The James Leavitt House in Waterboro Center, Maine, is a mid-19th century Greek Revival home built of wooden weatherboard and resting on a granite foundation.

The merchant had several lines of business: he bought and sold local produce in Portland and Boston, and operated a general store near his house.

"The sheer amount of surface that was grained indicates that this was probably not the work of an itinerant artist passing through town, but undertaken [by] a specialist like Jason Hamilton, a 'fancy painter' who lived in nearby Sanford and was listed in the Mercantile Union Business Directory in 1849," notes the application for the House's nomination to the National Historic Places Register.

"Interestingly, the grain painting at the Leavitt house does not necessarily try to mimic natural wood, rather the combinations of patterns, such as birds-eye maple and tiger-maple, used together on the doors suggest a much more artistic approach to the application.

James Leavitt's son Benjamin embarked on a career as a prosperous merchant in Saco, Maine, and used his father's home as a summer residence.