse has 21 windows, two decks, a coal-burning stove, a built-in futon and water clock, intricate railings and an unusual, folding staircase that would make the Swiss Family Robinson envious.

(sounds of staircase unfolding -clicking, creaking underneath Lewis)

Peter Lewis: "It's a drawbridge that is held up in the air with a cradle of boulders and when you release a secret latch the whole thing swings down and forms a set of stairs."

Lewis leaves the stairs hidden try to discourage the truly curious from getting any ideas when he's not around. And that's also the reason he prefers not to disclose the name of his town. From the time he was a young boy, Lewis says he's dreamed of having a treehouse. But not even he ever imagined anything like this: Almost everything is made out of recycled materials or branches and limbs found in the woods...everything including the hand-carved chess board with fairy-like kings and queens that takes up most of the space on the second floor.

Ted Walsh: "Basically, you have a series of what look like little trees and the tips of the trees are the tiles that make up the chess set and they're all on different levels"

Ted Walsh is the designer of the chess set and the illustrator of a new book called the Treehouse Chronicles that delves into Lewis's experience planning and building the treehouse with his closest friends...a project that took four years and was completed in December.

Walsh: "What I think this building is really all about is how you choose to use your time and rather than spending alot of money, the hours that we spent traipsing through the woods looking for branches or trying to figure out how to do stuff using materials we already had was to me alot of the fun."

It doesn't hurt that Lewis and Walsh are partners in a Conway, New Hamsphire publishing company. But the treehouse and the book have meant that neither man has had any time for chess.

Peter Lewis: "We describe this as what happens when big people decide to be kids again and they have tools and lumber."

Lewis credits Walter Cronkite with planting the seed for this treehouse in his mind. He says he was inspired one night when he heard Cronkite's unmistakable broadcast description of the first landing on the Moon.

Peter Lewis: "And I said I've got to go find a tree. I'm not sure of the connection between the lunar landing story and a tree but somehow the idea of going far, far away up in the air appealed to me."

Lewis took a flashlight, marched out into the rain in the dark and says he literally ran into the enormous pine tree that would become his project...175 feet behind his house.

Karen Lewis: "I'm Karen Lewis. I'm Peter's wife. I knew my husband had this dream and so I was in support of that idea but I thought it was a very silly idea for a grown man but here he is and he loves it and it's a very beautiful treehouse."

In the book, Peter Lewis writes about going into a near panic attack when he went to town hall to speak to the code enforcement officer about a building permit. It took him awhile to work up the courage to explain that his project was an "outbuilding in the air." But after paying a bewildered code enforcement officer a ten dollar fee, Lewis was on his way, permit in hand.

Peter Lewis: "When I was little my mom said dreaming is important...and dreaming big is what sets people apart. But she also said there's a catch: dreams need feet. They're no good stuck between your ears. All I did with this treehouse is I took a dream that everybody has and I just put feet on it."

Lewis's mother died last year before the treehouse was finished. But he continues to follow her lasting advice. The treehouse, which cost about five thousand dollars to build is now a daily retreat...a place he goes to give his dreams flight.

For NHPR News, I'm Susan Sharon.