This estate was referred to as an Italian Villa and surprisingly with the passing of time, large amounts of its remains are still standing, including a large circular pool with sections of winged angels which over looked the pool. A massive set of stone steps leads to a patio area, and the pipe for where a fountain stood still sticks up out of the ground. In the basement in one of the rooms you can see the metal headboard and frame of a bed beneath a section of the upper floor which collapsed on it. Pipes and metal stick up out of piles of debris and pieces of statues and tiles can be found throughout the area. The house burned during the great fire, but the ruble was left behind like a ghost from the past.
As you begin to go down the cleftstone Road from the Eagle Lake Road, directly across the road from the entrance to the estate is a telephone pole with the number 3 on it. The remains of the estate sets on a knoll further back in the woods on almost a straight line from the pole.
The GPS for the foundations is N 44 22 947 and W 068 13 630
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| ANNE ARCHBOLD ESTATE - LARGE POOL IN BACKGROUND |
2. BLAIR EYRIE
Back in 1888 a residence was constructed on Highbrook Road for Major George Wheeler, who named the house Avamaya. The building was built by Sidney V. Stratton, and in 1901 mthe property was sold to DeWitt C. Blair of the New York banking firm and renamed Blair Eyrie. The home was demolished in 1935, and over forty years later, in 1976, The Summit House nursing facility was constructed on the site. In recent years the nursing facility was torn down to make way for the Hampton Inn.The gardens were designed by distinguished landscape architect James Greenleaf, to accompany the house wrought by the Boston architectural firm of Andrews, Jacques & Rantoul.
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| BLAIR EYRIE GARDENS |
The garden was laid out in an Italianate plan, with a Moorish-inspired pool basin in the center that contained a Japanese bronze dragon fountain. The garden served for intimate and grand entertainments. A tea house, with its fireplace for foggy Maine afternoons, was a refuge for both family and guests—a refuge that is now lost for all time.
The following photos are the remains of the Blair Eyrie gardens. I want to thank a visitor to our site for giving us the correct information on this location.
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| REMAINS OF BLAIR EYRIE GARDENS |
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| REMAINS OF BLAIR EYRIE GARDENS |
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| REMAINS OF BLAIR EYRIE GARDENS |
GPS for the remains further up the hillside; N44 23.432 W068 13.401
3. JOSEPH PULITZER AND CHATWOLD
Why have an estate when you can have a castle, and why have a castle when you can have a castle with its own village, which is pretty much what Chatwold was. It was a huge estate which featured a castle with several towers, the tallest tower being named the tower of silence. I had been hunting for the location of this castle for a while now, and just got word from someone who knows where this huge estate was located, though I do want to point out, this is new information and I have not been able to check it out as yet. I was told the estate overlooked a cove and was located along the Schooner Head Road between Bear Brook and the Seely Road. Than I finally located a map showing some of the old estates and there it was, exactly where I had been told to look for it, not fat from the end of Bear Brook - see map below. |
JOSEPH PULITZER AND CHATWOLD |
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| CHATWOLD - JOSEPH PULITZER ESTATE Schooner Head Road - Bar Harbor Maine |
I believe this was before Joseph Pulitzer purchased the property and began expanding it.
TERRIBLE ACCIDENT AT CHATWOLD
Bar Harbor Times
May 15, 1895
A Workman Meets Horrible Death At Chatwold
Last Friday at about noon a terrible accident occurred at Chatwold where about 300 men are employed building a summer residence for Joseph Pulitzer, of the New York World.
A derrick is used for hoisting the heavy timber to its place in the building. One of the heaviest of these immunce timbers was being hoisted into its place on Saturday and the cry "all from under" was heard and heeded by all the men save one, John Haynes, who not observing the dangerous position, continued to mix mortar directly under the terrible sword of Damocles. The hair broke and a life was ended.
The timber slipped from its support and struck Haynes on the back and neck. He lived ten or fifteen minutes.
Haynes was a young unmarried man whose home is near Fredericton, N.B.. He came here a stranger to work on the Pulitzer job but was very popular among his associates and pronounced a throughly good fellow.
An undertaker from Bangor was summoned and his body was embalmed and sent home.
Every thing that was possible was done by those in charge at Chatwold to make it easier for his friends.
A coroner was summoned at once who pronounced it an accidental death and no blame is attached to anyone.
4. THE TURRETS - BAR HARBOR'S SURVIVING CASTLE
While many of Bar Harbors castles were lost to the great fire of '47, one still stands as solid as the day it was built, and that castle was named the turrets. J.J. Emery had the castle built for his new young bride and one can only imagine how cool it must of been to have been one of their children growing up in a real castle over looking the ocean. After the castle switched hands a few times it is said it became home to a motorcycle gang. The college of the Atlantic acquired the building and grounds and today the Castle is mainly used as an administration building. The castle is located down behind the college library to the right. Because the emery's feared a fire, the Turrets was built with its own fire hydrants inside the building with hoses. The College of the Atlantic is located along route 3, Eden Street and you can reach the College by boarding one of the free buses at the Bar Harbor Village Green, get on the Eden Street Bus and get off at the College stop which is right in front of the walkway to the library.
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| THE EMERY'S AND THE TURRETS |
5. LA ROCHELLE - BAR HARBOR'S 41 ROOM MANSION
George Sullivan Bowdoin, a grandson of Alexander Hamilton, the first U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, married Julia Irving Grinnell, a great-niece of Washington Irving, and they had three children. At the end of 1899, he retired as a partner with J. P. Morgan & Co. He owned La Rochelle until his death on 16 December 1913, after which the property passed in 1914 to joint ownership by his widow and his surviving daughter, Edith G. Bowdoin.
The local paper reported on the building of La Rochelle that "The approximate cost of the building is $100,000, but before it is completed the cost will probably far exceed that." (Bar Harbor Record, 16 July 1902, p. 1, col. 3)."
The 41 room mansion has been the home to the Maine Sea Coast Mission and has been recently purchased by the Bar Harbor Historical Society.
Originally built in 1902, La Rochelle was donated 70 years later to the Mission by Tristram C. Colket Jr., one of several heirs to the Campbell’s Soup fortune, and his wife, Ruth Colket.
The Mansion sets along West Street, if your new to the area simply walk along West Street beginning by the town pier, the mansion is at the far end of West Street, it is also a short distance down West Street from the corner of West Street and Eden Street.
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LA ROCHELLE - BAR HARBOR'S 41 ROOM MANSION |
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6. ANCHORHOLD
Built in 1885, the estate was first named Elwood and later renamed Anchorage, but today is known as Anchorhold. The estate is situated right along the waters edge, and is easy to locate. Simply drive straight down Harbor Lane and the paved road ends at the Anchorhold driveway. A new town park is currently being built and one end of the park is at the corner of Eden Street and Harbor Lane.
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| ANCHORHOLD - 9 HARBOR LANE BAR HARBOR MAINE |
7. REVERIE COVE
Located at 7 Harbor Lane, Reverie Cove is an opulent Colonial Revival building with Italian Renaissance Revival details. It was separately listed on the National Register in 1982. The property includes a period carriage house. To locate this estate, drive down Harbor Lane and just before the pavement ends the estate sets back to the far right.
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REVERIE COVE - 9 Harbor Lane, Bar Harbor Maine |
8. FENWOLD
Fenwold was built in 1891 and It is stylistically a combination of Colonial and Mediterranean Renaissance Revival architecture. It sets on the left on a slight hill along Harbor Lane.
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| FENWOLD - 6 HARBOR LANE Bar Harbor |
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| FERWOLD - REAR VIEW - 6 HARBOR LANE BAR HARBOR MAINE |
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| HORSE SHOW - MORRELL PARK Bar Harbor |
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| HORSE SHOW - ROBINHOOD PARK Bar Harbor |
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| HOT SODA DOE & CONYA DRUGGISTS Bar Harbor |
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| THE DEGREGOIRE Bar Harbor |
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| GRAND CENTRAL HOTEL Bar Harbor |
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| OLD JAPANESE PRINTS JESUP MEMORIAL LIBRARY Bar Harbor |
Respectful correction: The ruins and wall that you identify as Ban-y-Bryn, the Barney estate, are actually the ruins of the gardens of Blair Eyrie, the DC Blair estate, which occupied the very top of the hill. Ban-y-Bryn was on the ocean side of the hill, more or less northeast downhill from the hotel.
ReplyDeleteLol, me again. New correction: Major Wheeler built two "Avamayas". The first one,built in 1888, was sold to the Hoyt family and renamed "Hillcrest" when Major Wheeler built a new "Avamaya" just uphill from the first, in 1895. It is this second, more palatial, "Avamaya" which just a few years years later became "Blair Eyrie".
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