Hancock County Maine

Rockefeller Hall // 1934

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In the early 1930s, a U.S. Navy Radio Station at the Otter Cliffs on Mount Desert Island had become dilapidated and Navy funds were not forthcoming for repairs. When John D. Rockefeller Jr. suggested that it be removed, the Navy agreed to include the station in his donation to Acadia National Park, provided that he would build an equally good receiving station nearby. In the midst of the Great Depression, and short on funds, the government accepted the swap. Rockefeller set aside land at the tip of the Schoodic Peninsula, about five miles away across Frenchman Bay, at Winter Harbor. Rockefeller, wishing the station’s buildings to be compatible with others designed for the park, retained Grosvenor Atterbury, the New York architect who designed the park’s gatehouses, to come up with plans for the radio station. It opened in early 1935 and for several years served as an operation center and military housing. After the naval base was closed in 2002, the National Park Service acquired the land and established the Schoodic Education and Research Center (SERC). The SERC campus is managed by the nonprofit Schoodic Institute and the NPS in a public-private partnership as one of 19 NPS research learning centers in the country. They restored Rockefeller Hall (as it became known) in the early 2010s and the stunning architecture can really shine today. The building is a Welcome Center to the institute.

Park Cottage // 1892

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Queen Anne Victorian perfection! This is the Trotter Cottage on Grindstone Neck in Winter Harbor. The house was built in 1892 for one of the proprietors of the Gouldsboro Land Improvement Company, the group that developed the Grindstone Neck Summer Colony. Nathan Trotter (1852-1915) was a commission merchant from Philadelphia who made a name for himself there, eventually investing his money into real estate. He had Philadelphia-based architect Lindley Johnson, who also built other cottages on Grindstone Neck (including one for himself), to design this cottage for his family to visit for the summer seasons. The property became known as Park Cottage under later owner Eleanor Widener Dixon, she and her husband would summer here when not occupying their palatial Pennsylvania estate. Her father, George Dunton Widener and brother, Harry Elkins Widener both perished in 1912 aboard the Titanic. After the Titanic disaster, Eleanor’s mother presented to Harvard University the $2,000,000 Widener Memorial Library in memory of her son. Park Cottage is one of the finest cottages on Grindstone Neck.

Red Chalet // 1891

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Philadelphia-based architect Lindley Johnson was hired as the official company architect by the Gouldsboro Land Improvement Company’s Grindstone Neck summer colony. As a result, he became the chief tastemaker for the bucolic neighborhood of summer cottages, chapels, and an inn (since demolished). Johnson would design a majority of the cottages in the Shingle style, taking cues from the natural topography and rugged coastlines, but he did deviate from that style a couple times; most notably for his own cottage, “Red Chalet”. While no longer red, the cottage stands out as an extremely rare example of a Swiss Chalet, with its sloping gable roof with wide eaves, exposed stickwork and oversized brackets, decorative carving, and shiplap siding.

St. Margaret Catholic Summer Chapel // c.1895

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When the Grindstone Neck Summer Colony of Maine was in full-swing, wealthy summer residents would frequent the colony’s Episcopal chapel (featured previously). What the summer residents did not really plan for was the influx of other residents as summer staff, largely Irish servants who in large part were Catholic. As a result, the St. Margaret Catholic Chapel was built to provide a house of worship, largely for those summer workers on Grindstone Neck. Keeping with the rustic architectural character of the colony, the chapel was designed in the Shingle style. I could not find any information on the architect, so any additional insight would be greatly appreciated!

J. Bonsall Taylor Cottage // c.1892

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John Bonsall Taylor (1854-1929), a Philadelphia patent lawyer and Director of the Gouldsboro Land Improvement Company, charged with developing Grindstone Neck in Maine, built this rustic cottage around 1892 for his family. He hired Lindley Johnson, a Philadelphia-based architect who furnished plans for many other buildings in the summer colony. Johnson trained under renowned architect Frank Furness before opening his own office. The rustic Craftsman house even has a “widows walk” which provides views to Bar Harbor across Frenchman Bay.

C. B. Taylor Cottage // c.1892

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Men from Philadelphia and New York gathered to establish the Gouldsboro Land Improvement Company in the late 1880s with the goal to develop an alternative, more quiet summer colony to rival Bar Harbor on Mount Desert Isle. Two of the early investors (and summer residents) were J. Bonsall Taylor and Carter Berkeley Taylor, brothers from Philadelphia. John Bonsall Taylor’s cottage (last post) and this cottage, built for C. B. Taylor, were constructed around 1891-2 and are typical examples of upper-middle-class summer cottages in Winter Harbor. Philadelphia architect Lindley Johnson designed John’s cottage, so it could be hypothesized that he was also architect for C.B. Taylor’s here. The house as originally built was enlarged in the early 20th century, but maintains the rustic quality and charm that so many of these Shingle style cottages possess. And that red trim really pops!

Thompson Cottage // c.1892

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Who doesn’t love a good porte-cochere? In case you don’t know what they are, a porte-cochere is a covered porch-like structure at an entrance to a building where either a horse and carriage (historically) or car (today) can pass under to provide arriving and departing occupants protection from the elements. They are normally found on larger residences and institutional building where the wealthy frequent. The Thompson Cottage on Grindstone Neck in Winter Harbor was built around 1892 for James B. Thompson from Philadelphia. The original cottage was largely updated after Thompson’s death in 1915, the property was owned by Annie Cannell Trotter, who summered at another house in the colony with her husband Nathan Trotter, until his death.

Levis Cottage // c.1892

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Samuel W. Levis, a real estate agent from Philadelphia built this summer cottage on Grindstone Neck in the enchanting town of Winter Harbor, Maine in 1892. The Levis Cottage was designed by the Gouldsboro Land Improvement Company’s favorite Philadelphia architect, Lindley Johnson, who designed a majority of the cottages and buildings in the summer colony. Samuel does not appear to have ever married nor did he have children. The property was later owned by Frances and Mitchell Rosengarten. The cottage is boxy in form with a stucco facade and clapboard siding on the sides. Local stone was used to construct the large columns at the first floor porch. The former recessed balcony at the second floor has been enclosed, but otherwise, the house looks near-identical to when it was built over 130 years ago!

Charles and Elizabeth Doremus Cottage // c.1892

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In 1889, the Gouldsboro Land Improvement Company, bought 300 acres of farmland to build a residential summer colony as an alternative to the busy Bar Harbor across the bay. They hired landscape architect Nathan Franklin Barrett to design the subdivision of 198 cottage lots of at least one acre and arranged them on roughly parallel roads, with a primary road (Grindstone Avenue) running the length of the peninsula’s spine through woodlands to dramatic ocean views at the tip. The summer colony has many great cottages and chapels tucked away on rocky outcroppings with towering spruce trees all around. This charming cottage was built for Charles Avery Doremus and his wife Elizabeth Ward Doremus around 1892. Charles was a scientist, the son of chemist and physician Robert Ogden Doremus. He graduated from the College of the City of New York in 1870. He became a professor in chemistry and became a leading specialist on toxicology, often called into court cases to help solve crimes. Elizabeth was a playwright from Kentucky and her father and his brother owned plantations in Mississippi before the American Civil War. The couple summered at this cottage on Grindstone Neck until Charles’ death in 1925. It is a great example of a rustic Shingle style summer cottage.

Egg Rock Lighthouse // 1875

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The Egg Rock Lighthouse sits in the middle of the Mt. Desert Narrows of Frenchman Bay between Bar Harbor and Winter Harbor. The lighthouse was constructed in 1875 to assist the already built Winter Harbor Lighthouse a short distance away, to provide guidance for the increased ferry traffic to Bar Harbor, which was quickly becoming a prominent summer colony. The architecturally unique lighthouse is comprised of a square tower projecting through the center of the square lighthouse keeper’s house, its unlike anything I have seen before. The station was automated by the United States Coast Guard in 1976, at which time its ancillary structures except the fog station were torn down. The light continues to be managed by the Coast Guard, and is not open to the public; the island and buildings are owned by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service.