The rustic seaside village of Cape Porpoise, in the town of Kennebunkport, has had two brushes with fame in recent years. In 2010, Taylor Swift filmed part of a music video at The Wayfarer, a comfy little restaurant beloved by locals. And in 2012, Kevin McKelvy bought a little clapboard house beside an inlet at 15 Mills Rd.
Who’s Kevin McKelvy, you ask? Well, have you ever heard of The Sopranos? How about The Wire? Does Shea Stadium ring a bell?
OK, in fairness, McKelvy only appeared in one episode of The Sopranos (as U.S. Marshall Lunt, in 2007) and three episodes of The Wire (as an F.B.I. agent, in 2003). He’s sung our national anthem at Shea three times, but if you weren’t there, we understand.
According to a 2012 profile on a community-news website in Fort Lee, N.J., where tax records indicate McKelvy still lives, the actor is also a West Point graduate, a poet, an Army football player with two bowl rings, and a veteran of two tours in Iraq. The Internet Movie Database informs us that he’ll appear in the forthcoming film Killer: Malevolence 3, starring Adrienne Barbeau (McKelvy played Special Agent Perkins in the first Malevolence movie, in 2003).
The place in Cape Porpoise is most likely either a vacation home or an income property for McKelvy, who could not be reached for comment. It’s certainly not being occupied. The bay windows that aren’t broken are boarded up, the clapboards are practically begging for paint, and the front porch looks downright dangerous — malevolent, even. The adjacent shed has also seen better days: the rusty basketball hoop over its door looks like it hasn’t had a net since the Baldacci administration, and one of the busted-out windows is covered with tattered plastic.
Yet the place isn’t being entirely neglected. A peek inside revealed a gutted, but tidy, interior with neat stacks of plywood boards ready for installation. A portable toilet by the shed indicates someone’s committed to spending a significant amount of time working on the place.
Town and county records indicate McKelvy bought the property for $185,000 (a fair price of a major fixer-upper), but seems to have struggled to finance its renovation. The town put a lien on the property in October 2014 for an unpaid sewer bill of $219.46. There’s nothing in the records to indicate that lien has been lifted.
We hope McKelvy will be able to finish this project and at least spend summers here. It’s always exciting to run into a celebrity at the local market or restaurant.
— Patrick Banks
