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: The settlement of Hall Quarry in located in the town of Mount Desert on Mount Desert Island and was home to a granite quarry. The quarry's location alongside of Somes Sound proved very beneficial, as it allowed the schooners to land very close to the quarry to load the granite and transport it to various ports.
Description: Box 1 - Folder 1: Letter from Aunt May [Savage] to Cora Mae [Phillips Perry], February 23, 1924 Letter from Ernestine Savage to Cora May [Perry], March 9, 1950 - Folder 2: Photograph album with 14 photographs of Harbourside Inn, Journey's End, and Grey Rock Harbourside Inn menus, 1 handwritten and 1 typed, August 1971 Newsletter, Knowles News, Spring 2005 - Folder 3: Photograph, Lewellyn and Dot Damon, ca. 1950 Photograph, Laura Damon Cross, Bruce Damon, Carol Damon Dana, ca. 1950 - Scrapbook, poetry clippings - Scrapbook, Emily N. Phillips Reynolds, 1897, diplomas from Maud Trask and greeting cards - Publications: Official Journal and Yearbook of the 71st Session of the East Maine Conference, Methodist Episcopal Church, 1918 Apollo: An illustrated manual of the History of Art throughout the ages, 1908 [show more]
Description: Collection of documents pertaining to Samuel and George Hadlock, their stores, schooners Hadlock and Minerva, and other topics. In 2018, Rosie Silvers discoverd this collection of early Hadlock papers at Wikhegan Books in Northeast Harbor, Maine. Several generous islanders from Great Cranberry and Little Cranberry (Islesford) purchased this collection which now resides at GCIHS, catalogued as 2018.419.2285 through 2289. All documents except the advertisements and bill heads referred to in 2018.419.2288 have been scanned. (Descriptions for this collection were provided by Joanne Fuerst, Wikhegan Books. GCIHS welcomes your transcriptions or comments on individual documents: info@gcihs.org.) [show more]
Description: J.L. Stanley started the fishery in 1874. He expanded it and made his sons partners as they came of age. “J.L. Stanley has commenced to cut ice on his Lily pond and has put in one day’s hauling, in his ice house, of very superior quality and about ten inches thick.” – Bar Harbor Record, Thursday, January 19, 1888. "The ice dealers have nearly finished filling their ice houses. The weather of the last week was exceptionally good for their work, and the opportunity was improved. Three houses are filled by sluicing direct from the pond. John L. Stanley & Sons put up about 1,300 tons. They have about twenty five men employed cutting and sluicing. W.H. Ward put up about 1,000 tons, and has twenty men employed." - The Ellsworth American, Wednesday, February 12, 1902 - Manset news. Stanley had his own ice pond for the Fishery. There are several photographs of the ice harvesting operation at the pond. Part of the fishery was destroyed by fire in 1918, shortly before J.L. Stanley was prepared to retire. He continued the business to recoup the loss. The business was sold in 1928 after his death to C.W. Marion. The business was sold again in 1944 to William Sklaroff and again around 1955 to four brothers. J.L. Stanley Fisheries was completely destroyed by fire on April 12, 1967. [show more]