GARDINER -- Barbara Oesterlin-Heath imagines the Rev. John Hanson going over his sermon one last time in the tiny room at the front of her house before he'd deliver his message at Sunday morning service.

Hanson came to Gardiner in 1850 to be the pastor of the Universalist Church, and built the distinguished Gothic Revival style home with the board-and-batten siding, trefoil windows and barge board trim at 116 Dresden Ave. that Oesterlin-Heath and her family moved into 11 years ago.

Oesterlin-Heath's home, which includes an attached pitched roof barn with gothic windows, will be open to the public Saturday for the Historic Homes of Gardiner tour.

The Gardiner Library Association has arranged for people to tour eight historic houses from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m.

Oesterlin-Heath, a local dentist, graciously agreed to an early viewing of her home. The home is furnished with some antiques, but has all the modern conveniences.

Oesterlin-Heath, and her husband, Richard, a senior geologist at the Maine Department of Environmental Protection, have been slowly renovating the old home.

Guests can peek into Hanson's office, where it is said he individually counseled his parishioners.

"When Rev. Hanson lived here, we heard he was involved with the Underground Railroad," Oesterlin-Heath said. "The Universalists were involved in social causes of the time. There's four bedrooms upstairs and a third floor. There's this little attic room up there that I imagine could have been used to hide someone."

Tickets for the house tour are $20, on sale at the Gardiner Public Library at 152 Water St. and in the Peg Shaw Garden adjoining the library on the day of the tour. For more information call 582-3312.

Proceeds from the tour will be used for library renovations and signs for the Edwin Arlington Robinson tour.

Dorothy Washburn, who helped organized the tour, said Hanson got the idea for the design of his home from Richard Upjohn's book, "Upjohn's Rural Architecture."

In 1852, she said Hanson, a Boston native, published "The History of Gardiner, Pittston and West Gardiner 1602-1852," an invaluable record of life in early American history.

"The reason he's very important is that he wrote the only history of Gardiner, Pittston and West Gardiner," she said. "If Rev. Hanson hadn't written his book, we wouldn't no what went on here at that time."

Other homes chosen for the tour include Edwin Arlington Robinson House, the home of Maine's Pulitzer Prize winning poet; the Kate Vannah House, once occupied by a premier female composer of the early 20th century; Central Street School, built in 1886 and converted into living quarters and a studio by sculptor Robert Lash and his wife, Amy Rees; and the Dr. Clarence Jackson House, designed by George Barber, a noted 19th-century architect who helped make the Queen Anne style popular in America around the turn of the century.

"People will be able to learn something about Gardiner history and about the people who lived in these houses," Washburn said.

"And they'll get to see some beautiful homes."

Mechele Cooper -- 623-3811, Ext. 408

mcooper@centralmaine.com