There's a Place in Bar Harbor Where Secrets and Truths Are Meant to Be Revealed
The Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by Paradis Ace Hardware.
BAR HARBOR—In an expansive mansion on West Street in Bar Harbor, secrets are aired and rumors debunked.
Some of those secrets involve old maps of places like Bear Brook, which is near the Jackson Laboratory.
Some of those secrets involve past heroes in the community who wore headsets and relayed information.
And some? Some involve banners from almost-ancient celebrations run by Hayseeders, a group of just 40 men that has had an invitation-only ball each year for over a century.
Here’s the thing though: These secrets don’t want to be exclusive or hidden or unknown. They want to become truths and stories that are aired out, explored, celebrated, and supported. And rumors? They’re often begging to be debunked.
The mission of the Bar Harbor Historical Society is “to effectively display, preserve, and interpret Bar Harbor’s rich past through our unique collections ensuring access, enjoyment, and educational opportunities for all.”
The Bar Harbor Historical Society (BHHS) needs people to help it preserve precious pieces of the town’s history so that future generations can find these secret, special moments and artifacts, too.
“A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots,” Marcus Garvey said.
That’s also true about local history.
“A museum exists to preserve and display objects and images,” according to Jason Farago.
All of that takes money.
And it requires people’s interest, not just museum-savvy tourists popping by to learn about where they are visiting, but locals and donors who care enough about the town’s history to want to help preserve it.
Both the Bar Harbor Historical Society and Mount Desert Historical Society are engaging in outreach, thinking beyond the museums’ walls and bringing history and the story of history to people via art workshops, lectures, climate programs, speakers, plays, and even a traveling summer historian who brought history to the Mount Desert Island streets.
History can’t be contained to four walls and it can’t be a secret. Programming and exhibits that embrace the community are part of the Bar Harbor Historical Society’s goals.
HISTORY ON PARADE EVENT
This weekend, the Bar Harbor Historical Society held its annual benefit. Unlike most benefits, there was no silent auction or paddle raises. Instead, there was an adherence to its mission to share the secrets, facts, stories, and truths of Bar Harbor via its collections, pieces of the town’s collective history.
“The Bar Harbor Historical Society needs to raise money to preserve Bar Harbor’s history, and we are extremely grateful for the community coming out to support the conservation of objects from Bar Harbor’s shared history through their donations and continued support,” said Executive Director Erin Cough. “We consider this a beautiful prelude to our Adopt an Object campaign, where you’ll be able to adopt one of our artifacts to support its conservation!”
During the event, Jennifer Pictou told the history of some of those not-so-secret items. Lori Bartlett of Bartlett’s Bakery provided the cake to raffle. Board member Tom St.Germain catered the event with Adam Woodfin doing bar service. John Tercyak provided music with a perfect mix of personality and professionalism and skill. Flowers were arranged so beautifully by Board Secretary Kay Theede, Monika McCallion, Stephanie Norby, and Carolyn Rapkievian that many attendees couldn’t believe they were real.
Sometimes stories are like that, too. Sometimes it’s hard to know what’s real and what’s not. The BHHS helps people discover that on their own.
STORIES OF HEROES AND PLACES AND MOMENTS
The historical society holds stories in its objects and in the books that exist within its walls—some of them are the lone surviving copies by local authors or tomes about local history.
“Another story of Bar Harbor in World War I was that of the experimental radio station that Allessandro Fabbri set up, on a tower at Otter Cliffs. When war broke out, he was able to din into the minds of those in Washington the fact that he had achieved what no one else in America had, a guaranteed twenty-four hour contact with European radio stations,” wrote Richard Walden Hale in The story of Bar Harbor, an informal history recording one hundred and fifty years in the life of a community (1949). “The navy took over his station, enlarged it, made use of his radio compass, built a transmitter at Seawall which was handled by remote control, set up direct wires to Washington, and conducted most of its European traffic with the benefit of the radio reflection of the Mount Desert.”
That fire led to the evacuation of residents through Sieur de Monts tarn initially, Hale writes, but plans changed.
“Only one person was left behind, an aged man under mental treatment who three times returned to his house and twice was taken out, only to slip away from those in charge of him. These evacuees were sent out by the only available road, through Sieur de Monts Tarn, until that was closed, and then halted at the obvious point at which to rally, the open athletic field,” Hale wrote.
Hale also insisted that one of the great rumors of the event that the massive fire of 1947 started in the Dolliver’s dump was untrue.
He wrote, “Equally naturally, confusion automatically arose from the fact that the fire was reported as starting near Dolliver’s Dump, and a belief sprang up that it had started at or in Dolliver’s Dump. This was clearly not so. The author has walked over the ground in question, with the burnt ground still showing black, and has seen an untouched belt of pine trees between the place in which the spot fire was seen and Dolliver’s Dump.”
The magic of the BHHS is that it’s a place where you can discover which secrets are truths and which are just gossip and rumor.
Some of the artifacts that the BHHS is fundraising for is the operator headset and stool used by Ma Bell operators. During that same fire, the women who operated phone lines maintained the connections between the people being evacuated from Bar Harbor and the emergency workers.
THE BUILDING THAT HOUSES THE SOCIETY
The museum’s new adopt an object program will help preserve some of the delicate and the endangered artifacts of Bar Harbor’s history, including photos, textiles, books, maps, papers and even light fixtures and headsets. It also preserves bits of LaRochelle, the building that houses the BHHS.
At LaRochelle, even the building has a story to tell.
Built in 1903, La Rochelle sits on the shore-side of West Street in Bar Harbor.
“The architects were Andrews, Jaques & Rantoul—the estate was built for George Sullivan Bowdoin and Julia Grinnell Bowdoin,” according to the Society’s website. “The home was one of the first to be made of brick since there was no brick factory on Mount Desert Island.”
The forty-one room, 13,000-square foot chateaux made history just by being built with bricks. It hosted twenty bedrooms, and ten bathrooms on its original two-acre property.
Bowdoin was a J.P. Morgan partner and treasurer. His great-grandfather a founder of Bowdoin. He was also Alexander Hamilton’s great-grandson. Mrs. Bowdoin was related to Washington Irving.
”Before arriving in America, the Baudouins lived in La Rochelle, a seaport in Nouvelle, Aquitaine, France (hence the name of the estate, La Rochelle and New Rochelle in New York),” the website reads. “The translation of “La Rochelle” means “little rocks”. The Baudouins fled their country to find relief from religious persecution.”
Bun Cough and his family lived there until right after Bar Harbor’s fire in 1947
Ethel Dorrance Colket and Tristram Colket purchased La Rochelle from the Coughs. In 1972, the Colkets gave the site to the Maine Seacoast Mission. In 2019, the historical society purchased the building to preserve it as a special place to hold Bar Harbor’s history.
MORE PHOTOS
Photos (unless otherwise specified) by Carrie Jones/Bar Harbor Story
LINKS TO LEARN MORE
To explore some of Bar Harbor’s history, its secrets and its truths
Hours
Monday thru Saturday 10 am to 2 pm
Guided Tour
Learn about Bar Harbor’s history and La Rochelle in a comprehensive way with a lively, knowledgeable tour guide!
Guided tours will be held at 10 AM every Wednesday and Friday. Tickets can be purchased online now in advance below.
Guided Tour Prices
Guided Tour – $23;
Guided Tour (Seniors, students, veterans) – $21
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A really great article with great photos. Thanks Carrie