Description: Handwritten on onionskin. Summary history of Somesville written for Northeast Harbor Women's Club. Note states the original was to be kept in Belle Knowles's safe.
Description: Looking north across Mill Pond to old Somes house near entrance to Oak Hill road. Shows horse cart on bridge Collected for "Mt. Desert: an Informal History"
Description: Photograph essay of springtime in the village of Somesville. Photographs include one showing the traditional black and white houses on Main Street. Published in Down East Magazine, June 1994.
Description: Three B/W photographs of "Pine Cottage" on Bar Island in Somesville. Two exterior; one interior. Photo 1826 a: View of house as it is approached from landing. Photo 1826 b: View of house from the Sound. Photo 1826 c: Living room.
Description: Looking from shore toward Somes House hotel ca. 1910. Collected for "Mount Desert: an Informal History". Digital image from Jeff Dobbs Productions.
Description: "Later [Abraham Somes] built a substantial frame house on the site of the Somes House and a part of that house is embodied in the present hotel. Some of the rooms at the back remain almost as they were at first. The house was built as a one-story building and later the walls were raised. Since then there have been many alterations and additions. George A. Somes finally inherited the property, developed the hotel business and built the two cottages toward the shore. His widow now owns it and conducts the hotel." - “Traditions and Records of Southwest Harbor and Somesville, Mount Desert Island, Maine” by Mrs. Seth S. Thornton, 1938, p. 270-271. “When George A. Somes inherited the [Somes House], he expanded the family inn by constructing two large additions, one attached at the left and the other freestanding to the right, giving the hotel a capacity of 150 guests. Noted visitors included Louis Comfort Tiffany, Alfred Vanderbilt, Joseph Pulitzer, J.P. Morgan, Pres. William Howard Taft, and Mary Cassatt. Known for its chicken and lobster dinners, the Somes House operated into the 1950s with rates of $5 to $10 a day." - “Mount Desert Island - Somesville, Southwest Harbor, and Northeast Harbor” by Earle G. Shettleworth Jr. and Lydia B. Vandenbergh - Images of America Series, 2001, p. 27. [show more]
Description: "The public library stands on the site where a building owned by A. C Fernald and used as an undertaker's shop and for the post-office was burned by lightning in 1891 with considerable loss in money as well as property. The land is owned by Mrs. George A. Somes and is leased to the library association, who built the present library in 1895-6." - “Traditions and Records of Southwest Harbor and Somesville, Mount Desert Island, Maine” by Mrs. Seth S. Thornton, 1938, p. 265. [show more]
Description: Henry R. Abel moved his lobster pound from Tremont to Mt. Desert in 1938. Abel’s Lobster Pound still exists in 2017 where Henry built it in 1938 at the edge of Somes Sound on Route 198.