Description: “It was nearly twenty years after Abraham Somes came with his family to make his home at Somesville before William Gilley, first permanent settler in Southwest Harbor, built his log cabin at Norwood's Cove on land now owned by the Southwest Harbor Country Club and which remained in the Gilley family from William's time to the date of selling to the present owners. William Gilley was at Cranberry Isles in 1777 and it was probably four or five years after that date that he went to Southwest Harbor and took up land, which was sheltered from the sea though close to it.” - “Traditions and Records of Southwest Harbor and Somesville, Mount Desert Island, Maine” by Mrs. Seth S. Thornton, 1938, p. 124. “The house now used as a Country Club house was the home of the Gilley family. William Gilley was the first permanent settler in Southwest Harbor and his first house was a log cabin near the shore. Later he built a house just north of the Gilley Burying Ground. Then John, William's grandson, the eldest son of Benjamin Gilley, built the house that is now the Country Club for his parents. He was under age and for his work on the house his father "gave him his time." The place passed from father to son in the Gilley family until Pedrick D. Gilley, fourth generation to own it, sold it to the present owners. The graves of the three generations preceding him are in the Gilley Burying Ground nearby.” - “Traditions and Records of Southwest Harbor and Somesville, Mount Desert Island, Maine” by Mrs. Seth S. Thornton, 1938, p. 131. [show more]
Description: The boatyard and adjacent home have a long history of maritime businesses and occupants. Capt. Lewis G. Stanley (1869-1957) was the son of Enoch B. (Sr.) and Caroline H. (Guptill) Stanley. Carrie Richardson was his sister. He was the husband of Leah Jeanette (Sawyer) Stanley. His house was on The Pool (presently the site of the Heliker-LaHotan Foundation), and he had a large boathouse that blew down in the storm of 1978.
Description: "The first reservation established by the Metropolitan Parks Commission (later the MDC) in 1893, Beaver Brook Reservation is 59 acres of open fields, wetlands and woodlands. Ponds, fields, marsh, and a cascading waterfall make the park's north section a delightful place to walk or picnic. The more developed south section features ballfields, a wading pool, and a tot lot. Beaver Brook's historic significance includes reminders of its past; the remains of a 19th century fulling mill, the historic Robert Morris Copeland House (c.1835) and a monument to the Waverly Oaks, perhaps the most famous trees of the 1890's." - “Beaver Brook Reservaton”, Massachusetts Government Department of Conservation and Recreation, Accessed online 03/30/10; http://www.mass.gov/dcr/parks/metroboston/beaver.htm [show more]
Description: "Just over the Manchester [Massachusetts] line in the western section of Gloucester is the major portion of the village of Magnolia at Magnolia Point, long one of the North Shore's most important hospitality tourism destinations… Originally a fishing and farming settlement, Magnolia had its beginnings as a summer resort center in the early 1870s with the construction of the first summer cottages there…" - “Summer By The Seaside: The Architecture of New England Coastal Resort Hotels, 1820-1950” by Bryant F. Tolles, Jr., p. 99, University Press of New England – 2008 [show more]
Description: “It was during a lumbering operation on the Fernald land toward Somesville in the winter of 1820 that Canada Hollow received its name. It was a very severe winter and stories of the extreme cold to the north were brought down from Canada. The choppers got the habit of referring to the location of their work as "Canada" believing that no place could be much colder, and the name has been used down through the years and now seems firmly fixed.” - “Traditions and Records of Southwest Harbor and Somesville, Mount Desert Island, Maine” by Mrs. Seth S. Thornton, p. 139 – 1938 [show more]
Description: “Bar Harbor Days” by Mrs. Burton Harrison with illustrations by Fenn and Hyde was published by Harper & Brothers, Franklin Square, New York, 1887.