The Harbor Lane-Eden Street Historic District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2009. Portions of the content on this web page were adapted from a copy of the original nomination document. Photo by Christi A. Mitchell, Oct. 2006. Maine Historic Preservation Commission NR #09000050. [1]
Description
The Harbor Lane-Eden Street Historic District contains a cohesive collection of summer cottages and outbuildings designed and built by some of the nation's top architects between 1879/80 and 1936. During this period the town of Bar Harbor, Maine (and other towns on Mount Desert Island) rivaled Newport, Rhode Island as one of the most desirable locations for the social elite to spend the summer season. Within the Harbor Lane-Eden Street Historic District are nine cottages, two guest houses and several stables that were built as summer estates on Harbor Lane, Eden Street, or along the shore of Frenchman's Bay. The stylistic range of the properties include Queen Anne, Shingle style, Colonial Revival, and to a lesser extent, Italian Renaissance, and also includes eclectic details associated with Tudor Revival and Craftsman style houses. The Harbor Lane-Eden Street Historic District includes 16 contributing buildings, one contributing structure (a wharf) and four non-contributing buildings.
Narrative Description
The Harbor Lane-Eden Street Historic District occupies just over 20 acres of land located at the western end of the village of Bar Harbor. Bar Harbor is located on Mount Desert Island, off the coast of Hancock County, Maine. The Harbor Lane-Eden Street Historic District is irregular in shape, reflecting the distribution of most of the district's buildings along the shore of Frenchman's Bay, and includes the "back" or "upland" portions of long property lots that stretched from the coast to Eden Street to the south. Eden Street, or Maine Route 3, is the primary access road into Bar Harbor from the northwest. The district is roughly bounded by Frenchman's Bay on the northeast, Sea Fox and Acadia Lane lot lines on the northwest, Eden Street on the southwest and the south and east lot lines of properties on Harbor Lane on the southeast. (For the sake of convenience in this nomination all the properties will be described as if Frenchman's Bay is due north and Eden Street is due south of the district.) Harbor Lane, previously known as Prospect Avenue, is an inverted L-shaped street, which at its northern end turns west for a short distance. This road previously connected through to Bagatelle Avenue, which along with Acadia Lane were the three north-to-south oriented roads within the district.
Before a devastating fire in October of 1947 burned thousands of acres in Bar Harbor, including five properties then located within the boundaries of this district, both sides of Eden Street were lined with cottages — frequently massive frame or stone structures designed by renowned architects and utilized seasonally by denizens of the social elite. While the coast lots were the first developed within the Harbor Lane-Eden Street Historic District, cottages were erected on street-side lots shortly thereafter, on Eden Street, and along Harbor Lane, Bagatelle Avenue, and Acadia Lane, each of which stretched between Eden Street and the coast. In some cases, the street-side and coastal portions of the long lots were developed by members of the same families; in other cases smaller lots were sold to non-relatives who constructed cottages. For those cottages that were not subdivided long, slightly curving driveways provided access to the cottages and their stables or guest houses.
There are several lengths of stone walls, or groups of stone piers located along Eden Street that mark the boundaries of current or previous properties within the district. At the site where the driveway from Sea Fox formerly intersected Eden Street there are a pair of square, rough quarried, pink granite block piers topped with gray granite caps. Additional similar piers mark the edge of Acadia Lane, the driveway of Villa Mary, the corners of Bagatelle Avenue and the locations of Clovercroft, Bowling Green and Barnacles, three cottages lost to the fire. Between the east pier of Bowling Green and the east pier of the Barnacles the piers are linked by lengths of well constructed pinkish granite block walls with granite caps. Between Bowling Green and Villa Mary a concrete block wall has been constructed on top of what is now a granite block retaining wall: over the years the level of Eden Street has been elevated above the height of the stone walls constructed in the last decades of the nineteenth century. Both the piers for Clovercroft and for Bowling Green are inscribed with the name of the estates. Additional lengths of wall have been removed, some recently, as the College of the Atlantic has altered their transportation network.
At the west end of the Harbor Lane-Eden Street Historic District five of the resources, Sea Fox, Acadia Landing, Acadia Cottage, Witch Cliff and the Fabian Cottage Stable, as well as Acadia Lane lie within the boundaries of the College of the Atlantic. The remainder of the campus stretches down the coast to the west, and is built around either former cottages, such as Sea Urchins and The Turrets (National Register listed), or former estates that no longer retain their principal structures such as Guys Cliff further to the north. In an effort to facilitate travel across the length of the campus the College has been selectively removing stone walls or other boundaries between former estates, and truncating the historic driveways. In 2008 a new campus road was constructed that exits Eden Street just west of the Witch Cliff driveway, then turns west and parallels Eden Street at a distance of approximately 150 feet. As part of this project the southern end of the Witch Cliff driveway was shifted west to intersect the road, and the portions of the Sea Fox driveway and Acadia Lane between the new South Campus Road and Eden Street have been discontinued. However, their former locations are marked by the stone piers mentioned above.
1. Fenwold. 1891 with wing c.1918. 6 Harbor Lane. One contributing building. John Calvin Stevens, architect. Formerly known as Colonial Hall.
Located on the west side of Harbor Lane, Fenwold is the only Bar Harbor commission by the Portland architect John Calvin Stevens. Built as Colonial Hall, it was the last of three contiguous properties constructed by the Rufus King family of Cincinnati between 1885 and 1891. Interestingly, each of the three were designed by different architectural firms. The earliest cottage, the Queen Anne style Dust Pan Cottage at the southwest corner of Eden Street and Harbor Lane, was designed by Rotch and Tilden. In 1888 Mr. King had Andrews and Jacques design Rexcote, located just north of Dust Pan on Harbor Lane. Finally, in 1891 the recently widowed Mrs. King hired Stevens to design Colonial Hall for her. The earlier two houses were destroyed in the 1947 fire, and the lots on which they were located have been rebuilt since that time and are not included within the district. A stable formerly located at the south edge of the Fenwold property was also consumed in 1947. The house lot contains just under one acre of relatively level land that slopes slightly toward the shore. The house is located roughly at the center of the parcel; south of the house a circular driveway extends west from Harbor Lane, and north of the house a relatively dense stand of deciduous trees obscures the view of the coast. A rough-cut granite retaining wall separates the western edge of the property from Harbor Lane.
Fenwold, as the property has been known since being sold out of the King family between 1916 and 1927, is a house in which Stevens combined Italian Renaissance Revival and Colonial (American) Revival style elements to produce a unique structure that reflects several of the architectural trends that were emerging in Bar Harbor at the end of the 20th century. A rough-cut (rusticated) granite block foundation underlies the two and a half story structure, but the half story is really a raised basement, thus marking the primary living floor as a piano nobile — especially on the north elevation. The house is essentially rectangular in form (57 by 43 feet) with a lower, two-story rectangular wing extending 29 feet off the south end of the west wall and a two-story bow room centered on the north elevation. An eleven foot wide full-length deck spans the north elevation and follows the curve of the bow room; the veranda is accessed from ground level by a wooden, two-legged double staircase with turned balustrade and railings. Attached to the center of the front (south) elevation is a gable roof porte cochere. A broadly overhanging hipped asphalt roof with brackets under the open eaves covers the main house; a separate hipped roof covers the wing. Painted brick chimneys protrude through each of the west, east and south roof planes. All of the walls have a rough plaster coating and many of the windows are framed by louvered shutters. A wooden beltcourse separates the top two floors on the south and north elevations.
While the building has many interesting attributes several in particular merit description. The front elevation can be divided into three blocks (exclusive of the wing) of roughly equal width. The westernmost block contains two one-over-one window sash at ground level, above which are two wooden windows with fifteen small panes positioned in a small upper sash over a larger lower sash. The two windows share a common sill and header, both executed in wood. On the top floor is one window near the corner of the wall, set directly under the eaves. The center is dominated by the portico on the first floor, above which are three tall windows that stretch between the belt course and the eaves, and are separated by plastered pilasters. (The westernmost of these windows contains a sash only in its upper half; the lower part of the bay is covered with plaster, but reads as a window division.) The portico is supported at the corners on slender Roman Doric columns. The pediment of this structure features a soffit marked with modillions and a plastered tympanum decorated with composition ornament swags and a crest of wheat. Behind the portico is the off-center front door and a built-in wooden bench. Situated over the top of the bench is a tripartite unit consisting of two small-paned fixed windows which are separated by, but framed with, a recessed wooden panel. Above this panel is a wooden, broken scroll pediment, exaggerated in its verticality. An engaged porch at the first floor level occupies the third section of the facade. The porch has a balustered railing and two Ionic columns mark the faceted southeast corner. On the west wall, within the porch, is a keystoned oculus window, and on the north wall a cantilevered three sash window bay. On the upper level are a pair of joined eight-over-one sash. The southwest corner of the building is cutaway at an angle and contains fifteen-over-one sash.
The east elevation contains a bay window on the upper level, and two fixed sash topped with fanlights. On the main floor of the west elevation is a cantilevered bay window, the center bay of which features a round-top window surrounded by a transom and sidelights of small panes. On the north elevation the bow room features three sets of French doors that open onto the deck, and a broad, arch-topped plate glass window on the east and a trio of tall windows on the west. The second level of the bow room has been enclosed as a sleeping porch. Both the northeast and northwest corners of the house are cutaway, and the upper level slightly overhangs the first floor above the belt course at these corners. The enclosed base of the deck features a broad arched opening on the east side, and there are rectilinear openings on the north and west.
2. Reverie Cove, 1893. 7 Harbor Lane.
Reverie Cove is the last property on the east side of Harbor Lane before the road turns to the west. The driveway runs along the southern boundary (which is marked by a stone wall), before circling back on itself in front of the main house. The length of the house is oriented to follow the northwest to southeast running shoreline. At the northwest corner of the property, adjacent to the road, is the former stable, now a garage. The entire property measures 1.37 acres, and the easternmost edge of the property is defined by Eddie Brook, which empties into Frenchman's Bay. The 1947 fire consumed the cottage immediately to the south of Reverie Cove, but did not burn this property.
Main House. 1893. (Contributing, previously listed) Fred L. Savage, architect. National Register, February 19, 1982.
The footprint of this building measures roughly 75 by 60 feet. As originally designed, the exterior walls were covered with stucco which added an element of the Italian Renaissance style to the building. The following description is from the 1982 National Register nomination:
"Reverie Cove" of Bar Harbor, Maine, designed by Fred L. Savage for Dr. John Davies Jones in 1895, is a striking example of an opulent summer home in the modified Colonial Revival style.
The house, of frame construction, contains 2-1/2 stories (3-1/2 facing the water) with three internal brick chimneys, hipped roof, bracketed cornice, shingle siding, and dressed granite foundation.
The 5-bay facade, which faces west, features an entrance portico to the right, balanced by a porch to the left. These are stylistically identical, being supported by simple but massive paired posts. Above these projections are recessed balconies with balustrades. The central facade bay in the second story is a large three-part arched window with diamond panes (flanked by lunettes), echoed by a rectangular three-part window with equivalent lights below. The bays at each end of the facade in both stories are paired six-over-six windows with external louvered shutters. The half-story contains an extended dormer of low profile containing four windows.
The secondary facade, which faces the water to the east, is six symmetrical bays wide and 3-1/2 stories tall. The two central bays consist of arched and balustraded recessed balconies in the third floor and semi-circular balconies with projecting balustrades in the second floor; these are flanked by loggias. The first floor (basement) contain rectangular windows divided into four sections by massive brick posts.
The north and south ends of the house are irregular, with varied fenestration including single-arched, twelve-over-twelve, six-over-six and Palladian windows.
Carriage House, c.1893. (Contributing)
The Reverie Cove Carriage House sits on a low brick pillar foundation and has a low pitched hipped roof with composition shingles. The main portion of the building is roughly square in shape with a shorter and narrower wing attached to the north elevation. The building is clad with flushboard siding, and the broadly overhanging roof is supported with brackets. A brick chimney rises through the eastern plane of the roof and hip roof dormers are located on the western and southern elevations of the roof. The western dormer contains a pair of eight-over-eight sash windows while the south dormer has a pair of smaller fixed windows.
A gravel driveway leads from Harbor Lane to two overhead garage doors on the west elevation. The south wall of the building is divided into three blind arches. A horizontal shelf supported on brackets spans the width of each arch and above this are stable windows, now covered with boarding. Originally designed, if not built, as a carriage house for three carriages and stable for six horses, the building interior has been converted completely from stable to garage, while retaining the wooden floor. The hayloft on the upper floor was converted to a small apartment and the downstairs converted to an automobile garage by 1916.
3. Anchorhold. 9 Harbor Lane. Two contributing buildings. Formerly known as Elwood, Anchorage
Anchorhold occupies a wedge shaped lot of land, measuring .85 acres, at the northeast corner of Harbor Lane. The side boundaries of the property are defined by cut granite walls topped with vertically-set stones. Two stone pillars mark the entrance from the road to the circular driveway. The main house is located at the northeast corner of the lot and the long axis of the house runs northwest to southeast, paralleling the shoreline. The garage is located about 30 feet off the southeast end of the house and a white picket fence stretches between the two buildings. Foundation plantings and manicured hedges are planted immediately in front of the house; the remainder of the level property is mostly dedicated to lawn.
Main House. 1885, remodeled 1893. (Contributing) Rotch and Tilden, original architects; Fred L. Savage, architect for remodeling.
Anchorhold is a two-and-one-half story frame building that features Colonial Revival details and Shingle style massing. It sits on a rusticated granite block foundation and is sided with clapboards on the first floor and shingles on the second floor. The broad, compound roof is covered with asphalt shingles and interrupted by three brick chimneys and several low-pitched hip dormers. As viewed from the southern elevation the long ridge of the roof parallels the shore, and is intersected on the west end by a broad cross gable. On the north side of the house a one-and-one-half story gambrel roof wing with shed dormers is attached to the center of the house. A wraparound porch with a circular room at the corner is attached to portions of the west and north elevations. The main section of the building is approximately 88 feet long by 36 feet wide (including the porch) and the 24 foot wide wing extends approximately 22 feet toward the water.
The primary facade is divided into two sections. At the west end of the house are six irregular bays unified under the cross-gable roof. At the center is a hip roof entry porch flanked on the west by two six-over-six sash and on the east by a bay window and a pair of narrow, joined four-over-four sash. Directly above the entry is a modified Palladian window topped by a broken scroll pediment. On either side of this unit are delicate ocular windows, and a third is located at the west end of the wall. Directly under the gable are a trio of small nine-light sash. It is worth noting that the western flank of this gable roof does not have a consistent pitch from ridge to eave. The lower third of the roof is at a slightly lower pitch than the upper portion, or the western side. The eastern half of the house contains four twelve-over-twelve sash on the first floor (the westernmost pair share a frame), above which are two sets of windows each featuring a pair of fixed nine-light sash separated by a wooden spacer, and an adjacent nine-over-nine sash. All the upper floor windows are positioned tight to the eaves. A flared, shingled beltcourse separates the shingled upper story from the clapboard wall below, and this belt course ties into the entablature of the entry porch. Additional features include a water table and corner boards on the first floor, and a moulded cornice and cornice returns above.
Undated historic insurance photographs at the Bar Harbor Historical Society indicate that previously the western end of the building had a gambrel roof rather than a gable roof. When the roofline was changed an extra bay on both the first floor and the second floor (containing the third ocular window) was added, which altered what had been a more carefully composed symmetry on the upper levels. The photographs also indicate that the current porch was not part of the earlier design.
"Anchorage" was designed by the architectural firm of Rotch and Tilden for Miss E.H. Elwood in 1885. Within a few years it was sold to Mrs. Edith S. Randolph. In 1893 Randolph then engaged the Bar Harbor architect Fred L. Savage, who had designed neighboring Reverie Cove the same year, to alter her house. The extent of these alterations are unknown, but the above referenced photographs appear to date from the early twentieth century rather than pre-1893, and thus most likely reflect Savage's emerging adoption of (English) Colonial Revival details. After a series of owners starting in 1904, the property was renamed Anchorhold circa 1926.
Carriage House/Garage. c.1885. (Contributing)
The carriage house is positioned along the southern property line, adjacent to the boundary wall. The one and one-half story building has a steep, side-gable roof covered with asphalt shingles and a footprint of 21 by 24 feet. It sits on a concrete foundation, and has clapboard siding on the first floor and painted shingle siding above. A flared overhang and fascia board separate the two levels. The two-bay west elevation contains a fixed nine-light window and an overhead garage door. The upper gable end walls contain joined nine-over-one sash.
By 1927 the carriage house is labeled "auto" on the Sanborn Insurance map. While the ground level still functions as a garage, the upper story contains a small apartment.
4. Green Court. 8 Harbor Lane. One contributing building, one non-contributing building. Formerly known as Mainstay.
The Green Court estate is located between the north side of Harbor Lane and Frenchman's Bay. The rectangular lot is oriented north to south and the property line between Green Court and Bagatelle to the west is marked by a line of low conifers and a rough cut granite wall. At the southwest corner of the lot is the former carriage house, now remodeled into a residential structure. The main house is located at the northeast corner of the lot, adjacent to the shore. A winding gravel driveway lined with white-painted stones has a spur that accesses the former carriage house; the drive then continues north before ending in a tight circle in front of the main house. Most of the property features maintained lawn, but ornamental plantings and shrubs grace the foundations of the houses and are also sited to provide a visual barrier between the two structures. The entire property measures .91 acres.
Main House. 1883/4, moved slightly, altered and enlarged, c.1893; altered 1932. (Contributing) Rotch and Tilden, original architects, John E. Clark, contractor; Andrews, Jacques and Rantoul, architect for alterations, 1893; Duncan Candler, New York, architect for alterations, 1932.
In 1883 Walter L. Kane of New York commissioned the architectural firm of Rotch and Tilden to design a cottage, which he named "Mainstay." The grand, three story "L" shaped building is sited close to the shore. Stylistically, the building is an early example of Colonial Revival, but it also has a Tudor Revival-esque feature, namely half-timbering between some windows. Renamed Green Court circa 1893, it has a compound, asphalt roof that parallels the shore before making a right angle to the south. Both the north and south elevations of the 81 feet long east-to-west section under what is essentially a gable roof have a series of dormer units with pedimented dormers containing small paned sash windows linked by decorative, almost half-timbered panels under shed roofs. At the western end the roofline is interrupted by a two-and-one-half story front gable return. A short, one-story, hipped-roof wing then projects from the west elevation wall of the main block, and an eleven foot wide wraparound porch, partially open and partially enclosed, is attached to the western three-quarters of the north elevation. The 31 foot long ell is attached to the east end of the south elevation. Of a similar height overall, the ell has a hipped roof above the second story upon which sits the slightly recessed third story, which is capped with a short, steep, almost Mansard-style roof, (itself broken by pedimented dormers) that yields to a flat roof over the center of the ell. The building sits on a stone foundation and is covered with wooden clapboards. A wide flared, beltcourse separates the first and second floors on the south, west and east walls, and narrow pilasters mark all the hard corners. Of the three parged chimneys, each topped with (modern) clay chimney pots, two are located on the longer main block and one is located in the ell.
The south elevation has a very irregular fenestration. The main entrance is marked by a pedimented portico supported on Doric columns. West of this on the first floor are two pairs of twelve-over-twelve wooden sash windows but to the east of the entry the wall is unbroken save for two twelve-over-twelve sash in the corner next to the ell. The second level on this elevation has a matching sash window under the gable; a third, smaller version is located under the peak. Stretching to the east are a pair of large window units, each comprised of a trio of twelve-over-nine sash windows unified under a large fan window. Between these units are half-height wooden bays with half timbering. On the outside of the large window units are a pair of small six-over-six sash. In the junction between this wall and the west side of the ell is a hanging, three bay, bow window with narrow, vertically oriented eight-light fixed sash.
The west wall of the ell contains a blind loggia with half-story engaged Doric columns positioned under the belt course. Above this, the wall on the second floor has a wide Palladian window. The third story contains a variety of small-paned sash set in common frames with half timbered decoration, and a pair of casement sash set under the pedimented dormer. The south wall of the ell has a door and a twelve-over-twelve sash on the first floor, nothing on the second floor, and a tall pedimented dormer on the third level. The west elevation of the one story wing on the house has no windows or doors.
The composition of the north elevation is very complex. Projecting in front of the western three quarters of the main mass is a four bay porch unit topped with a delicate balustrade. Each bay is articulated by a pair of Doric columns. The easternmost bay has a multi-paned glass wall which wraps to the south side of the house. Behind this, on the main wall of the house, is an exterior brick and granite fireplace of unknown vintage. The middle two bays are open, and on the main wall of the house are a pair of wooden doors with sidelights, and one twelve-over twelve double-hung window. The western bay of the porch unit consists of a six-facet bay window engaged under the porch roof. Adjacent to this is another matching window, which is topped by a continuation of the balustrade, but is visually distinct from the porch. Each bay window contains three sets of large, twelve-pane windows separated by pairs of half-story columns, under which the exterior walls are clapboarded, West of the second bay window the wall takes a short jog to the south, and each section of wall contains another set of sash windows.
On the second level, the easternmost bay is an open deck above the glassed in room; and the exterior chimney rises along the east wall of the main house. Over the next two bays of the porch are two twelve-over-twelve sash, and over the last bay of the porch is a smaller, three sided bay window with a plate glass window in the center and twelve-over-twelve windows on the sides. This bay window is flanked on the main wall by two more window bays, the westernmost of which is now devoid of its nine-over-nine sash. Over the easternmost of the large first floor faceted bays is a glass and wood door that leads to the roof deck. The final second story bay is marked by a narrow engaged porch with another door and pair of nine-over-nine windows. The porch supports at the front of this bay are square rather than round, and stretch from the beltcourse to the upper cornice.
Green Court has undergone at least two episodes of remodeling, both within the period of significance. The first major work was in 1893, during which the house was moved slightly. The following newspaper article, from the Bar Harbor Record, describes the alterations as designed by Andrews, Jacques and Rantoul, under the local supervision of Fred L. Savage: "It will be remembered that last year Miss Charlotte Pendleton bought the Kane cottage on Prospect Avenue. This past winter she has had very extensive alterations and improvements made in it until it is almost a new cottage. Andrews, Jacques & Rantoul were the architects and the work was done by Contractor Savage. The house is colonial in style and presents a very pretty appearance. The main entrance is to a staircase hall and from that are the parlors and dining room. The hall and dining room are wainscoted in a very charming manner. On the second floor are six chambers and two bath rooms, while on the third floor are servants rooms, rooms for storage, etc... A new stable is to be built in connection with the house at once. (June 1, 1893.)"
Undated, but early-20th century historic photographs in the possession of the Bar Harbor Historical Society depict the property after the 1893 remodeling. Several Colonial Revival features from that era that no longer exists: the main entrance on the south elevation had a semi-circular portico topped with a balustrade; a faceted porch, matching the large bays on the back, was attached to the west end of the house; the second floor window under the gable was topped with a decorative, scrolled pediment panel. In addition, the masonry tops of the chimneys had decorative corbelling but no chimney pots (although the half-timbering was extant).
Further alterations, made in 1932, resulted in the property as it exists today. The Bar Harbor Historical Society also has in its collections a letter from the owner of Green Court in 1984, Bruce H. French, which neatly summarizes both the history and many of the physical alterations to this property:
"'Greencourt' at the end of Harbor Lane was built one hundred years ago in 1884 (sic) by Mr. & Mrs. Walter L. Kane. The cottage was known briefly as "Mainstay" and was designed by Rotch and Tilden. A reference to the construction in the local paper indicated that its cost might be as much as $5,000.00. It is believed that the cottage was then much as it is now except for the very substantial alterations made in 1932 under the direction of Duncan Candler, New York architect.
On November 3, 1892, the Kanes sold the property to Charlotte Pendleton, a member of a Cincinnati family which owned adjacent property. From that time, it has been known as 'Greencourt.' Around the turn of the century, a private dock was built at the end of a ten foot wide path to the shore which is bounded by stone walls on the end near the water. The dock was maintained and rebuilt after winter storm damage but due to recurrent problems was removed with only some of the stone at low tide indicating its location...
Charlotte Pendleton died testate November 20, 1921. "Greencourt," as a part of her residuary estate, passed to a grandnephew and grandniece...Cornelia Pendleton Mayo and Arvid Marcy Pendleton, the niece and nephew, conveyed "Greencourt" on October 1923 to Elizabeth Blakistan Foard Ellison. Mr. & Mrs. H. Howard Ellison of Philadelphia retained the house unchanged until conveyance on October 4, 1930 to Zelina Keyser Clark... Mrs. D. Crawford Clark did extensive remodeling of "Greencourt" in 1931 at a reported cost of $30,000. An addition was built to the living room doubling its size and including a chimney for fireplaces in the living room, outside enclosed porch on the water side and one of the upstairs bedrooms. The main hall and dining room and study have had extensive alteration including new paneling throughout. Two additional bathrooms were installed in the cottage itself. One of the porches on the main cottage has been remodeled while the porch on the waterside has been glassed in and an entirely new front entrance has been constructed. The garage has been almost entirely rebuilt — a new cement foundation and living quarters provided on the second floor...[After Zelina Keyser Clark died in 1944 title passed to her daughter Zelina Clark Blagden who then conveyed the property to William Seward Webb and Gertrude Gaynor Webb of New York. The Webbs sold it to French in 1955.] After 1969...extensive renovations were made to the garage apartment with fireplaces, central heating, deck, bathrooms etc. being installed. (Mr. Bruce H. French to Miss Heidi Dexter, March 6, 1984.)"
Former Carriage House, 1893. Andrews, Jacques and Rantoul. (Non-contributing)
The former Green Court carriage house is a two-and-one-half story frame structure covered with wood shingle siding. The compound roof has asphalt shingles, and the structure sits on a concrete foundation. The building footprint is roughly rectangular and the broad gable roof has a ridge that runs east to west, and contains wide, shed dormers on the north and south, and a single chimney at the ridge. A hipped roof hood supported on decorative brackets projects from the top of the east gable wall and elongates the ridge slightly. The main entrance to the building is located on the east elevation, and contains a door and three eight-over-eight sash windows on the first floor and a pair of windows on the second floor. Over these windows the roofline is truncated flat to create a deck crowned with a balustrade. The north elevation has an overhead garage door and one window bay on the first floor, and the dormer contains two sets of sliding glass doors leading to a second floor deck. The south elevation has a row of six twelve-light sash on the first floor and a trio of double hung windows on the second floor. On this side of the building it appears that the south wall and roofline were extended to the south.
This structure was designed by the firm Andrews, Jacques and Rantoul and built as a Shingle style stable in 1893. Extensive remodelings in 1932 and c.1969 have severely obscured the building's original function and architectural features, and severely altered its integrity of design, materials, and workmanship. As a result, it is considered to be a non-contributing resource within the Harbor Lane-Eden Street Historic District.
5. Bagatelle. 75 Eden Street. Three contributing buildings; one non-contributing building.
One of the earliest estates in the neighborhood, the land now associated with Bagatelle runs continuously from Frenchman's Bay to Eden Street. The width of the lot varies slightly, but never measures much more than 150 feet across. All of the buildings are lined up along the northeast edge of the property (some are on the eastern lot line), and an old road, Bagatelle Avenue, runs along the western boundary of the property and serves as a secondary driveway. The entrance from Eden Street onto Bagatelle Avenue is marked by flanking piers of rough-hewn granite blocks with granite caps. A length of similarly constructed wall extends from these piers to piers located at the property lines of adjacent driveways The primary access to the property is via Harbor Lane, which terminates between the Bagatelle Carriage House and the new garage. (Harbor Lane informally connected through to Bagatelle Avenue, but this linkage has been discontinued in practice.) A stone wall of rough-hewn pinkish granite topped with gray granite slabs extends between the main house and the guest house. A small courtyard in front of the guest house is accessed by passing through a stone arch at the upper end of the wall. Two stone piers, with stone arms and wooden gates, are positioned between the guest house and the stable, enclosing space between these buildings. Additional lengths of wall stretch between the eastern corners of the three buildings and mark the property line. Granite slab steps set between low granite-block piers are positioned at the apex of the circular driveway and descend to a path to the front door. The southern two-thirds of the lot is wooded, but the northern portion in the vicinity of the buildings features a lawn and gardens.
Prior to the 1947 fire, two sets of buildings were located on the southern two-thirds of the property. The Barnacles, a two-and-a half story Queen Anne style house with a tower and several porches, was designed by J.E. Clark and built for the Pendleton family in 1885-86 at the corner of Bagatelle Avenue and Eden Street. By 1940 the northern half of this lot was subdivided and a small house and shed, owned by Alice B. Kelley and labeled "Orchard Cottage," appears on the Sanborn maps. Both the Barnacles and Orchard Cottage were destroyed in the fire, and subsequently the land has been reintegrated into one lot containing 2.74 acres.
Main House, 1883. (Contributing) Additions 1887, 1889. Rotch and Tilden, architects. John E. Clark, architect for additions.
The firm of Rotch and Tilden are responsible for designing the cottage Bagatelle for the Edmund Pendleton family. The main house, along with the guest house and garage, is a combination of the Queen Anne and Shingle style, and while not small, its scale and massing render the term "cottage" somewhat more apt in comparison to some of the neighboring properties. The structure is best understood as containing three basic segments: a front block measuring roughly 40 feet long by 28 feet wide; a north-to-south gable roof section attached to the south measuring 36 wide by 28 feet in length; and an offset mass 31 feet long by 25 feet wide attached to the southeast corner of the middle section and also featuring a gable roof with the ridge oriented north to south. Yet the multitude of porches, dormers, towers, projecting bay windows and varied and intersecting secondary rooflines serve to visually reduce the overall scale of the building while at the same time adding to the building's complexity. In plan, these three sections and their attendant additions and projections ascend the slope to the south. At the same time, the irregularity of the additions and rooflines gives the appearance that the building shifts to the east, although in reality only the southernmost portion is actually offset in that direction. The building has three brick chimneys, one in each section, that pierce the asphalt roof. A third, external chimney executed in stone rises against the south elevation of the middle section of the house. The often high, and very visible foundation is formed of rusticated stone blocks. The walls are covered with blue shingles. Trim elements, including Cornices, porch supports and window and door frames, are painted in white.
On the north, or coastal, side of the building is an engaged porch with turned wooden supports that wrap around the east elevation for a short distance. Two French doors and a window bay are positioned against the rear wall of the porch. Above the porch are five unequal bays: the easternmost is occupied by an octagonal porch with a faceted roof, and the remaining bays alternate between projecting gable dormers and recessed shed dormers each filled with paired casement windows. The second floor windows, which contain large center panes surrounded by small panes on the outside, appear to be replacement units.
The primary elevation faces west and features the formal entrance. Viewed from this side, the west plane of the gable roof continues over the front porch, but the east plane terminates at the second story and ties into the eaves of the building's middle section. The main entrance is located in a short, gable-roof projection attached to the south corner of the front section. The design of this projection mimics the front section of the house: it has an asymmetrical gable roof that is supported on turned columns on the high foundation. Three taller, turned posts lead to trim boards that form broadly arching bays on the west and south sides. These bays, along with smaller bays under the lower portions of the roof have been filled in with vertical boarding. (As designed, the arched bays were left open and the remaining walls shingled.) A glass and wood door is set under the western arch, and the other facades have fixed, six-light windows. Above the door is a curved, shingled hood.
The plane of the exterior wall flares substantially between the first and second floor. Under the soffit are wooden brackets, and under this is a three-sided cantilevered window containing fixed sash with Queen Anne style colored squares in the outer panes. Two additional cantilevered three-sided windows, with intersecting tracery in the upper sash, are located on the second floor, and both of them terminate into a slightly projecting false soffit that curves around the top of the windows. The sills under these windows are exaggerated in width and are supported by polygonal panels. At attic level is a shorter example of the tripartite cantilevered window with curving hood. The panel under this window is ornamented with carved and gilded fish and shells.
The west elevation of the middle section features a three-bay, stepped, rectilinear projection capped with a shed roof that intersects, at various elevations, the side walls of the second floor. The outer bays of this unit are filled with a single window and the middle section has a trio of sash. Each of these unusual windows has an awning sash with Queen Anne style tracery in the outer panes, over either one or two lower sash with small side panes. Above the middle bay is a five-sided tower containing sash windows in three bays. These windows feature two large panes located below a central pane surrounded by small outside panes. The faceted roof of the tower blends into the main roof below the ridge. On the narrow section of the wall south of the tower are a pair of square, fixed sash. Rounding the corner, the external chimney stack is located on the middle section of the south wall. West of the stack are paired casement windows on the first floor. East of the stack are three sets of paired windows, two on the second floor and one below. Attached to the eastern corner of this section and the northwest corner of the back section is another gable roof entry porch. Applied to the tympanum of this unit is a wooden scroll and finial pediment.
In addition to the south entry, a short hyphen connects the back and middle sections of the house. On the west elevation of this mass are a pair of joined, oversized M-shaped dormers with curving shingled gables that act as hoods over paired, recessed casement windows. A wooden balustrade is set in front of the windows to function as a balcony railing. Under this a pent roof separates the first and second floors. Between the high foundation and the roof are a line of multi-paned windows with fixed sash. The prominent foundation continues along the south gable end of the building, which also contains six one-over-one windows of various sizes positioned in groups of two.
The east elevation of the main house at Bagatelle is marked by a series of structural units. As mentioned above at the northeast corner of the house the porch wraps around under the octagonal second story porch. South of this is a narrow, two-story projection with a Queen Anne style sash window on the second floor and four joined eight-over-eight wooden windows on the first floor. The plane of the wall briefly returns to that of the main mass before again expanding into a broad, rounded, two-story tower with a very low-pitched roof. The wall above the tower has two fixed nine-light sash, and the upper gable is decorated with fish-scale shingles. On the first floor the tower is strung with a band of casement-and-transom window units featuring a lace tracery. The three second floor windows are yet another variation of Queen Anne style tracery windows. The cornice at the eave line and a flared, shingled cornice between the floors are ornamented with narrow brackets. South of the tower the north-to-south ridge of the middle section of the house is intersected by a short east-to-west ridge. A section of the sidewall under the gable ridge emerges with a secondary, asymmetrical gable, and is cantilevered on a line of wooden brackets. A pair of diamond-paned casement windows are set under this secondary gable, and a matching pair of windows is located in the wall of the hyphen that connects to the back portion of the house. (Foliage obscures the first floor fenestration.) In contrast to the rest of the building, the east wall of the last portion of the house is rather straight forward and contains five single pane casement windows on the first floor and a single, one-light fixed window on the second floor.
Based on news articles in the local papers additions were made to Bagatelle shortly after it was built — first by an unknown architect in 1887 and again two years later by John E. Clark (although it is likely that Clark did both sets of alterations). The collections of the Maine Historic Preservation Commission include two early, but undated photographs of the house. The earlier of the two depicts the west and south elevations of the front block of the house, with only a narrow, one-story ell located on the east half of the south elevation. The west entryway was a covered porch with wooden side railings with turned balusters. In the second photograph, again oriented towards the west elevation, the ell has been expanded in width (across the entire south elevation of the main block) and raised to a full two stories. The balustrade in the west entryway have been replaced with a stone wall that matches the high foundation under the new ell. Also, the small paned double-hung sash shown in the first picture have been replaced with Queen Anne style sash toward the front of the building and with diamond pane casement windows over the entryway. (As shown in another photograph, in the collections of the Bar Harbor Historical Society, these were subsequently replaced with the current cantilevered bay windows during the first decades of the 20th century.) The second photograph appears to have been the basis for a rendering of the west facade published in The Engineering and Building Record on October 11, 1890. Neither the photograph nor the illustration depicts the southernmost portion of the building. Both the 1887 Colby and Stuart Atlas and the 1894 Stuart Atlas show only an "L" shaped structure at Bagatelle and no other outbuildings. By the time the 1904 Summer Residents Association map was published the main building had obtained its current plan (minus the corner octagonal porch), and both the guest house and stable had been built.
Guest House, (by 1904). (Contributing) Rotch and Tilden, architects.
The guest house is a small, two-story structure with an asymmetrical front gable roof and a distinct second story overhang on the north elevation. The building measures approximately fifteen feet by twenty-eight feet including the overhang. Clad with shingles on the north, east and south side, the building sits on a stone foundation and faces north. The west elevation is covered with rough cast. A wood cornice divides the two floors on all sides of the building. The west plane of the roof is longer than the east plane, and as a result the side wall on the west elevation is correspondingly shorter.
Fenestration on this building is relatively straightforward. The two bay facade contains a glass and wood door, a two-over-two double hung window and a square picture window, both on the first floor, and another two-over-two window in the overhang. A matching window is centered under the south gable, below which is a glass and wood door. The east elevation contains no windows, doors, or ornamentation.
A wide center bay on the west wall projects forward very slightly on the first floor level. A pair of fixed, multi-light windows with tracery lights in the top row is positioned at the center of this bay. Directly above is a steep, A-shaped wall dormer with rake that extends below the eaves of the main roof. A pair of diamond pane windows in a shared frame stretch across the base of the dormer. The sill of the window unit is supported by a row of angled wooden brackets extending to the side wall. (The plane of the dormer wall is positioned approximately one foot west of the remainder of the side wall.)
Carriage House, (by 1904). (Contributing) Rotch and Tilden, architects.
The Queen Anne style carriage house at Bagatelle is likely one of the most complex and elaborate wood frame functional structures erected in Bar Harbor by nineteenth-century cottage owners. The one-and-one half story wood frame building is located just north of the terminus of Harbor Lane and just south of the guest house. Like the latter, the east wall is positioned along the property line. The building faces west toward the driveway and has a concrete foundation and compound asphalt shingle roof. The shingles and trim elements are painted to match the main house.
The gross dimensions of the carriage house measure approximately 66 feet from north to south, and approximately 28 feet in width. The long mass of the building has an irregular gable roof that is intersected near the middle of the western elevation by a cross gable section that projects to the west. While the southern half of the main roof has a fairly uniform, steep, side gable roof — with planes that match in pitch, length and angle — north of the cross gable the roof line is more complex. In fact, the line of the ridge, north of the gable, jogs to the east. At this point the roof form switches from gable to hip. The pitch of the east and west planes of the hip are flattened, and their length shortened; in contrast the north plane of the hip is more than twice as long. This arrangement results in the east and west sidewalls under the hip section of the roof attaining an extra half-story in height.
The southern section of the building contains a single diamond pane casement window on the west wall. Two decorative features are located on the south gable wall. Under the peak is a projecting bay with a classically moulded cantilevered base, shingled side walls, and a hood supported by turned columns. The square wooden door has two panels and a horizontally oriented diamond pane, fixed sash. This was the hay door for the stable. Below this unit the shingled wall flares out to form a bracketed hood under which is located a wide window unit consisting of two small square, wooden hinged doors separated and flanked by vertically oriented diamond pane casement windows. It appears that these doors opened directly into the horse stalls.
On the first floor of the west elevation of the northern section of the carriage house are two fixed nine-light sash, set in a joined frame decorated with turned, engaged balusters (mimicking the porch supports on the main house). Two dormer units intersect the hip roof. The northern example has a front gable roof with swallow openings cut through the pediment, and a semi-circular multi-pane fixed sash set into a wooden frame carved with sunburst spandrels. To the south, the second dormer has a shed roof, and contains an off-set, fixed eight-light sash. The north wall at this end of the carriage house is unbroken, and the east wall contains only a few double hung sash.
The cross gable section of the carriage house dominates the west facade. The gable roof of this unit changes pitch twice on its south flank and three times on the north flank. At the first transition on the north flank is a north facing eye-brow window containing a fan-light. The second transition leads to a flat roof which covers a garage bay with an overhead garage door. In the northwest corner between the garage bay and the west wall of the carriage house is a faceted oriel window with diamond pane sash. On the south side of the cross gable the lower pitch of the roof extends over a two bay wall section (which balances the garage bay) and contains a five-panel pedestrian door and small diamond pane casement light.
At the center of the cross gable projection, under the steepest portion of the roof, the one-bay wide western wall is stepped out from the side bays. On the first floor this bay contains a broad, cantilevered window. Each of the four window units (one on each side and two in the front) contain diamond pane casement sash. To either side of this unit turned, wooden braces support a half story which forms a protective ceiling over the cantilevered window even while extending another foot farther west. A two-over-two double hung sash is centered on this half-story wall, right under the gable peak. The ridge over the window terminates in a projecting, conical hood.
Garage By 2002. (Non-contributing)
Located along the south side of Harbor Lane, near the intersection with Bagatelle Avenue is a new, gable roofed three-bay, six-car garage with clapboard siding, an asphalt roof and concrete foundation. Built no more than ten years ago, this building does not contribute to the historical significance of the district.
6. Villa Mary. 77 Eden Street. (One contributing building, one non-contributing building)
Villa Mary occupies a wide swath of land that runs between Frenchman's Bay and Eden Street and is comprised of two lots. The bulk of the Villa Mary house lot, which measures 4.97 acres is on the coast, but a thin segment stretches to Eden Street. East of this segment is a 1.57 acre parcel (now in the same ownership as the coastal lot) that fronts on Eden Street. Prior to the 1947 fire this portion of the property contained two summer estates: Bowling Green, (1889), originally owned by Enid Hunt and designed by Goddard and Hunt, Boston architects; and Clovercroft, originally a Queen Anne style cottage designed by the Bar Harbor architect George Rich in 1879 for Mr. Lewis L. Day, with later Colonial Revival and alterations designed by Rotch and Tilden and J.E. Clark for the George Place family. The current house and garage are accessed by a long driveway that bisects the property from east to west and terminates in a tear-drop shaped driveway on the south side of the house. Low stone pillars mark the entrance to the driveway on Eden Street. Today the land between the circular driveway and Eden Street is characterized by a thin forest of mixed hardwoods and conifers. The only visible remains associated with the former Eden Street estate are the granite base of the Bowling Green porte-cochere.
Main House. 1879/80; remodeled c.1925. (Contributing) Bruce Price, original architect; Arthur McFarland, architect for remodeling.
Built initially in 1880 to designs drawn by the New York City architect Bruce Price, Villa Mary was the first building in the Harbor Lane-Eden Street Historic District to be built. It was originally executed as a two-and-a-half story, hip roof Queen Anne style cottage with an open, wraparound porch, a dramatic corner stair, and a corner tower with a jerkinhead roof. In c.1925 the building was thoroughly remodeled in a loosely interpreted Georgian/Federal era Colonial Revival style by the Bar Harbor architect Arthur McFarland who removed most of the porches, altered the fenestration and decoration and attached a two-story service wing to the east side of the house. The building has two primary facades; the south facade faces a circular driveway and broad, flat lawn, while the north facade rises high above another lawn that slopes down towards Frenchman's Bay. A tall, dense arborvitae hedge extends from the west side of the house to the western boundary of the property and separates the two front and back landscapes. On the east side of the building a stone retaining wall of rough-cut granite blocks curves around the service wing.
Villa Mary sits on a concrete foundation, has clapboard siding and a hipped asphalt roof punctuated by dormers and a pair of brick chimneys. The roughly rectangular footprint is modified by a three-sided tower on the northwest corner, a two story wing and side porch on the southeast corner (the wing projects slightly forward of the south facade), and an open deck partially covered by a gabled porch with flushboard siding along the north elevation. Due to the prevailing grade the base of the deck is concealed by tall wooden latticework cloaked almost entirely by an arborvitae hedge. While not symmetrically composed, both the south and north facades are conservatively balanced. The entrance bay on the south facade features a fanlight, full-length side lights, and a balustraded entrance porch with paired Roman Doric columns. The remaining six bays contain either six-over-one double-hung wooden sash or tall one-over-five casement windows behind shallow wrought iron balconies. All the windows are flanked by louvered shutters, and there is a slight flare to the side walls between the first and second floors.
Garage. (After 1940) (Non-contributing)
The stud-framed garage is west of the main house and faces almost due east. The building sits on a concrete foundation, has an asphalt clad front-gable roof and wood shingle siding. A concrete apron is positioned directly in front of the two overhead garage doors on the east elevation. The north and west sides each contain a single six-over-one wooden window set in a simple frame. Centered on the peak of the roof is a small cupola with louvered vents on the sides and a copper weather vane on the top. The eaves of the building feature a narrow frieze and cornice returns. The garage was built sometime after 1940, and more likely was built after the fire of 1947, which destroyed the earlier stables/auto house located at the south edge of the property in close proximity to Clovercroft and Bowling Green. Due to its relatively recent date of construction this property does not contribute to the significance of the district.
7. Witch Cliff. 83A Eden Street. (Four contributing buildings)
As with Villa Mary and Bagatelle to the east, Witch Cliff occupies a long, rectangular parcel of land that stretches from the bay to Eden Street. While both of its neighbors to the east had historically been divided into roadside and coastal properties, Witch Cliff was not. However, the current 3.73 acre parcel was formed by combining two, roughly equal, long narrow parcels of land, each with its own cottage. Prior to 1936 the western half of the parcel was associated with the Lombard Cottage, owned by Miss S.S. Lombard. The eastern half was owned by Mrs. A.F. Manning. Both the Manning and Lombard Cottages shared a long driveway that stretched to Eden Street and ended in a tear-drop shaped turnabout. The name Witch Cliff was historically given to Manning's property, which along with Lombard Cottage and Villa Mary were the three Queen Anne style cottages designed by Bruce Price in 1879, and the earliest cottages along the shore northwest of Eddie Brook. Lombard Cottage was disassembled circa 1927, and by 1936 that lot had been purchased by Elsie B. Ellison, who also owned Witch Cliff. The former Manning cottage was then razed and the current buildings, designed by the Bar Harbor architect Arthur MacFarland, were built shortly thereafter. Today the property retains most of the long driveway that terminates in the turnabout. The main house is positioned between the turnabout and the coast, a guest cottage is on the east side of the turnabout, and a garage and shed are on the west side. At the south end of the property, close to Eden Street, is a smaller, two story cottage that was either a rental property or housed a caretaker. Most of the land south of the turnabout and cluster of buildings is forested, and the sloping land between the main house and the coast is fairly overgrown with shrubs and small trees. Witch Cliff was unscathed in the fire of 1947. The property was acquired by the College of the Atlantic circa 2002.
Main House. 1936. (Contributing) Arthur McFarland, architect, A.B. and J.R. Hodgkins, contractors.
In 1936 Mrs. H. Howard Ellison commissioned the well-known Bar Harbor architect Arthur McFarland to design for her a set of buildings to replace the 1879 cottage known as Witch Cliff, which had been torn down the year before. In contrast to the earlier Queen Anne style building, the new cottage, also known as Witch Cliff, reflects a finely executed example of (English) Colonial Revival architecture. The main house is located at the north end of the driveway and faces south. The building consists of a 32 feet by 24 feet side gable, one-and-one-half story cape, with a one-story enclosed sun room attached to the east elevation. A side-gable wing also extends eighteen feet from the west side of the cape. The wing connects to another large mass, which is essentially another 30 by 24 feet side-gable, one-and-one-half story cape. This second cape faces west, and thus the gable ends face north and south. A small ten by eleven foot room with a gable roof is attached to the northeast corner of the western cape. All of the roofs are covered with asphalt shingles, and the height of the sun room and the wing roofs are slightly lower than those of the capes. A brick chimney is located at the center of the ridge on the western cape and another spans the ridge at the eastern edge of the main cape. With the exception of the small room on the north side of the western cape the building sits on a concrete foundation. Clapboards are the primary wall cladding, but wood shingles are used on the side walls of the dormers and flushboard siding is used on the south elevation of the wing.
Each portion of the facade, except the sun room wing, contains three almost equally spaced bays. On the main cape these include a central door flanked by six-over-six double-hung wooden windows on the first floor and three corresponding gable roof dormers with smaller six-over-six windows above. The six-panel front door is set under a wooden fan and flanked by full-length side lights. In front of the door is an entry porch with an elliptical roof latticework side walls and posts at the corners. A three-bay engaged arcade is positioned under the roof of the wing and there are three six-over-six windows on the wall behind the arcade. The broadly arched arcade is supported on square posts with minimal base plinths. Another dormer window is positioned over the middle bay. The south gable wall of the western cape contains three six-over-six windows on the first floor and one located directly under the gable peak. At the center of the sun room wing wall is another six-over-six window. All the windows are trimmed with bed moulding, and narrow corner boards mark the edges of the building.
The western cape features a secondary entrance on the west elevation. This four-bay wall is not symmetrically composed and contains a glass and wood door and a six-over-six double-hung wooden window under a flat-roof porch with latticework posts. A second six-over-six window is positioned south of the porch and another small example is located north of the porch. A fifteen-light sash is centered on the west wall of the small attached room to the north.
The east and north elevations of the sun room both feature window and/or door units trimmed with stylized Palladian frames with broad keystone arches and pilasters separating the bays. On the east wall this unit contains a pair of one-over-one double hung windows flanked by ten light side lights. A pair of French doors is located within the frame on the north elevation. The remainder of the back of the house contains a variety of original six-over-six windows and replacement, plate glass windows. There are three shed dormers on the north side of the building: a one-bay dormer over the sun room, a four-bay dormer over the main cape, and a one bay dormer with a three-sash window over the western wing.
Guest House. Circa 1936. (Contributing) Arthur McFarland, architect.
The Colonial Revival guest house at Witch Cliff is located on the east side of the circular driveway and faces west under a side gable roof. Essentially a cape in form, the one story building has a rectangular footprint of approximately 43 feet long by 18 feet wide, which includes a slightly recessed small wing containing an enclosed sun porch on the north side. There is also a small, square bump-out under a flat roof attached to the wing and extending an additional five feet to the east. The main section of the building has a low concrete foundation and an asphalt roof with a small hipped roof wooden cupola centered on the ridge. The siding on the main section of the house is clapboard, while the north side of the wing has flushboard siding, and the bump-out has wooden shingles. Narrow rake, frieze boards, subtle water table, and corner boards comprise the remaining trim.
The symmetrically composed three-bay west elevation has a six panel door (and six-segment screen door) at the center flanked on each side by large six-over-six double hung windows with louvered shutters. The windows are positioned close to the eaves. Standing in front of the bed-moulded door frame is a broadly arched wooden trellis.
At the north end of the building is the roughly square wing. The entire west elevation and more than half of the north elevation are dedicated to an enclosed sun porch. The wall of the west elevation features a pair of fifteen-light French doors flanked by five-light side lights. Pilasters separate the glass units and support a broader frieze under the eaves. A matching set of doors and lights are positioned in the western portion of the north wall, next to which is a six-over-six double-hung window. In contrast to the rest of the building the wing is set on wooden foundation posts. The south elevation contains two more six-over-six windows with shutters. On the east side of the house there are two shorter six-over-six sash, one on the main section of the house and one on the bump-out.
Garage. Circa 1936. (Contributing) Arthur McFarland, architect, A.B. and J.R. Hodgkins, contractors.
Opposite the Guest House is the estate's three-bay Colonial Revival style garage. This L-shaped frame structure is set on a low concrete foundation and has clapboard sided walls and an asphalt covered roof. The long axis of the roof runs north to south, and a short, one-bay wing extends off the west corner of the north end wall. The east elevation of the building has three sets of two-leaf hinged garage doors hung on strap hinges. The doors are all recessed several feet behind the front edge of the roof and diamond-pattern latticework extends from the outside corners of the recessed walls to posts supporting the corners of the roof overhang. Each of the doors are made of vertical boarding and the outer corners of each door are cut at an angle to mimic arched carriage doors. There is a six-over-six wooden double-hung sash centered on the east and west walls of the wing, two more located on the south elevation of the building and three are distributed evenly across the west wall of the main mass. The north gable end of the wing contains a wood and glass door. Narrow corner boards and narrow rake trim complete the building's subtle ornamentation.
Ellison Cottage. By 1940. (Contributing) 83B Eden Street.
This small two-story house on Eden Street at the (former) base of the Witch Cliff driveway is now referred to as the Witch Cliff Apartments by the College of the Atlantic. Essentially a vernacular structure, the cottage exhibits early 20th century stylistic details including exposed rafter tails and small pane windows, occasionally grouped together. The structure measures thirty-six by twenty feet under a hipped, asphalt roof. The ridge of the roof runs east to west, and has several small skylights on the south and north planes and a chimney near the south exterior wall. The building is clad with clapboards and has a low fieldstone foundation. A wood framed, shed-roof entry porch is affixed to the south end of the east wall.
Each of the four sides of the building contains an exterior door and it is not possible to describe any of them as the primary facade. The west elevation contains a replacement door flanked by louvered shutters on the first floor above which are a trio of double-hung windows comprised of an upper sash of thirty small panes over a lower sash of four larger panes. The north elevation is three bays wide. On the first floor is an exterior door and both single and double examples of the thirty-over-four windows, while the second floor contains three more single windows. On the east elevation is another door (behind the porch) and in the northern half of the wall two paired windows on each floor. The south elevation features a mixture of paired and single windows on the second floor, and a replacement door on the first floor. With the exception of the paired first floor windows on the east wall and the door on the north wall, each of the windows and doors are flanked by louvered shutters. This building currently contains two apartments; whether that arrangement reflects its historical function is unknown.
This cottage first appears on historic maps of the district in 1940, but even though town records provide its date of construction as 1915 it was not depicted on the 1927 map. Its modest appearance and size suggest that it was constructed either as a year-round rental, or as lodging for employees or caretakers at Witch Cliff.
8. Acadia Cottage. Eden Street. (One contributing building; one non-contributing building)
Acadia Cottage occupies a 1.55 acre parcel of land bounded by Frenchman's Bay on the north, Acadia Lane on the west, Witch Cliff on the east, and two narrower lots that front on Eden Street to the south. The property is currently accessed by a long driveway that heads south from a circular turnabout in front of the house towards Eden Street, but historically access was gained from Acadia Lane to the west. Southeast of the house is the non-contributing, modern-era garage. The house is set back from the shore by over 250 feet, much of which has been planted as lawn. In contrast, the south and west sides of the house feature woods filled with cedar, birch and pine. None of this property was burned in 1947. It was acquired by the College of the Atlantic in 1998.
Main House. 1887. (Contributing) DeGrasse Fox, architect; Howard Marshall, contractor.
Acadia Cottage was designed in 1887 by DeGrasse Fox, an architect and resident of Bar Harbor and New York. It is probably the best remaining example of Shingle style architecture within the Harbor Lane-Eden Street Historic District, although the clean lines of the gambrel roof building have been compromised to some extent by the addition of porches and one oversize dormer on the east and south elevations. The two story frame cottage is covered with clapboards on the first floor and has painted wood shingles on the lower plane of the gambrel roof — which form the sloping side walls of the second floor — and on the upper floors of the end walls. A wooden cornice separates the eaves of the roof from the side walls, and a curb cornice, also executed in wood, marks the junction of the two roof planes. The foundation under the oldest portions of the building is built of rusticated granite blocks with tooled mortar joints; the newer porches have wooden posts on concrete footers. The two interior chimneys are located along the asphalt roof's ridge.
Occupying the first floor level at the north end of the cottage is a full-width porch engaged under the main roof line. The porch has square, full-height porch supports and clapboarded half-walls between these posts. Behind the porch are two widely spaced sets of glass and wood doors in which the upper portion of each door includes half a glass fanlight. The second floor of the south wall is also two bays wide and contains a pair of twenty-over-two sash windows to the west, and an engaged porch to the east. The opening for this smaller porch appears simply as a rectangular void (the upper corners of which are slightly rounded) within the shingled wall. On the west side of the building the porch opening is situated in the base of a gabled dormer. On the south wall of the porch is another two-leaf door, however in this instance the original fan-light door has been replaced. At the attic level are four sixteen-over-one windows joined within a single frame.
The principal elevation of Acadia Cottage faces west, the direction from which the building was originally approached. The facade is divided into four unequal bays. The northernmost bay is defined by the engaged first story porch. The next bay contains a pair of twenty-over-two windows. Attached to the center of this elevation is a hip roof entrance porch with square supports. On the sidewall under the porch is a three-bay window, with a grid-like pattern of tiny panes on each sash, next to which is a glass and wood door which also features a stylized fanlight of matching tiny panes. South of the entry is another pair of joined twenty-over-two double-hung windows. On the second floor are four gable wall dormers, each containing a pair of twenty-over-two windows. The deck of the entrance porch has been extended to the south. Attached to this are a new set of stairs and a long accessibility ramp, both with wooden balustrades.
As seen in historic photographs, Acadia Cottage initially had five bays across the west elevation and in the southwest corner was another, smaller engaged porch. The main entrance was centered behind a gable-roof entry porch (in roughly the same location as now), and to either side were paired twenty-over-two windows. While the components remain similar, the spacing has been altered. In historic photographs it is clear that the second story dormers were located between the first floor bays, not in line with them as is currently the case. The bays were probably redistributed when the southern engaged porch was replaced with the current pair of windows.
On the south side of the building much of the original fenestration on the upper floor levels remains. Under the gable peak three of the four sixteen-over-one windows remain; the fourth has been converted to a door that leads down a staircase to a small wooden deck perched on the roof below. On the second floor are three window bays containing two separate twenty-over-two sash and a paired set of the same. At the western corner of the first floor another pair of these windows have replaced the porch. A one-story, hip-roofed addition wraps around the remainder of this side of the building and continues on the east side, where it attaches to a two bay porch and then an open deck that has been partially dismantled. Four dormers are still extant on this side of the building, but it appears that the middle dormer might have been narrowed when a large, bi-level three-bay shed-roof dormer was wedged between the second and third bays. The date of this out-of-scale feature is unknown, but the ten-over-two sash in each bay are stylistically consistent with those found on the remainder of the building.
Garage. Late 20th century. (Non-contributing)
This is a two story, three-bay wide frame structure that contains a workshop and garage on the first floor and a finished second story which does not appear to be residential in nature. The building sits on a concrete foundation, has a side-gable asphalt roof and vinyl clapboards on the walls. Two oversize garage bays and one smaller garage bay are located on the west side of the building, towards the driveway. The upper floor features paired or single one-over-one window sash. Due to its recent construction date, this building does not contribute to the significance of the district.
One of the two lots located south of Acadia Cottage was never developed historically. This lot, which in part is depicted on the Town of Bar Harbor tax map number 101 as lot 34 was owned through the early 20th century by members of the Biddle family, who also built Acadia Cottage. Currently this portion of the historic district, along with the southern section of Witch Cliff, west of the Ellison Cottage, features the College of the Atlantic's south entrance and the start of the South Campus Drive that parallels Eden Street through the campus.
9. Acadia Landing. Acadia Lane. By 1903. (One contributing structure)
The former Acadia Landing is located at the northern terminus of Acadia Lane. It is a stone lined rectangular platform that served as a private neighborhood dock and wharf. The rectangular structure is comprised of large granite blocks that were filled with rubble and topped with a concrete deck, now badly heaved. The structure is set several feet below grade, and additional courses of granite block retain the slope. A set of granite steps provide access from grade to the deck. The dock measures approximately 25 by 15 feet. A few yards to the west of the Acadia Landing a set of narrow stone stairs descends the overgrown slope and leads to a rocky, low tide beach. An arcing granite retaining wall extends west from the wharf, and retains the lower slope north of the adjacent Sea Fox cottage.
10. Sea Fox. 1903. Eden Street. (One contributing building.) Formerly known as Edenwold. Andrews, Jacques & Rantoul, architects; A. E. Lawrence, contractor.
Sea Fox is the only extant commission within the Harbor Lane-Eden Street Historic District to have been originally built to designs by the architectural firm of Andrews, Jacques and Rantoul. Constructed in 1903, it is also the next to last of the cottages in the district to be erected. And while the lot was platted on the 1887 map, the fact that the coastal portion of the lot was not developed until the early 20th century is worth noting. Stylistically, the building combines the Shingle style with emerging Craftsman features.
Two stories in height, but with an almost 4,000 square foot footprint, Sea Fox has an asphalt roof that is predominantly hipped along its longer axes. Decorative, closely spaced rafter tails are located under the overhanging roof. Three brick chimneys rise through the roof, one in each section of the building. The foundation is of gray granite block with tooled mortar joints. While both stories are clad with wood shingles, those on the first floor are set in an unusual pattern: every other row has been doubled in thickness, thus creating a pronounced visual variation across the wall surface. The base courses of both the first and second floor shingles flare gently.
The plan of the building is irregular. Two long arms intersect at an obtuse angle, enveloping the circular driveway on the south side of the building. A long portico occupies the northern elevation of the eastern arm, but the line of this wall does not parallel that of the southern side; instead it grows to a greater width at the outer angle of the junction, almost creating a third, shorter arm. Another way to describe this is that the wall plane on the northern side of the western arm projects forward at the ends, but recesses in the middle. A small porch and deck spans this recess and connects the two wall sections.
The dominant feature when viewed from the south is a second story projecting bay with cross gable roof on the eastern arm. A secondary, hipped roof supported on massive timber brackets wraps around the three sides of the projection and forms a canopy over the entryway. Just west of this entrance is a large, fifteen-over-fifteen pane sash topped with a fanlight. A squat hip roof dormer containing elongated six-over-six light sash is located on the roof between the entry bay and the fanlight window. The remainder of the wall has an irregular fenestration pattern comprised of a variety of one-over-one, six-over-six, and nine-over nine double hung sash. The western arm has six irregularly spaced and fenestrated window bays on the first floor and four on the second floor. Both of the short side walls at the ends of the arms have shed roof covered exterior staircases, squat, hip roof dormers, and two additional bays filled with windows on the upper levels and windows or doors below.
On the northern elevation the attached portico runs almost the entire length of the elevation. At the eastern end two bays of the portico are enclosed as a sunroom. The next three bays are defined by paired rectangular columns that support decorative, carved lintels. Three sets of French doors are located on the wall behind these bays. On the second floor, over the second set of doors, is a three-bay window, and on the roof are three, closely positioned hip roof dormers. All of these elements place visual emphasis on the middle section of the elevation.
At the west end of the elevation, the portico proper is discontinued in favor of an open deck that wraps around a bay window. The top of the bay window, however, extends laterally to join with the roof of the portico to intersect the far northwestern corner of the wall. Because of the increased width of this section of the building, the sunroom/portico/deck serves to integrate yet another obtusely angled set of wall planes. To either side of the second story bay window are one-over-one sash, and in the outer bays are paired one-over-one sash. The western end wall contains three first floor window bays, two on the second floor, and a dormer on the roof.
Sea Fox was sold to the College of the Atlantic in 1976 and is used as a dormitory. Like its neighbors, the building originally sat on a long lot that stretched to Eden Street. In 2006-2008 the College erected three new, moderately scaled residence halls in the vicinity of Sea Fox and the adjacent cottage Sea Urchins (which is not included within this district due to extensive alterations). Although the proximity of these new buildings affects Sea Fox's integrity of setting and feeling, the building retains its overall integrity of location, association, design, workmanship, and materials. In addition, the view of the property from the water side remains unaltered. The boundary of the district has been drawn to exclude the adjacent buildings, but retain as much of the original estate as possible.
11. Fabian Cottage Stable. 1887. Eden Street. (One contributing building.)
In 1885-1886 John E. Clark designed a cottage for Miss R.L. Fabian and Miss Cornelia Fabian and enlarged it at least three times in the next fourteen years. The property was located on the east side of Acadia Lane, near the junction with Eden Street. The northern portion of Acadia Lane runs along the property line that currently separates Acadia Cottage and Sea Fox, but the southern half curves to the southwest before intersecting Eden Street. The Fabian Cottage was built on the section of the original long lot that was bounded on the north and west by Acadia Lane, on the south by Eden Street and on the east by the extension of the property line between Acadia and Sea Fox cottages. The two-and-a-half story Queen Anne style house featured a tower, wraparound porch and compound roof. The building survived the 1947 fire but was torn down in 1975. The College of the Atlantic acquired this property along with Acadia Cottage in 1998.
In 1887 Clark designed a stable for the Fabians. Now converted to residential/educational use, this structure retains most of the exterior plan and stylistic details. The building is located on a relatively level plot of land bounded on the north and east by South Campus Drive, Eden Street on the south, and a short section of granite wall and a stone pier that had previously lined Acadia Lane. The 24 by 47 foot long one story building is a simple example of the Shingle style, with a few eclectic features.
The Fabian Cottage Stable has an asymmetrical gable-on-hip asphalt roof with the ridge oriented north-to-south. The eastern plane of the roof is longer than that on the western side and exposed, carved rafter tails are visible on all sides. Painted wood shingles clad the walls and the building sits on a high granite block foundation with tooled mortar joints. The primary elevation faces west towards the former Acadia Lane. Off-center towards the south is a projecting pair of bays containing a small entrance room with a twelve-over-twelve double hung window and a narrow porch that fronts both the glass and wood door on the main wall of the house and a five-panel wooden door heading south into the entry room. The porch has short square supports and shingled lower walls, and both the projection and the porch are covered by an extension of the roof. To the north and south of the entrance bay are single twelve-over-eight windows with shingled and bracketed hoods. A pair of shed roof dormers, containing diamond pane awning windows, are positioned near each other above the entry bay.
The north elevation contains a short wood batten door at foundation level and two one-over-one sash on the first floor wall. A gable roof dormer containing a pair of eight-over-two windows is centered on the roof in front of the gable peak. The west elevation has three twelve-over-eight windows on the side wall and two shed dormers with diamond pane awning windows above. The south elevation is dominated by a relatively modern five-bay window. Above this, in a gable roof wall dormer is a large hatch, now covered by wood. A wooden hoisting arm is attached to the underside of the gable peak above this hatch. It is worth noting that when viewed from the south, the elongated western roof is balanced by the length and width of the projecting entry.
It is not known when this building last functioned as a stable. However it appears that the main entrance for the horse and carriage would have been through the south wall — which is the only wall that exhibits non-historic materials, and is also the only wall at grade. While it is possible that the conversion to residential space occurred after the period of significance, the building is still considered to be contributing as it has retained almost all of its exterior architectural integrity, and represents the only remaining component of a now defunct estate.
Significance
The period of significance commences with 1879, the year in which the first four cottages in the district were constructed. The period of significance ends in 1947 when a devastating fire destroyed a portion of the historic district. The greater effect of this fire was to destroy numerous cottages and estates that had been owned or used by the elite, seasonal society in Bar Harbor, and essentially ended this period in the town's history.
Summary
The Harbor Lane-Eden Street Historic District is a compact 20 acre neighborhood that contains one of the last concentrations of architect designed summer cottages in Bar Harbor, Maine. Between the end of the Civil War and the start of the Great Depression, Bar Harbor was one of the most popular seasonal destinations for elite society from the Mid-Atlantic through the Great Lakes. Artists and intellectuals, blue-blood Bostonians and the cream of Philadelphia, Wall Street financiers and wealthy industrialists with familiar names including Vanderbilt, Rockefeller, Kent, Pulitzer, McCormick, and Ford built seasonal mansions -or 'cottages' in the local vernacular — on Mount Desert Island and at least 259 in Bar Harbor alone. Initially, the cottages were designed by local or Maine-based architects, including John E. Clark and Fred L. Savage, and reflected the prevailing taste for Queen Anne and Shingle style coastal architecture. However, beginning in the later 1880s and lasting through the first World War the owners increasingly called upon the services of nationally or regionally known architects from Boston and New York, and the cottages they designed reflected most of the late 19th and early 20th century Revival and American styles. While a large number of these cottages were destroyed In the fire of October 1947, the Harbor Lane-Eden Street Historic District retains nine major cottages, as well as outbuildings and secondary structures, from ten estates that were constructed between 1879 and 1936, in their original neighborhood setting. As such, these resources serve to reflect both the stylistic trends of the community and its physical development as well. The Harbor Lane-Eden Street Historic District is eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places at the local level of significance in the area of community planning and development for its association with the growth of Bar Harbor as a resort town in the nineteenth and early twentieth century. The district is also eligible for listing in the National Register in the area of architecture, for the manner in which the resources embody the stylistic trends in American architecture during this same period. The district contains the work of several noted architects and architectural firms and also demonstrates the extent to which the work of these firms often overlapped or influenced each other.
Community Planning and Development
The Harbor Lane-Eden Street Historic District contains properties that were built as seasonal (summer) cottages beginning in 1879 and ending in 1936. Although some of the properties are now occupied as year round residences or as institutional buildings, all of them were built for summer residents from "off-island" — Boston, New York, Cincinnati, or beyond. The period during which these properties were constructed reflects the intense growth years of the village (c.1878 to 1890), the period of expansion and refinement (c.1890 to 1911), and the twilight of the resort (1912 through 1936). The district also reflects the arbitrary and devastating impact that the fire of 1947 had on the seasonal (and year round) architecture of Bar Harbor. With more than 60 percent of the cottages now destroyed, the full expanse of the architectural, landscape architectural, and cultural heritage of this elite seasonal community no longer exists. As a neighborhood district the resources also illustrate some of the more localized patterns of land and lot development.
Architecture
The 16 contributing buildings within the Harbor Lane-Eden Street Historic District embody distinctive characteristics of architectural styles that existed during the period of significance. While Fenwold (#1) and Reverie Cove (#2) retain their original combination of Colonial Revival and Italian Renaissance Revival stylistic attributes, as does the thoroughly Colonial (Georgian) Revival Witch Cliff (#7), most of the other properties reflect, to a greater or lesser degree, the evolving acceptance of, and competition between, late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century styles. For example one of the earliest properties within the district, Bagatelle, was designed by Rotch and Tilden as a Shingle style cottage in 1882-3, but subsequent alterations and additions in 1887 and 1889 added decorative elements and complicated the massing and design, resulting in a building that reads more as a Queen Anne style structure. Similarly, Anchorhold's 1885 Shingle style design received a substantial Colonial Revival facelift at the hands of Fred L. Savage in 1893, and the 1879/80 Shingle style Villa Mary was completely renovated into a very conservative Colonial (Federal) Revival style home circa 1925. While these trends may have occurred on a national scale, the wealth and status of Bar Harbor's summer residents made it both desirable and possible for them to update or alter the buildings and experiment with architectural combinations. As such, many of the examples within this district represent multiple styles at the hand of more than one architect.
The district includes examples of the work of local contractors and architects (John E. Clark, Fred L. Savage and Arthur McFarland) best known for their work on Mount Desert Island or the nearby region. The district also includes the only known commission on Mount Desert Island of one of the state's most highly respected architects of the late 19th century, John Calvin Stevens. Four of the architectural firms represented in the district came from out of state, and had either national or regional reputations: Bruce Price, Rotch and Tilden, DeGrasse Fox and Andrews, Jacques and Rantoul. While many of these properties were designed by accomplished architects, it is not the intention of this discussion to evaluate each property with regard to the architects' complete or local body of work, although certainly some of the buildings merit high marks for design skill, but rather to look at the district as a whole as a reflection of the larger architectural trends found within Bar Harbor and the adjacent resort communities.
The Harbor Lane-Eden Street Historic District contains one of the two concentrations of ocean front "cottages" in Bar Harbor that were not destroyed by a devastating fire in 1947. (The other is the National Register West Street Historic District.) The properties in the district reflect Bar Harbor's development as an elite summer resort that vied with Newport, Rhode Island with regard to its inhabitants' wealth and prestige.
Local Development
The town of Bar Harbor is located on the northeast shoulder of Mount Desert Island, off Maine's coast south of Ellsworth. Mount Desert Island is the sixth largest island off the continental United States and contains 108 square miles divided into two rugged lobes of land, separated by Somes Sound, a long fjord. The inland section of each lobe is characterized by craggy mountains, while the island's most populated settlements and agricultural lands are generally located near the many harbors, or adjacent to the sound. Long visited by the Wabanaki Indians, the island was described by Samuel de Champlain in 1604, and settled by English immigrants in the 1760s. Over the next 100 years the island attracted settlers who developed shipyards and quarries or were fishermen or farmers. While only two towns are demarcated on the island (the town of Mount Desert and Bar Harbor), substantial villages developed at Southwest Harbor, Somesville, Northeast Harbor, and to a lesser extent, in Seal Harbor and Bass Harbor. In Bar Harbor alone the population of the town steadily increased from 400 in 1800 to over 1200 residents in 1860. In 1919 Lafayette National Park (now Acadia National Park) was established to preserve much of the undeveloped interior of the island. Today the park occupies 47 square miles of Mount Desert Island, as well as several off-shore islands.
Bar Harbor's scenic beauty was discovered by artists in the 1840s, including Frederic Edwin Church, William Hart, and Thomas Cole. Cole, the founder of the Hudson River School, in particular brought friends and associates to experience the island's natural splendor. In the 1850s enterprising local residents offered lodging in their homes to these artists and other "rusticators," as the summer visitors were then called, and in 1855 the first dedicated inn, the Agamont House, opened. After the Civil War Bar Harbor, along with the towns of Northeast Harbor and Seal Harbor, emerged as a destination for the east coast elite.
Initially, the summer visitors patronized one of the over 30 hotels that had been built on the island by 1880, but as an article in the Industrial Journal reflected in 1898, that was but one phase in the town's development:
"In the early days of Bar Harbor, hotel life was all the rage and in those days the great Rodick, the Grand Central, the West End and many other monster hotels were built, but the palmy hotel days have passed never to return and cottage life has taken the place of it...Scattered around the hillsides, on bluff's overhanging the ocean, in quiet, sheltered nooks, and on points and capes jutting out into the bay, are palaces called cottages, some of them costing hundreds of thousands of dollars in construction, and in these cottages during the summer the wealth and fashion of the nation reside, laying in stores of health and vigor derived from breathing the pure air and drinking the pure water of Maine. (June 24, 1898, page 5.)"
While the earliest cottage was constructed by Alpheus Hardy at Birch Point in 1868, the pace of development, both in a physical and economic sense, accelerated in the late 1870s and 1880s, as reported by the Industrial Journal in 1888:"
"Bar Harbor, which has been a lively place all through the winter, by reason of the extensive building operations in progress, is now pushing its improvements with increased vigor, preparatory to the opening of the season now nearly at hand, and which from all indications will be the biggest in the history of the famous resort. Since the close of last season fifty new cottages have been built, fourteen enlarged, and upon nine or ten more the work of construction will shortly commence. About two-thirds of the new cottages have been built by the native residents for purposes of rental, while the balance were erected by such prominent non-residents as Mrs. Rufus King...
But cottage building is not the only work of improvement that has been going forward. Six new stores and one substantial business block have been erected. Over a hundred thousand dollars has been expanded on the new sewerage system, and the electric-light system has been greatly extended and improved so that upwards of two thousand lights will be in operation this season. New driveways have been opened up, and the streets generally put in first-class driving conditions. The trotting park on Eagle Lake road has been purchased by wealthy sport loving people and is to be fitted up at a large expense with a fine race track, tennis and ball grounds, a new $20,000 casino, and embellished by a famous landscape gardener. The Bar Harbor Canoe Club, whose commodore is Edmund Pendleton of Cincinnati, has built an elegant little clubhouse on Bar Island, with a broad veranda, a big fireplace, bathrooms and all other conveniences. These are but a few of the most prominent of the improvements made since last season or now underway. But they are sufficient to show that Bar Harbor promises to be just about the liveliest spot among all the coast watering-places in the season soon to open. (April 27, 1888, page 7.)"
Both the nouveau riche and established families of wealth, prestige, power, and renown contracted with the nation's foremost architects to build these 'cottages,' some of extraordinary size and complexity. The styles ranged from Queen Anne and Shingle style to French Chateauesque and exotic revivals. Many housed large staffs and were sited on thoroughly landscaped grounds. Research conducted by the Maine Historic Preservation Commission in the 1980s identified 259 cottages constructed in Bar Harbor between 1868 and 1936. The largest quantity of the cottages (126) was erected between 1880 and 1889, with forty having been built the previous decade. Thirty-four cottages were constructed between 1890 and 1899, and forty-one more were added during the first ten years of the twentieth century. Not surprisingly, the pace slowed in the 20 century as a result in part of the first World War and the Great Depression. In the three decades between 1910 and 1939 only 11 new cottages were built. Interestingly, of these, Villa Mary (#6) was an extensive renovation of an earlier house, and Witch Cliff (#7) was an early example of a rebuild following a 'tear down'.
In 1947 Maine was plagued by wildfires that burned more than 200,000 acres across the state due, in part, to a hot, dry summer and fall. The most devastating fire burned across Mount Desert Island beginning on October 17. The first three days saw only 169 acres burned, but high winds on the fourth day fanned the flames, burning more than 2,000 acres in a single day. On October 23 the wind intensified and shifted towards Bar Harbor; those not fighting the fire began a massive evacuation effort by both land and sea. While the evacuation was, by any measure, a success, the effort to control the fire was not. By the end of the day 11,000 more acres had burned, along with 170 year-round residences and 67 summer "cottages". The fire continued to burn out of control until October 27, but was not fully extinguished until November 14 after consuming 17,788 acres.
The fire crossed to the north side of Eden Street sporadically but never reached the line of cottages on the edge of the coast. The upland sections of several large estates north of the historic district were burned; mostly consuming outbuildings and secondary structures, including three at Sonogee and two at the Turrets. Within or adjacent to the district the fire took Clovercroft, Bowling Green, Barnacles, Dust Pan and Rexcote, as well as the DeGregoire Hotel at the corner of Eden and West Streets, and Strath Eden on Harbor Lane. The destruction on the south side of Eden Street was almost 100 percent. While the landscape of Mount Desert Island recovered, the social landscape was forever altered. Many of the summer residents whose homes were burned did not return and those who did rebuild did so on a scale smaller than the opulent examples that characterized the cottage era.
Close scrutiny of the extant resources and historical maps and records concerning the Harbor Lane and Eden Street properties reveal a localized, if not more far reaching pattern of development. The properties on the north side of Eden Street were initially divided into long lots that stretched from Frenchman's Bay to the street. As with other sea-side resorts, the preferred location for building a cottage was within sight of the water, if not on the edge of the coast, so it is not surprising that three of the four houses in the district from 1879 (Villa Mary, #6, and the now gone Lombard Cottage and original Witch Cliff) were built along the shore rather than the street, as were Bagatelle in 1882/3, Green Court in 1883, and Anchorhold in 1885. The second most desirable building location was along Eden Street, a prominent access road into the Village. These houses, all destroyed by the fire, were built along the street: Clovercroft, 1879; Barnacles, 1885/6 and Bowling Green in 1889. After Acadia Lane was established two properties were erected on it in short order: Fabian Cottage (Stable, #11) and Acadia Cottage in 1885/6 and 1887 respectively. Two of the later properties in the district are located on Harbor Lane, initially called Prospect Avenue. Reverie Cove, from 1893, is situated at the edge of the coast, but Fenwold (Colonial Hall) across the street has neither a coveted spot on the coast or on Eden Street.
The pattern of development seems to have resulted in part from the tendency of some families to build multiple houses on their property. For example, Edmund Pendleton obtained a long lot and built Bagatelle, designed by Rotch and Tilden, in 1882-83. He then built the Barnacles on Eden Street in 1885-86, utilizing the local architect John E. Clark. The Pendleton family retained both properties until at least 1916, and the Barnacles until after 1927. Another example is the history of Fenwold (Colonial Hall). Mrs. and Mr. Rufus King of Cincinnati purchased a lot of land along Prospect Avenue (Harbor Lane) that stretched from Eden Street to the south side of Harbor Lane (south of Green Court). In 1885-6, Mrs. King had Rotch and Tilden design Dust Pan Cottage at the corner of Prospect and Eden, and three years later her husband hired Andrews and Jacques to design Rexcote immediately adjacent and to the north. After her husband's death, Mrs. King erected Colonial Hall, designed by John Calvin Stevens in 1891, immediately north of Rexcote. (Neither the former Rexcote or Dust Pan cottages are within the district boundaries as the cottages were destroyed in the fire and the land has since been redeveloped.) The Arthur Biddle family, which built Acadia cottage also divided their holdings into distinct street and coast properties, although they never built on the Eden Street portion of the property.
When the first Bar Harbor families realized that they could benefit from attracting summer visitors their first efforts went into erecting large hotels, but by the 1870s it became clear that a secondary opportunity lay in selling land and or buildings to the visitors. In the early years of cottage construction, when the visitors leaned more towards art and were willing to trade 'roughing it' for an authentic and visually stunning outdoor experience, the builders of the cottages were often men who had learned architecture through practice rather than through formal study. John E. Clark, who designed the Barnacles in 1885/86, and then made several additions to Bagatelle, fell into this category. However, as word of Bar Harbor's attractions spread, the expectations of some of the visitors rose as well. As summarized by John M. Bryan, in his recent work on the architecture of Fred L. Savage, "in the mid-1870s a group of architects from Maine began to practice in Bar Harbor (W.A. Jordan, George W. Orff, George Rich, John E. Clark, and Henry Richards), but by the end of the decade, most of the major commissions were being awarded to architects from Boston and New York." (Bryan, page 74). A second trend also developed, starting in the 1890s, towards more historically based revival styles: Chateauesque, Italian Renaissance Revival, and more purely Classical Revival buildings, often of immense size, began to be preferred over the Queen Anne, Shingle, and more pedestrian examples of the Colonial Revival. While none of the properties within the district were designed to the historical standards that characterized The Turretts just up the coast, this trend is reflected in the design of Fenwold, Reverie Cove, and Sea Fox between 1891 and 1903, and after 1925, in the restrained Colonial Revival designs at Villa Mary and Witch Cliff. By this time, many of the earlier estates, with their large staffs and extravagant grounds, had become more difficult for families to maintain, and the scale and opulence of new construction was generally much more subdued overall.
Of the 259 cottages identified in the 1980s, 163 have been destroyed as of 1992 (the last time the research was updated), and several others have been dismantled and moved out of state. While approximately 75 of the cottages were documented through survey activities in the mid 1980s, they have not been revisited as a group and the extent to which the remaining examples have been altered is unknown. Since 1974 eight individual cottages have been listed in the National Register (Cleftstone, Eegonos, Highseas, John Innes Kane Cottage, Nannau, Redwood, Reverie Cove, and The Turrets), and an additional 17 cottages were listed in the National Register as the West Street Historic District in 1980. The Harbor Lane-Eden Street Historic District is both physically and culturally contiguous to the West Street Historic District, however unlike the latter, the former district was impacted by the fire of 1947.
Architects
Andrews, Jacques and Rantoul — The Boston architectural firm of Andrews, Jacques and Rantoul was comprised of Robert Day Andrews and Herbert Jacques, both of whom were born in 1857 and had attended M.I.T., and Augustus N.Rantoul, a Harvard graduate. Andrews was born in Hartford, Connecticut and after an extended tour of Europe studied in the office of H.H. Richardson in Brookline. Andrews entered into a partnership with Herbert Jacques of Framingham, Massachusetts in 1885, and thereafter the firm received several important commissions, including alterations to the Massachusetts State House in 1895 and 1913. Augustus Neal of Salem, Massachusetts joined the firm by 1893 and for the next two decades the firm was known for their Romanesque and classically-inspired public buildings. In Bar Harbor the firm, or part thereof, were responsible for designing at least 23 buildings, including the First National Bank, the YMCA, the Library and the Bar Harbor Swimming Club. Sea Fox, (1903) is of their design, as were the 1893 alterations to Green Court, The firm of Andrews, Jacques and Rantoul is probably the most classically 'formal' of all the architects who worked in the Harbor Lane -Eden Street Historic District.
Duncan Candler — Candler was a New York City architect who was trained at Columbia and the Academie des Beaux Arts, before practicing in the firm of LaFarge & Morris. He first started working on Mount Desert in 1907 when he designed a cottage for his brother-in-law in Seal Harbor. Within the next few years he established his name locally by designing a number of cottages in Seal Harbor. His reputation was made when he started working with Abby A and John D. Rockefeller, Jr. on The Eyrie in 1911, and was further cemented by his design for Edsel Ford's Skylands in 1924. Including the Rockefeller and Ford projects there are 10 known commissions for Candler in Seal Harbor. His 1932 renovation of Green Court is the only known commission of Candler's in Bar Harbor.
John E. Clark. Bar Harbor — Born in Surry, Maine in 1843 Clark was the first architect and contractor to establish a business in Bar Harbor. He first arrived in the town in 1879 to build the West End Hotel, and moved to Bar Harbor the following year, quickly becoming the largest contractor in the town. Although he appears not to have had any formal architectural training his business card advertised "Architect and practical builder. Plans made and estimates given on any kind of buildings." He held the contract for the construction of several hotels, (St. Sauveur, 1880; Rodick House addition, 1882; Marlborough, 1883) as well as several commercial and building blocks. A list of his commissions prepared by the Bar Harbor Historical Society indicates that from the beginning Clark both worked on buildings designed by other architects (including Bruce Price, William Ralph Emerson, and McKim, Mead & White), and designed buildings directly for his customers. Clark designed at least 68 buildings on the island between 1878 and 1907, and built at least 44 more. Apparently fond of horses, at least 10 of his designs were for stables, carriage houses, livery or coachman's houses. Within the Harbor Lane -Eden Street Historic District Clark was the architect for the Queen Anne style Barnacles 1886, (destroyed), and the Fabian Cottage (destroyed) and stable, 1887. He was the contractor for Mainstay (Green Court) in 1883, Rexcote, 1888 (destroyed) and Bowling Green, 1898 (destroyed) and Bagatelle in 1889 and possibly earlier. In an article about Clark the Bar Harbor Record remarked "space will not permit our doing justice to the amount or quality of Mr. Clark's work, but one cottage, his pet and pride must not be omitted. This is Bagatelle, Mr. Edmund Pendleton's dainty and beautiful summer home, which is a marvel of architectural beauty with the many quaint and pretty additions which are the result of collaboration in taste and genius of Mr. Clark and the owner."(May 14, 1891, Page 1). While his contributions to the built environment of Bar Harbor are largely lost to history, research notes prepared by the Bar Harbor Historical Society indicate that he worked on about 300 cottages and buildings during his career, which wound down circa 1907.
DeGrasse Fox — DeGrasse Fox came to Bar Harbor from Philadelphia after he eloped with the daughter of Arthur Biddle in about 1875. Tagged by some as the 'King of Mt. Desert' (Industrial Journal, April 75,1887, page 5) Fox was both an architect and real estate developer, who made a considerable fortune in real estate on Mount Desert. He owned (and designed) the Malvern Hotel and in 1892 was involved with the development of the Eden Swimming Pool Club. He apparently both designed cottages for clients and built to the specifications of other architects, including Emerson, and may have built cottages on speculation as well. In or before 1887 he was as the architect for three Cottages on Eagle Lake Road, and five on Kebo Street in addition to his own cottage and office "Talleyrand." He often employed either W. A. Jordan or H.W. Marshall as his contractor. Photographs of his cottages on Kebo Street show restrained Queen Anne style buildings with Stick style details, although his own home, Talleyrand featured exotic flared roofs and a large crest applied to the front wall. Fox built the Shingle style Acadia Cottage for his father-in-law in 1887.
Arthur W. McFarland — Arthur W. McFarland was a Bar Harbor native who studied architecture at Columbia University between 191 1 and 1915, and then attended the Ecole de Beaux Arts in Paris in 1919. He first practiced with George S. Shepard in Boston, between 1915 and 1917, and after serving in World War I, became a partner in the firm of Adden and Parker in Boston, from 1920 -1924. From 1924 until his death in 1953 he worked on his own, with offices in both Boston and Bar Harbor. According to his obituary, he was a member of the American Institute of Architects, and "most of his work had been in New England but particularly in and around Mt. Desert Island. He was singularly gifted in his chosen field, the profession of architecture. Many noteworthy examples of his work stand today on this island as a tribute to his untiring efforts." (Bar Harbor Times, October 29,1953).
A list of McFarland's known commissions in Maine include 25 projects on Mount Desert Island and nearby Ellsworth. Between 1925 and 1938 he was responsible for at least sixteen projects in Bar Harbor, which included additions, new houses, commercial, civic, and religious structures. In several instances he built or remodeled secondary structures for existing estates, including the Butler's Cottage at Highseas, 1926, and the garage at Sonogee, 1927-28. Within the Harbor Lane-Eden Street Historic District McFarland's first commission was the complete remodeling of Villa Mary, originally a Shingle style cottage with a large wraparound deck. McFarland altered the roofline, removed the porch and introduced very traditional Colonial Revival style features on the new facade, including the entry porch, fan light, door surround, and the delicate paired windows. As a member of the second generation of architects to serve the summer residents of Bar Harbor, with Witch Cliff, 1936 McFarland adopted a more strict interpretation of the Colonial Revival, designing for Ms. Ellison three buildings each using the cape form as the basic building block and adding Federal Era details. (His work in the mid 1920s on the nearby Farm House, National Register listed, owned by Mildred McCormick, was similar.) As one of the last active architects of the cottage era, McFarland's commissions reflected a conservatism of style and an economic grounding to the irrational exuberance of the previous 'Gilded Age' generation.
Bruce Price
The only extant, unaltered work of this New York City based architect that remains in Bar Harbor is The Turrets, located just north of the Harbor Lane-Eden Street Historic District. Yet it was Price who designed the first three coastal properties in the district: the neighboring Lombard Cottage, Witch Cliff and Villa Mary, all circa 1879/80. Born in Maryland in 1845 Price worked for the firm of Niernsee and Nielsen in Baltimore before traveling abroad and then starting his own practice in New York City in 1877. As noted in his Biographical Dictionary of Architects in Maine entry, Price was known for his "innovative floor plans and imaginative interpretations of historical styles." His most famous work is the Chateauesque Chateau Frontenac Hotel in Quebec (1892); a style that he returned to for both the Place Vigor Railway Station in Montreal in 1897-98 and The Turrets in Bar Harbor in 1893-95. Six cottages and the West End Hotel were built to Price's designs between 1878 and 1895.
Rotch and Tilden
The partnership of Arthur Rotch and George Thomas Tilden was formed in 1880 in Boston. Arthur Rotch was born in Boston in 1850 and attended Harvard and M.I.T. before studying at the Ecole des Beaux Arts. Tilden, born in Concord, New Hampshire in 1845, first studied in the office of Ware and Van Brunt in Boston, then attended Lowell Institute (later M.I.T) and the Ecole des Beaux Arts. After the firm formed they were one of the most active firms in New England and beyond: they also had commissions in New York, Washington, D.C. and Charleston, S.C. According to the Rotch biography in the Professional and Industrial History of Suffolk County Massachusetts "this firm was the first to revive the colonial style for modern buildings, a style which so fully answers the requirements of modern life that it was immediately introduced throughout the length and breadth of the land." (Volume III, p.650). Of the 23 known projects attributed to the firm in Bar Harbor five of them were or are located in the Harbor Lane-Eden Street Historic District: Bagatelle, 1882-3; Mainstay (Green Court), 1883; Clovercroft, 1883 (destroyed); Anchorhold (Anchorage), 1885; and Dust Pan (destroyed), 1886. Interestingly, each of these properties were initially Queen Anne in style, and only through later remodelings received Colonial Revival elements (usually at the hands of other architects). The biography does describe Rotch as a proponent of Rough Cast (concrete), an example of which was used on the western elevation of the guest house at Bagatelle.
Fred L. Savage — Born in 1861 in Northeast Harbor (town of Mount Desert), Savage studied carpentry, and while working in that capacity gained the notice of Charles W. Eliot of Harvard University. Eliot arranged for Savage to study with the Boston architectural firm of Peabody and Steams, after which he returned to Mount Desert c.1887, and initially received commissions in Northeast Harbor, but by 1893 moved his office to Bar Harbor. He had a short-lived partnership with Milton W. Stratton. As a year-round resident of Bar Harbor he was available to work on projects year round, and his role varied from contractor to architect to project manager as needed. One recent study of his career asserts that "during the period from 1888 to 1924 Fred Savage would design at least three hundred buildings in Bar Harbor and environs." (Bryan, page 74). All of Savage's work within the Harbor Lane-Eden Street Historic District took place within a short span of time when he was first shifting his design focus from the shingle style to the Colonial Revival style. This shift is evident not only in Reverie Cove, 1893, for which Savage was the principal architect, but also in the extensive Colonial Revival alterations he designed for Anchorhold in 1893, which had been originally designed by Rotch and Tilden in 1885. That same year Savage acted as contractor, executing the alterations specified by Andrews, Jacques and Rantoul, at Green Court, which had been originally designed by Rotch and Tilden in 1883. Savage died in Bar Harbor in 1924.
John Calvin Stevens — A Mainer from an early age, John Calvin Stevens was one of Maine's most prominent architects of the late 19th century and early 20th century. Stevens received his first training in the office of the Portland architect Francis H. Fassett and joined Fassett as a partner in 1880. During this time Stevens had the opportunity to meet and work briefly with William Ralph Emerson in Boston, and through him was exposed to the Shingle style of architecture. In 1884 Stevens established his own practice in Portland, and in 1888 partnered with Albert W. Cobb, who had been in Emerson's Boston office. Stevens became one of Maine's most prolific Shingle style architects, and his name was closely associated with this style during the 1880s and 1890s. After the turn of the century Stevens worked increasingly in the Colonial Revival style and his commissions during this period were executed across the state. Although his talents would have flourished in Bar Harbor, he focused instead on serving the seaside communities of southern Maine. Fenwold (Colonial Hall) is Steven's only known work on Mount Desert Island, and one of his earlier Colonial Revival designs.
References
"Arthur Rotch" in Professional and Industrial History of Suffolk County Massachusetts in Three Volumes. Volume II. (Boston: The Boston History Company), 1894.
Atlas of Bar Harbor, Maine, 1904. (Bar Harbor, Maine: Summer Residents Association), 1903
Bryan, John Morrill. Maine Cottages: Fred L. Savage and the Architecture of Mount Desert. (New York: Princeton Architectural Press), 2005.
Colby's Atlas of the State of Maine 1887-1888. (Houlton, Maine: Colby & Stuart), 1888.
Deeds, various years. Hancock County Registry of Deeds; Hancock County Courthouse. Ellsworth, Maine.
Helfrich, G. W. and Gladys O'Neil. Lost Bar Harbor. (Camden, Maine: Down East Books), 1982.
Biographical Sketches. The Business History of Prominent Bar Harbor Men. Mr. John E. Clark," in Bar Harbor Record. May 14, 1891. (Bar Harbor, Maine), p.1.
"Map of Bar Harbor Showing Area Devastated by Fire" in Bangor Daily News November 13, 1947. Copy on file at the Maine Historic Preservation Commission, Augusta, Maine.
Plan of the Village of Bar Harbor, Mt. Desert Island" in the Bar Harbor Tourist Supplement, New York Herald. August 14, 1886. Copy on file at the Maine Historic Preservation Commission, Augusta, Maine.
Reed, Roger. "Bruce Price 1845-1903" in A Biographical Dictionary of Architects in Maine. Vol. III, Number 5. (Augusta, Maine: Maine Historic Preservation Commission), 1986.
"Services Held for Arthur McFarland Bar Hbr. Architect," in Bar Harbor Times. October 29, 1953. (Bar Harbor, Maine). Copy on file at the Maine Historic Preservation Commission, Augusta, Maine.
Stuarts Atlas of the State of Maine. (South Paris, Maine: J.H. Stuart & Co.), 1894-5.
Town of Bar Harbor, Hancock County, Maine. Tax Map 101. 7 August 2008.
Town of Bar Harbor, Hancock County, Maine. Tax Map 703, 7 August 2008.
Town of Bar Harbor, Hancock County, Maine. Tax Map 704, 7 August 2008.
Turner, Loretta M. When Bar Harbor was Eden. (Dover, N.H.: Arcadia Publishing), 1995.
Withey, Henry F. And Elsie Rathburn Withey. Biographical Dictionary of American Architects (Deceased). (Los Angeles: Hennessey & Ingalls, Inc.), 1970.
Street Names
Eden Street • Harbor Lane • Route 3 • Sea Fox Road