By the late 1890s, more than 175 summer homes stood in Bar Harbor — called cottages by the families who built them, though the word strained under the weight of what they actually were. These were not people who merely arrived; they gave things. In 1881, two Philadelphia cottagers, De Grasse Fox and Brooks White, donated the land for St. Sylvia's Catholic Church, and architect William Ralph Emerson donated the building plans. Mrs. John S. Kennedy funded the YWCA building in 1913 to house the young women who came to work in those same cottages. Maria Van Antwerp DeWitt Jesup spent roughly $77,000 building the town's library, then added a $50,000 endowment to keep it running — and at the August 1911 dedication, signed the deed over to Bar Harbor outright. The library still stands. So does the church. The town they built outlasted them.
