GREEN MOUNTAIN BUCKBOARD ROAD

To begin with, I am not sure there ever was a road officially named the  "Buckboard Road," and it is my belief that when the survey road was replaced with the carriage road by the Green Mountain Carriage Road Company, some people began referring to the carriage road as a Buckboard Road because that is what the company used, buckboards, to carry passengers up and down Green Mountain.  The word Buckboard Road doesn't even come up in searches of old newspapers, and to date only one very old map even has the road Buckboard Road written on it.

Green Mountain, today named Cadillac Mountain, stands at 1,532 feet above sea level, making it the second highest summit along the western shores of the Atlantic Ocean. a fact the did not go unnoticed by budding entrepreneurs who saw money to be made and set about to stake out their claims on the Mountain. History gives us few clues as to the exact route the buckboard Road took as it made its way to the summit, we know it began off the Eagle Lake Road, and passed over Great Pond Hill before making its way to the white Cap, before turning and rising upward toward the summit of Green Mountain, but it was not the first road that made its way up to the summit with its majestic views, a Government Survey Road was the first road to do that.

The Survey Road was built in 1853 and was a primitive road at best, but did do its job of providing teams of horses to carry survey equipment and supplies up to the summit of the mountain. In 1866 Daniel Webster Brewer built a hotel on the summit, on land he purchased from his father in 1853, which early records first refer to as the Mountain House, but would later be named the Green Mountain Hotel. Mr. Brewer also built the Buckboard Road, following the government survey road for a ways before separating from it and following a more friendly route to the summit. The Green Mountain Railroad Company was incorporated on November 23, 1882, and on On January 22, 1883, Frank Clergue aquired a 20 year lease for 200 acres along the mountain side.

For its first five years the Green Mountain Railway Company pretty much had
no competition, that changed in 1887 when a new company, the Green Mountain carriage Road Company was formed. Their goal, to compete with the train company in a head to head battle for customers. They decided a new improved road had to be constructed to the summit and the new carriage road was built in just three weeks.  This new improved road was two lanes wide so carriages could easily pass one another. The new business was met with anger from the owners of the railroad company who placed a gate across the  newly constructed carriage road, charging anyone passing through the gate a fee, but this lasted for only a day, when the Carriage Company workers arrived and tore down the gate. The two companies continued to verbally go at it until one night workers from the railroad company went out under the cover of darkness and placed sticks of dynamite along the Buckboard Road and blew it up. But not long after the  carriage  Road was once again open for business once repairs were finished.

The carriage  Road became the scene of some armed robberies, when an armed robber appeared out of nowhere along the road and held up passengers as they made their way up the mountain side on horse drawn buckboards. The robber was given the nick name The Gentleman Bandit because he would not rob from the women, he only took money and jewelry from the men. He would disappear into the woods without a trace and never was captured despite a reward on his head.  At one time there was as much as $5,000 reward placed on his head, yet he was never caught.

Over time the current Cadillac Mountain Summit Road was constructed, with some of the road following sections of the old buckboard Road. A blasting man was killed in a dynamite accident during the building of the current road.

Over the years we believe we located the old government survey road, and recently we believe we may of located a long stretch of the old original carriage Road, veering off of the survey road as described in old articles, and with a wire gate across it in one section, for which we have put up the GPS numbers for.  This second road, constructed after the survey road, was said to be a safer route up the mountain side, and articles refer to a wire gate that was placed across the lower section.  This wire gate was not the same gate placed on the upper section by the railway company, and one day while walking the old survey road we located the lower gate, which is one long stretch of heavy thick wire which when pulled closed blocked off the carriage road, and had a loop in a large boulder where a lock could prevent the wire gate from being opened.

BUCKBOARD ROADS WIRE GATE
ACADIA NATIONAL PARK

GPS for the wire gate - N44 22.403   Wo68 13.973
Just recently we made another pass through the area and sadly the thick heavy wire - or cable, had rusted free of its metal ring.

UPDATE;

This has been a very good week, learning that the old stone foundation in the woods off of West Street Extension, just inside the park, was once a tea house, finding the location of one of the two lost stairways leading up from Duck Brook to the duck Brook Road, and now the discovery of the actual starting point of the old Green Mountain survey road and carriage road, this find helps fill in missing gaps in the route the road took.  

To be certain, long sections of the survey road had been documented on my site, but today I decided to walk up along the old abandoned section of the Eagle Lake Road and poke around in the woods one more time.  The park service in recent years extended the start of the Cadillac Mountain North Ridge Trail so that it now begins close to its original location, with a bus stop at the start of the new section of trail, but a short ways before the trail is a section of ledge and just beyond the ledge is an old road which I documented years ago came out onto the One Way Section of the Park Loop Road.  If you cross the Park Loop road you will find a well worn path running straight into the woods, but it suddenly ends and it has baffled me for years.  This evening as I was coming back out of the woods I looked to my left and saw the light hit the forest floor a bit oddly and went down the banking to check it out and there it was, as soon as you enter the woods you do not want to follow the well worn path straight, instead as soon as you climb up the banking by the road, turn right, you will see a large square granite brook and the road begins there, running down through the woods at an angle almost parallel with the one way section of the Park Loop Road.  This discovery also answers another question, where was the Toll House located?  Old articles give the location of the Toll House as being where the Green Mountain Carriage Road and Green Mountain North Ridge Trail connected, making it easier to collect tolls, and the only place where those two connected was along the old abandoned section of the Eagle Lake Road, the old survey road began on one side of the old toll House and the North Ridge Trail began on the other side of the Toll House.  The old articles and newspaper accounts help with the location, stating that the old survey Road up Green Mountain - now named Cadillac Mountain, got to be very dangerous in places and when the Green Mountain Carriage Company built a new road up Green Mountain, they used a long stretch of the old survey road, up to a point, where the new carriage road veered away from the survey road, and close to where the two roads parted ways was a wire gate that shut the road down when no one was present to collect tolls.  This wire gate is still in place today as seen in photos below.  

One day as I was exploring the woods not far from the summit I believe I discovered another long stretch of this Green Mountain Carriage road, but I need to return to the area with my GPS and do a bit more research.  

This short section of granite wall is a short ways from start of Cadillac Mountain North Ridge Trail, GPS N 44 22.773  -  W 068 13.892

Survey road crosses North Ridge Trail at N 44 22.753  -  W 068 13.903

Path crosses one way section of Park Loop Road at N 44 22.653  W 068 13.936

After crossing the Park Loop Road look for this granite block just inside the woods to the right, the old survey road continues there and runs parallel  to the Park Loop Road and you can see the Park Loop Road from the old survey road.  

granite block - N 44 22.676   -   W 068 13.935

From here the old Survey road is easy to follow.  The location where the Green Mountain Carriage Road veered away from the survey road is at;

N 44 22.418   -   W 068 13.982 - here the survey road continues straight ahead into the woods while the Green Mountain carriage road moves at an angel to the left.  A very short ways along the carriage road is the wire gate mentioned in some old articles, N 44 22.404   -   W 068 13.975   From the wire gate the road is easy to follow all the way to the Cadillac Mountain Summit Road.

ARCADIA GIFT SHOP
OPP. Village Green, Bar Harbor

B.H. YOUNG CO>
Cottage Street, Bar Harbor

GRANITE AND MARBLE WORKS
Corner Cromwell Harbor And Glen Mary St.
Bar Harbor

PEARLE CUTTING SHOPS
Main Street, Bar Harbor

BEAUTIFUL HAIR
THE FRANCES FOX INSTITUTE
Albert Meadow, Bar Harbor

THE GUYER HAT
Bar Harbor

800 ACRES OF MAINE LAND GIVE-A-WAY
Isle Au Haut, Maine

BARBERRY LEDGE REMAINS

This estate burned in the fire of 1947 and was named Barberry Ledge. It set up pretty high on a hill with a decent ledge not far away, which most likely in its day gave its owners fantastic views. The estate was owned by Christine B. Rowell.

This estate was also located along the Cleftstone Road, further down the road from the Archbold Estate. On the same side of the road as the entrance to the estate, look for telephone pole number 7, the old driveway is close to that pole with a large boulder in the road just inside the woods. The boulder and driveway can be seen from the roadway. Just like with the Archbold estate, you need to park on the side of route 233 - the Eagle Lake Road or along the side of West Street Extension near that end of the Cleftstone road.

BARBERRY LEDGE FIREPLACE - CLEFTSTONE ROAD
BAR HARBOR - ACADIA NATIONAL PARK

Locating this huge foundation with fireplace was a complete surprise, we had gone into the location hoping to find remains of a trail that passed from Cleftstone road to Great Hill. We did not find the path,  The neighbor's in the area will keep an eye on you until you get off into the woods, and we have had one time a neighbor followed us in, but hey, its National Park Property and anyone has a right to be in there, and I just kept taking photos.


The foundations are located in the woods off of Cleftstone Road, GPS N 44 23 066 and W 068 13 599

REMAINS OF BARBERRY LEDGE
WOODS OFF CLEFTSTONE ROAD
ACADIA NATIONAL PARK

If this site interests you at all, check out my blog on the Anne Archbold Estate, just down the road and in the woods from this site, with many nice remains including a large pool with parts of stone statues, stairways, and a ceiling that collapsed onto an iron bed.


Christine Baker Rowell

Early Summer Resident Dies In Florida
Bar Harbor Times
March 22, 1962

Mrs. Christine Baker Rowell, wife of the late Frank Bailey Rowell, died at the home of her son, Donald Rowell, in Miami, Florida March 18.  Mrs. Rowell is survived by her son, four grandchildren, and more than a hundred nieces and nephews and their descendants.  She resided at 39 East 79th Sreet, New York  City and at East Hampton, New York.
Mrs. Rowell was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey on December 25, 1871.  She was the daughter of Henry Martyn Baker and Susan Virginia Barnes.  Her Uncle was the late John Stewart Kennedy, financier and philanthropist, and her sisters were the late Mrs. Frank L. Kellogg and the late Charlotte S. Baker, for many years head of the Spence School.
Mrs. Rowell was a resident of Bar Harbor for a number of years prior to 1947 when her home was destroyed by fire.  Subsequently, Mrs. Rowell gave her property to the Acadia National Park.

BAR HARBOR SUMMER COTTAGES
BARBERRY LEDGE
ACADIA NATIONAL PARK

ANN ARCHBOLD ESTATE REMAINS

AN ABANDONED HOUSE VIDEO

THIRLSTANE OF HAMILTON HILL - BAR HARBOR'S VANISHING CASTLE

According to a newspaper article by the Mount Desert Islander, the area many locals refer to as Schoolhouse Hill was recently sold to Chris Swan and Scott Henggeler for a mere 3.9 million.  The area is officially known as Hamilton Hill, was previously owned by William Pearson Hamilton and Robert Juliano and the main feature of this property is the huge Manson that sets atop Hamilton Hill, which set  pretty much empty for so many years.  Hamilton had purchased the property from Gen. Edward de V. Morrell and his wife.  One of the more interesting features of the Mansion is the huge columns to the front of the mansion, which were found in the nearby woods by Juliano's children and were incorporated into the mansion he had built.  Throughout the mansion is interesting building materials Juliano included in the building of the mansion, materials he collected over the years from a business he ran demolishing buildings and salvaging materials in New Jersey.  The huge pink columns his children found in the woods nearby, however, are believed to have been from an estate that burned down in the fire of '47.

THE MANSION OF HAMILTON HILL
BAR HARBOR MAINE

Just below the mansion, nearly in its shadows are located the remains of another rich estate, Thirlstane, those remains often refereed to as the Castle of Schoolhouse Hill.  The remains of Thirlstane are a cross between a fort and an ancient castle, with two sides being enclosed in a tall castle-like granite walls, with one tower still standing as of 2017, located at the far corner where where two tall walls join.  The tower is said to have a small fireplace in it with a window looking out toward downtown Bar Harbor.  As you looked down from the mansion there once was five or six large white columns with a large in ground pool behind the columns, and on the other side of the pool was a tall wall with fancy oval windows with a changing area whose floor and walls were lined with tiles.  A third wall was formed by a number of large granite rooms with arched doorways between the rooms leading to the other side.  At least two or more of the granite rooms on the other side were either taken down or destroyed during the fire of 47.  The pool was way ahead of its time in that along one entire wall of the pool, at the under water level, was a series of small round windows which allowed people in the underground room on the other side of the pool to view anyone swimming inside the pool.
To reach the underground section of the compound you would walk outside of the tall granite wall and along the outside wall was a doorway leading to the underground area.  As you entered the first room, there was a long narrow hallway leading further back into the hillside, with other rooms.  One of those rooms was the room with the round windows which looked out into the pool.  Over the years the ceilings where propped up with thick steel poles.  In the nearby woods are other remains of stone buildings that were once part of the Thirlstane compound.
Prior to the property being sold, I have been told by a number of people it had become obvious that sections of the old Thirlstane remains were being taken down, this included some  of the above ground rooms as well as those towering  columns along one side of the pool and the tall wall with its oval windows along the other side of the pool.
The Thirlstane remains with its many rooms over the years became a sort out area for drinking and a place where people could crash for a night or two.  At least one person made one of the rooms his rent free pad until he got rudely greeted one evening as he approached the room by security.  Over the years the police have been called to the area by neighbors who reported seeing people enter the property, which is heavily posted, and the trespassers were given a warning not to return to the property again.

FIRE PLACE IN TOWER
BAR HARBOR VANISHING CASTLE

Bar Harbor Record
November 16, 1898



Colonel Morrell's Beautiful Summer Home On Malden Hill

There are now in Bar Harbor nearly three hundred handsome residents built by rich and prominent people from almost every part of the union, who were attracted to the island by the marvelous beauties with which nature with a lavish hand, has endowed it.
The beautiful and costly mansions, styled in the humble vernacular "cottages," are scattered over the narrow plateau or perched amid the foliage on the foothills which lie between the mountains and the bay.
When first the glowing canvas of wandering artists heralded abroad the beautiful scenery of the romantic island and attracted the earlier summer visitors to the shores of Frenchman's Bay, land was cheap and good building sites were numerous.  Hence the first arrivals had a wide domain from which to select, and naturally chose the most picturesque and commanding situations for their summer homes.
The first tracts of land sold to non-residents were those along the storefront facing the bay and the distant ocean.  The restless moods of the ever-changing sea seemed to attract the earlier settlers, and they built their homes within hearing of its murmuring waves.  Then, when the more desirable of these sites were occupied, the next arrivals lifted their gaze  toward the hills over looking the village and found there charming and picturesque spots where the eye  might range over a grand panorama of bay and ocean, mountains and forests.
One of the earliest and most beautiful situated of these mountain eyries, the Thirlstane, built on Malden Hill over-looking Kebo Street by Mrs. Rebecca B. Scott of Washington D.C..  For years the house was occupied by that lady and her son, Mr. Owen Scott.  In the fall of 1897, after the death of Mrs. Scott, the estate was purchased by Col. Edward Morrell of Philadelphia;  and since last spring a crew of carpenters under the charge of A.E. Lawrence, contractor, has been busy making improvements and additions to the old house.
Today, Thirlstane is practically a new house.  A long, two story addition has been built to the kitchen wing.  the entrance hall and dinning room have been greatly enlarged and entirely remodeled;  and a wing forty feet in length has been built on the south end and finished for a study and library.  the piazza on the east front has been rebuilt and lengthened to cover the additions on each wing.  At the southwest corner a very handsome flight of granite steps connects this piazza with the garden in front of the house;  and a stone terrace with tiled floor has been built out over the brow of the hill on the northeast corner.
It is in the decoration and finish of the public rooms at Thirlstane, however, that the most wonderful transformation has been wrought.  All that art could desire and skill effect has been employed to render these apartments pleasing to the eye and convenient for the purposes for which they will be used.
The main hall extends across the entire width of the house, with windows on the east side overlooking the village and the bay, and a door opening on the piazza.  The original length of the hall has been much increased on the northern end and the apartment has now the dimensions of an old baronial hall.
The hall is entered from the west by double doors, with panels of leaded glass in beautiful floral designs of a golden amber tint.  On either side the doors are windows of the same design.  The wainscoting is of panel work;  and the walls and ceilings are plastered and tinted a rich warm green.  A large open fireplace surrounded by a handsome mantel make the dining room as it should be, the brightest room in the house.  A wide door, with plate glass panels gives access to the porch on the eastern side.  The floor, like that of the hall, is of quartered oak.
But the masterpiece of workmanship and art at Thirlatane, is the study, which formsm the new southern wing of the house.  Entering it, the visitor seems to leave this place and century, and find himself in some old english manor house of the Elizabethan period.
Every bit of woodwork in the room is oak.  The floor is of the most beautifully figured quartered oak;  the beams and rafters in the roof are of oak;  and the window seats, the book cases, and the settle by the fireplace all are oak.
A flight of three steps under a wide archway lead down from the parlor to this room which has a length of nearly forty feet and a width of twenty feet.  The oak panelled are eight and a half feet in heigth and are intersected by double casement windows of leaded glass, the architraves between them beautifully decoratecd with carved work.
The oak beams and rafters in the roof form panels which are filled in with plaster work.  The walls are surmounted by a carved frieze in sections four feet in length between the ends of the rafters.  three grinning faces, hideous dwarfs, and creatures of bygone ages, look down on the visitor from every corner;  and add to the antiquated style of the room.
In the eastern wall is an immerse fireplace, 4 x 6 feet in the open.  The face is built of Indiana limestone and the hearth is a single flagstone.  Stone corbels grin on either corner.  The heavy mantel twelve feet in length, is beautifully carved from one solid piece of oak.
All the fine carvings in this room were done by the boys of industrial school, Philadelphia.  The handsome oak paneling was also made in that city.  The work of building this wing, however, and fitting and putting the material together was all done under the superintenence of the contractor, Mr. A.E. Lawrence;  and this as well as the work in all other parts of the house, speaks well of his skill and good judgement.  The architects were Messrs Cope & Stewardson of Philadelphia, and Messrs Savage & Straton supervised the work as their local agents.
Modern plumbing of the latest mode and design has been introduced through out the house, Messrs Leighton Davenport & Co. doing the work.  The plumbing in the Butlers pantry is as fine a job of work as was ever done in town.  The double sink and long drain board and back, of fine German silver, is a beautiful and costly piece of workmanship.  The painting through out the house has been done by Graham & Tabbutt and shows both taste and skill.  The handsome stonework was built by George L. Wescott.
With its alterations and improvements Thirlstane is now one of the handsomest residences in Bar Harbor;  while its commanding situation gives its owners as fine a view as this beautiful region affords.




William Pierson Hamilton and his wife purchased Thirlstane Cottage from the Morrell's, Hamilton also purchased a good size horse farm in Salisbury Cove, named Thirlstane Farm, though I have been unable to learn if the Morrell's also had owned the horse farm.  Hamilton made improvements to the horse farm at Salisbury Cove and went on to enter some of the animals in the Bar Harbor horse shows held at Robin Hood Park.  The head florist at Thirlstane Cottage was a man named Joseph Cahill from Beverley, Mass..

BIG GUN AIMED IN DIRECTION OF DOWNTOWN BAR HARBOR
THE CASTLE OF HAMILTON HILL

REMAINS OF THIRLSTANE
HAMILTON HILL

THE CASTLE OF HAMILTON HILL
BAR HARBOR MAINE

DOORWAY INTO THE TOWER
HAMILTON HILL, BAR HARBOR

STEPS TO THE POOL
THE CASTLE OF HAMILTON  HILL

THE MANSION OF HAMILTON HILL
BAR HARBOR MAINE

FIRST OF THE UNDERGROUND ROOMS
THE CASTLE OF HAMILTON HILL

LONG UNDERGROUND HALLWAYS CONNECT ROOMS
CASTLE OF HAMILTON HILL

POOL - SMALL ROUND WINDOWS TO THE LEFT
BAR HARBOR'S VANISHING CASTLE

REMAINS OF THIRLSTANE
HAMILTON HILL, BAR HARBOR

REMAINS OF THIRLSTANE
BAR HARBOR

POOL WITH A MILLION DOLLAR VIEW
HAMILTON HILL, BAR HARBOR

REMAINS OF THIRLSTANE
BAR HARBOR

REMAINS OF THIRLSTANE
HAMILTON HILL, BAR HARBOR

REMAINS OF THIRLSTANE
BAR HARBOR - HAMILTON HILL

REMAINS OF THIRLSTANE
HAMILTON HILL - BAR HARBOR

VIEW FROM HAMILTON HILL
BAR HARBOR MAINE

VIEW FROM HAMILTON HILL
BAR HARBOR MAINE

BAR HARBOR'S VANISHING CASTLE
HAMILTON HILL - BAR HARBOR

STANDING GUARD ON HAMILTON HILL
BAR HARBOR

HAMILTON HILL
BAR HARBOR, MAINE

WALLS OF HAMILTON HILL CASTLE  - BAR HARBOR

HAMILTON HILL - BAR HARBOR MAINE
THE TOWER

As I was doing research on the history of the Bar Harbor Water company, I came across information that shows at one time Schoolhouse Hill was called Scott's Hill.  In this old post cad of Scott's Hill, you see this building to the left, I believe that building is Thirlstane, the cottage, which would of been right next to the area many refer to the Castle, where guests at Thirlstane where entertained.  When doing a search for images it is important to remember that there was two Thirlstane's, one located in Salisbury cove by Hamilton Pond which was a farm where they raised  show horses, and the one on Schoolhouse Hill - both properties were owned at one time by the same family.




To view even more photos, see my blog at the link below on The Castle of Schoolhouse Hill.

CASTLE OF SCHOOLHOUSE HILL

THE CRITERION
Cottage Street, Bar Harbor

HOMANS PROPERTY FOR SALE
W.H. SHERMAN & SON
Bar Harbor Maine

MORRELL PARK RIDING SCHOOL
Bar Harbor

M.F. RICHARDS HORSE SHOER
Bar Harbor

HOTEL EVERARD
Cottage Street, Bar Harbor

THE ISLESFORD HOTEL

THE NEWPORT HOTEL
Bar Harbor