By the late 1890s, more than 175 summer homes stood in Bar Harbor — though "homes" undersells it, and "cottages" undersells it further. The people who built them called the structures cottages either because the word seemed appropriately rustic against their winter residences, or because they imagined themselves arriving at something wilder. Either way, they called themselves "rusticators." Colonel William F. Holland of Savannah built both Graycote Cottage and Primrose Cottage on the avenue that still bears his name, both in 1878; Graycote is now on the National Register of Historic Places. Baron Hengelmuller — Austro-Hungarian Ambassador to the United States until the outbreak of World War I — summered at Castlemaine Cottage.
- ·Maria Van Antwerp DeWitt Jesup, widow of New York financier Morris K. Jesup, personally funded construction of the Jesup Memorial Library and presented it to the town of Bar Harbor at a dedication ceremony on Wednesday, August 30, 1911; she also gave a $50,000 endowment fund for the library's ongoing maintenance, separate from construction costs (reported at roughly $70,000-$77,000 depending on source). [Confirmed via jesuplibrary.org/jesup-dedication for funding, date, and $50,000 endowment; HMDB marker m=260207 confirms $77,000 construction cost figure.]
- ·At the library's 1911 dedication, the Rt. Rev. William Lawrence, Bishop of Massachusetts, presided and offered the dedication prayer; Thomas De Witt Cuyler presented the memorial on Mrs. Jesup's behalf; and Hon. L. B. Deasy, chairman of the library trustees, gave the acceptance address. Deeds to the property were formally transferred (signed over) to the Bar Harbor Village Library Corporation at the ceremony. [Confirmed verbatim via jesuplibrary.org/jesup-dedication.]
- ·Mrs. John S. Kennedy, another Gilded Age summer cottager, funded construction of the Bar Harbor YWCA building in 1913, built specifically to house young women who came to town to work as domestic staff in the summer cottages. [Confirmed verbatim via the cited HMDB historical marker m=260207: "Mrs. John S. Kennedy had the YWCA built in 1913 to provide housing for young women who came to town to work in the many summer cottages."]
- ·In 1881, cottagers De Grasse Fox and Brooks White of Philadelphia donated the land for St. Sylvia's Catholic Church, Bar Harbor's first Catholic church building, and architect William Ralph Emerson donated the building plans. [Confirmed via the cited buildingsofnewengland.com/2021/10/14/st-sylvias-catholic-church-1881-1909/ article, though note that source describes Emerson as a "Maine architect," not "of Boston."]
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Editorial content compiled with AI assistance. Place details verified against public records.