Description: The picture shows one of the earliest views of Main Street. The house at the far right is the home of Jacob Schoppy Mayo on Clark Point Road.
Description: The Adelbert Alden Gilley house at 12 Maple Lane, Map 6 – Lot 102, Southwest Harbor can be seen in the reflection of the window of the Ralph store.
Description: There are several street lamps visible in the photograph - the one on the right is different from the others. The lamp post on the left is at the corner of Clark Point Road. The building with the overhang beyond it is the Odd Fellows building. The building on the right is J.C. Ralph's Studio - Optician and Jeweler - and the Post Office. A man is standing in the door of the Post Office and a man standing in front of Ralph's Studio. The photograph was taken soon after John Ralph moved his store and expanded it. “In 1897, the different societies in the village combined to raise funds for street lights. The lamps were bought and placed near those houses whose owners were willing to furnish the kerosene and keep the lamps trimmed and lighted. These lamps did duty until the installation of electricity in the summer of 1917.” - “Traditions and Records of Southwest Harbor and Somesville, Mount Desert Island, Maine” by Mrs. Seth S. Thornton, 1938, p. 124. [show more]
Description: "Ped" Sargent's house is just visible to the rear of the gasoline station. The filling station was located in the space occupied by the Post Office parking lot in 2017.
Description: The photograph shows the Hotel Holmes and part of the Holmes Store on the left. Postcard Details: Date: c.1909 Media: Real Photo Title: Holmes House, Southwest Harbor, ME. Subject: Holmes Store and Hotel Holmes Photographer: Unknown Publisher: Eastern Illustrating Co., Belfast, Maine Number: 28
Description: The Claremont Hotel is a historic hotel on Claremont Road in Southwest Harbor, Maine. Built in 1883, the main hotel building is one of the only 19th-century hotels to survive on Mount Desert Island. “In 1883, Capt. Jesse Pease and his wife, Grace Clark Pease, hired Edward Glover to build a four-story hotel. The Claremont Hotel opened in June 1884.” - The Ellsworth American – October 24, 2002. "The Claremont Hotel was built in 1883-4 by Capt. Jesse H. Pease and was opened to guests in the summer of '84. After the death of Capt. Pease in 1900, his wife successfully conducted the hotel for some seasons and then sold it to Dr. J.D. Phillips, who, with his son. Lawrence D. Phillips, now conducts it as a summer hostlery. Some years after acquiring it [circa 1911] Dr. Phillips purchased the Pemetic Hotel or "The Castle" as it was sometimes called, a building which Deacon Clark erected about 1878 as a rooming house in connection with his summer hotel. This stood in the woods across the road and east of the Island Cottage. It was moved to the Claremont lot and made a part of the hotel. Dr. Phillips has greatly enlarged and improved the hotel during his ownership and it has always been a popular place, commanding as it does a splendid view of Somes Sound and the harbor, with the hills in the background. The fiftieth anniversary of the hotel was observed in 1934 with interesting excercises." - Traditions and Records of Southwest Harbor and Somesville, Mount Desert Island, Maine by Mrs. Seth S. Thornton, p. 168 - 1938. The main building of the Claremont was built in 1883 by Jesse Pease, a retired sea captain, and was one of the first large hotels to be built on Mount Desert Island. It is a 3-1/2 story wood frame structure, finished in clapboards, with a cross-gabled hip roof and a stone foundation. The main (west-facing) facade is seven bays wide, with a simple port-cochere near the south end providing entrance to the building. A single-story porch wraps around the south and east facades (the latter facing Somes Sound). From the eastern facade a broad lawn extends down to the waterfront, where there is a boathouse. The interior has been modernized, but with attention to maintaining original Victorian features. On March 29, 1978 the Claremont Hotel was listed in the National Register of Historic Places - #78000162. [show more]