Office of the President

The Parker Cleaveland House at 75 Federal Street in Brunswick served as the president’s house during the administration of President Robert H. Edwards (1990-2001), and is now used by President Barry Mills for College functions. The house was placed on the National Park Service’s register of national historic landmarks in 2000.

Cleaveland House was built in 1806 for Bowdoin professor Parker Cleaveland, known as the "Father of American Mineralogy" for his groundbreaking geological studies. His 1816 "Elementary Treatise on Mineralogy and Geology" was the first book ever published on American geology.

Cleaveland lived in the house until his death in 1858. The College purchased the property in 1992. The house’s wide pine flooring, nine fireplaces, and barn have been preserved, and its interior is decorated with period furniture and artwork from the Bowdoin College Museum of Art.

Cleaveland House joins fewer than 2,500 other properties nationwide on the landmark register, including its Federal Street neighbor, the Harriet Beecher Stowe House, where the abolitionist penned "Uncle Tom’s Cabin." The College purchased the Stowe House in 2001.