The first Maine Sunday Telegram “Home of the Week” published on Feb. 11, 2001.

Since then, including the more recent Premier Properties and Friday Feature homes, and Central Maine Homes of the Week, more than 1,500 houses around the state have been presented by the Telegram, the Press Herald, the Kennebec Journal and the Morning Sentinel.

Here’s a look back at several standouts from among dozens featured this year.

After this year-round home on Whittier Pond in Vienna appeared in February, listing broker Les Priest received a call from a Mainer who subscribes to the PPH while wintering in Florida. The man told Priest he hoped the house would still be available when he returned to Maine. It was. He bought it.

Tranquility and privacy are the keys here. The 7.74-acre property has 793 feet of placid frontage on Loon Cove, and is a half-hour drive from Augusta, where Priest is an agent at Better Homes and Gardens The Masiello Group.

In similar civilization-to-seclusion fashion, it was 15 minutes from downtown Portland to Hunts Point Road in Cape Elizabeth and a Royal Barry Wills-designed oceanfront home, whose attributes include a glass-walled dining room, five fireplaces and a gourmet’s kitchen.

The house is both expanded and updated. Its 440 private feet on the water include a “secret” striper-fishing spot and panoramic views as far as Phippsburg. The home is listed by David Banks of RE/MAX By the Bay.

Another architecturally distinctive home – one of Maine’s very few “deck houses” – was discovered in Kennebunkport, within walking distance of Cleaves Cove. The midcentury modern gem was designed by the Acorn Deck House Company and is in perfect harmony with its surrounding gardens and serene, woodsy setting.

Vaulted ceilings with exposed beams, and a gorgeous, glass-ceiling sunroom are among the many highlights. The Elizabethan Drive home was listed and sold by Helen Curry of Kennebunk Beach Realty in Kennebunk.

Maine has no shortage of sublime settings, some of them historic. Lofty (elevation 831 feet) Paris Hill is on the National Register, and of the c. 1870 Benjamin S. Doe House on Hannibal Hamlin Drive there, author Martin Dibner wrote, “As a symbol of high European fashion, the Doe House marked the climax of Paris Hill’s architectural development.”

The Victorian Second Empire home has the village’s only mansard roof and combines modern comforts with vintage character. It is listed by Mary Colangelo of Maine Showroom Realty in Gray.

In Portland, a tour of The Motherhouse on Stevens Avenue revealed the warm beauty of the former Saint Joseph’s Convent, inside and out. The gold-domed, 1906 landmark has been converted to 88 apartments, each one of them different, for people 55 and older.

The stunning Chapel remains intact, as do features such as gorgeous woodwork and stained-glass, arched, and leaded-glass windows. Apartment rentals are being handled by DC Management.

(First of a two-part series)