Southwest Harbor (Village Waterfront)

After the Civil War, Southwest Harbor was the first destination on Mount Desert Island for summer visitors — before Bar Harbor captured the Gilded Age crowd. The town incorporated in 1905 after splitting from Tremont over a school dispute. It remains the largest municipality on the island's quieter western side, a working harbor where the Hinckley Yacht Company has built boats since 1928. The Coast Guard still operates here. The famous resorts are twenty-five minutes east. This is what the island looked like before it got famous.