20 MAIN STREET
052-048
HD Map# 28

Overview of Historic District and Source of following text.

28.  Wheeler House, 20 Main Street, 1914.  Contributing building.

The Wheeler House is a 1 1/2-story, Bungalow-style dwelling which rests on a mortared stone foundation and is capped by an asphalt roof with shed dormers on both the front and rear slopes.  Both the dormers and the main roof display exposed, notched rafters.  The asymmetrical gable roof extends to shelter a full width front porch which is supported by four Roman Doric columns.  The sidehall entrance contains a glass-and-panel door, adjacent to which there are two wide 1/1 windows.  The shed dormer on the front slope has four 1/1 windows.  Extending behind the main house is a two-story wing; the lower level is exposed by the sloping site.

This building was preceded on the site by several earlier buildings including an ice house and a garage.  The garage burned in 1912 during a fire which also destroyed the adjacent store (see 22-24 Main Street - #17).  After the fire, a temporary store was erected by Will Gates.  After the new store was built in 1914, the temporary store was bought by Almond A. Wheeler who remodeled it into the present house.  Wheeler occupied the house until his death (sometime before 1951) and it was later occupied by his widow, Ruth Hills Wheeler.  Mrs. Wheeler died in 1979 and according to the terms of her will, the house became the property of the Hollis Historical Society.