Description: In 1940 Southwest Harbor Motor Co. was the only AAA filling station in Southwest Harbor. Their phone number was 51-2. The brick building was converted to offices to rent in 1986-1987. The U.S. Post Office opened in the building on June 2, 1987. Ralph Warren Stanley (1929-2021) attended school in the elementary school on the present ellipse (behind the Gilley Plumbing building on the left of this photograph) before it was moved across the street to become a fire station and now [2011] the police station/town office. When the bank was housed at the Southwest Harbor Motor Co. Ralph would take his penny bank there to be unlocked and have the money deposited in his bank account. The lady in the bank would show him the big safe where is money would be kept. – Ralph Warren Stanley 01/17/11 Marion E. Newman (1890-1976), Mrs. Frederick Walter Wescott at the time, owned a yellow Stutz Bearcat that was destroyed in the fire. Marion was known for having invested in Coca Cola stock and holding on to it when others thought it worthless and sold their stock. – Ralph Warren Stanley, 03/31/14 [show more]
Description: The store, on Clark Point Road, was T.W. Jackson & Son, an IGA store. “R.B. Jackson [Richard Benson Jackson (1893-1959)] is having a building erected on his lot lately purchased from P.L. Sargent. A filling station and other conveniences will be established there, and the extensive grounds opened as a parking place. This will be a great convenience to the customers of the Jackson market.” – The Ellsworth American, Wednesday, April 15, 1936. "In the 1930s and 40s, Jackson's Market of Southwest Harbor sent a boat and operated a weekly market on the old steamboat wharf [on Little Cranberry Island] during the summer. In addition to meat and vegetables, a youthful stamp collector could find a small envelope of stamps inside each package of Brookfield butter." - “A History of Little Cranberry Island, Maine” by Hugh L. Dwelley, published by Isleford Historical Society, 1990, p. 114. In 2017, Christina's Gallery & Past Treasures, was located in the building once occupied by the Jackson Market. [show more]
Description: Howard Ernest Robinson (1896-1972) purchased site for the garage from Isaac F. Stanley in 1924. Howard built a garage there in 1928. He sold the garage and property to Earl Gordon (1893-1964) and Leslie Frank White (1891-1967) in 1929. They established the Gordon & White Garage. The Gordon & White garage, on Main Street in Southwest Harbor, was an Esso station and sold Fords, Mercurys and Kiekhaefer Mercury outboard motors. The gas pumps were removed in 1985 by the new owner, Tom Landers, who renamed the business Landers Ford. [show more]
Description: After earning an associate's degree from a college in northern Maine, Stanley returned to Southwest Harbor. Not sure what occupation he wanted to pursue, he decided to try to build a boat. So he earned the money he needed to buy wood and other construction materials and, during the winter of 1951-1952, he built a 28-foot lobster boat. The boat turned out well and a local person bought it. This led to orders for other boats. "I've been building (boats) ever since," he said. Stanley learned how to build boats not by apprenticing himself to another boatbuilder but mainly by keenly observing and using boats and by observing the activities of several professional boatbuilders who specialized in the Mt. Desert Island version of the Maine lobster boat. [show more]
Description: "A workshop stood for many years on the shore side of the road almost opposite the above-mentioned house. Many different families occupied the living apartment on the second floor. Work for the shipyard was done in the shop on the first floor. The shipyard was a busy place for many years and many small vessels and boats were constructed there." - “Traditions and Records of Southwest Harbor and Somesville, Mount Desert Island, Maine” by Mrs. Seth S. Thornton, 1938, p. 167. The schooner “Kate Newman” was built at Clark’s Point, Southwest Harbor in 1874. [show more]
Description: "There were several brickyards on the island. Deacon Clark made bricks from clay on his land and between the houses of Richard Carroll and F. A. Birlem on the Clark Point Road the depression from which the clay was taken may yet be seen." - “Traditions and Records of Southwest Harbor and Somesville, Mount Desert Island, Maine” by Mrs. Seth S. Thornton, 1938, p. 89. According to Ralph Stanley the clay was dug from the stream coming down the hill between what are now two properties and the bricks were made across the road on the shore. – Ralph Stanley 2015. [show more]