ABANDONED HOUSE OF EAGLE LAKE

  

EAGLE LAKE - ACADIA NATIONAL PARK

Hidden in the woods not far from the shore of Eagle lake is a partial foundation with large stone arches, and for some time this site has been the subject of much speculation. But after much research we now know the story behind the Stone Arches of Eagle Lake. A family who spent their summers here decided to purchase some land along the edge of the lake and construct their dream home by the water, and construction soon began. But the family failed to get permission from the town of Bar Harbor to built near the lake, and concerns were soon raised about the town's drinking water supply becoming contaminated. One rumor says legal action was taken against the home builders to cease construction – however after much research I was not able to find a source for that rumor. What I did find was that George B. Dorr, who was a member of the Bar Harbor water Company, went out and talked to the family and was able to convince them not to built there.

Abandoned House of Eagle Lake - The Stone Arches

Instead of tearing down what had already been built, they simply left the foundation with large arches standing in the woods by the lake, where it still sets today.

There are two sources for this story, The Trails of History and the History of the Bar Harbor Water Company. We also know that not long after what must of appeared as a major victory for Mr Dorr, he set off for Augusta to help put together legislation that would forever protect certain bodies of water on Mount Desert Island, such as Eagle Lake, Bubble Pond, and Jordan Pond. Not long after the legislation passed and those waters were protected from future development.  

View of Eagle Lake from the Stone Arches - Acadia National Park

The old Toll House Path made its way from the base of Cadillac Mountain, running past this house that was being built and ending at the location of the Green Mountain Railroad Station a quarter mile further along the shore of  the lake. I have spent many an evening seated by one of the arches, looking out over the water as the sunset blazed across the sky, thankful that this view is today open to the public instead of being private property.

There are three ways to locate the hidden path to the stone arches, one way is by GPS, another way is to walk along the 

Abandoned House of Eagle Lake - The Stone Arches

Eagle lake Carriage Road, left side of the lake, until you come to a retaining wall sunk into the left hand side of the carriage road. There is only one such retaining wall on that side of the lake, and just before the retaining wall is a dry drainage ditch. A couple feet before the drainage ditch, on the right hand side of the road, once you locate it, following it to the stone arches is easy,

The other way to the site is to begin by Bubble Pond, park and cross the road and follow the carriage road to Eagle Lake, at the first intersection, turn right, and follow the carriage road which will come to a bridge. Not far after the bridge you will come to the retaining wall, but from this direction it will be on the right hand side of the road. Follow the retaining wall until you reach the other end, just ahead will be a narrow drainage ditch, a couple feet past the drainage ditch look for a path in the woods on the left hand side of the road, it is pretty easy to find.

COTTAGE AT EAGLE LAKE
BAR HARBOR RECORD
Dec. 29, 1909

The foundation has been put in for a cottage, which is to be planned to be built on the shore of Eagle Lake along midway from the W.M. Roberts camp to the line of the Green Mountain Railroad.  The contractor is E.K. Whitaker, while the plans are from the office of Andrews, Jaques and Rantoul of Boston.  The cottage, as proposed will be of two stories containing two bath rooms and will cost about $7,000.  It will be within 20 feet of the lake on a ledge that has a sharp pitch to the lake.  There is strong objection to the cottage for the sufficient reason that the purity of the water of the lake from which comes Eden's water supply.  The water supply is noted for its purity, indeed there is probably no large lake in the world that furnishes so pure water as does Eagle lake.  The water is one of Bar Harbor's greatest drawing features and any injury to it or or suggestion of an injury would be a grievous blow at the prosperity of the community.  There always seems to be some people in every community who are unwise enough to be willing to kill the goose that lays the golden egg, but its safe to say that in the present instance some law will be found that will prevent the drainage from this cottage into the lake, and the contamination of the water supply that means so much to the people of Bar Harbor and to the resort itself.

EAGLE LAKE - Acadia National Park

EAGLE LAKE - Acadia National Park

June 27, 1963

In 1909 a summer visitor began the construction of a cottage on the east shore of Eagle lake, and it looked as if this might start a building boom.  The elaborate stone work of the foundation is still visible from the water.
Dr. Robert Abbe, a famous New York surgeon who was chairman of the VIA sanitary committee, wrote a letter denouncing any building on the immediate shore in no uncertain terms.  Later the letter was shown to Fred C. Lynam, president of the water company.
"For God's sake, don't print that letter!"  he is said to have exclaimed.
The builder of the new cottage in question finally sold his rights to the property, but it cost the water company about three times what it was worth.  The company did not have condemination rights for the shore, and any owner could up the price by threatening to build.  At this point the Hancock County Trustees, who had been acquiring land for a park on the island, were asked to help.
They managed to get a bill through the legislature allowing condemnation, and the water company than directed them to aquire all land within the drainage basin of the lake.  The water company spent $65,000 buying the land and got all of it except some at the north end.
This ended the major threat of contamination of the town water supply.  About the only activity which took place after that at the lake, except recreation, was at the Brewer Ice House on the North shore, and that was scarcely a threat to sanitation.
The ice house was built by D.W. Brewer and operated into the 1940's in its last, and third location.  It was first built at Nick's Cove and finally stood in the clearing next to the gravel road running from the highway to the turn around east of the cove.


Eagle Lake was not always known by its current name, over the years it has under gone a few name changes.  On John Peters plan of the French Grant the lake is designated as Young's Pond.  Years later the lake became known as Great Pond, but in the middle of the 19th century the name of the lake was once again changed, after Ferderick Edwin Church, one of the early rusticators, spotted an eagle soaring over the lake, from that day forward the lake would be called Eagle lake.

GPS for hidden path 

44 21' 46”N - 68 14' 41”W

GPS for stone arches

44 21' 46”N - 68 14' 45”W

Abandoned Trails of Acadia National Park - The Book

UPDATE;  I did come across another old newspaper article on this house, the people building it are never named, but in this new piece it states the water company approached the family and tried to get them to stop construction, they refused and continued building.  Upon another attempt, the family agreed to sell the land to the water company but at three times its market value, which the water company agreed to, thus construction was stopped, leaving only the large stone arches left standing over-looking the calm waters of Eagle Lake.

BEHIND THE SCENES;

HOW WE LOCATED THE STONE ARCHES

It really began like most of our quests do, peering over the faint lines on an old map, looking for clues that would lead us on our next adventure.  As I was looking over one of the many free maps you can find at various on line sites, my attention was drawn to an old road which the map showed running along the left side of Eagle lake, running about half way along the side of the lake.  This was no carriage road, since the map predated the National Park, so why had a road been built half way along one side of the lake?
With just that to go on and no further information, I begun doing Google searches which led me to a site with several pieces of photos all pasted together, and it talked about an abandoned house somewhere near the lake - I was pretty certain that old road had something to do with this abandoned house.  I examined the pieces of each photo looking for clues to its location and in one of the photos a piece of the lake could be seen, so than I knew the abandoned house had to be very close to the shore line.  Armed with that new information we felt we had enough to go on to justify a ground search, and went in search of traces of that old road.  Faint traces of the road could be located, but no where near enough to lead us to the location of the Stone Arches, so we decided to walk through the woods to the edge of the shore line and follow it, pushing through brush and crossing wet areas, we finally came to the Stone Arches, which proved to be located much closer to the water than we had thought would be the case.
The biggest surprise was not the Stone Arches, but the fact that from the Stone Arches to the Eagle lake Carriage Road was a well worn path, camouflaged just enough by the carriage road so as to not be seen by passing walkers or bikers.  The thing about the Stone Arches is that once you locate them, you will never forget how to return back to the site in the future, as the natural landmarks by the start of the path are a dead give-away.  For one, you have that unique retaining wall of stone, than you have the tiny drainage ditch two feet from the start of the path.
Generally I am of the mind set that once some one purchases a piece of land, they should be allowed to with it as they please, in this case built a dream cottage, but after locating the site and setting in one of the archways as the sunset colored the sky over the calm waters of the lake, I was glad this million dollar view could be shared by anyone who locates it.

In the coming days we would return back to those old maps looking for clues to our next adventure, which turned out to be a journey in search of the Hanging Steps, but for at least a few days, we took it easy enjoying our discovery.

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VIDEO OF THE STONE ARCHES OF EAGLE LAKE