This Freeman House, which burned in February 1894, was built c1825 by John Clark, brother of Deacon H.H. Clark, as a residence. The hotel was enlarged from the house and opened during the Civil War. The building stood on the site later occupied by Dr. J.D. Phillips residence, Phillips Lane, Southwest Harbor. See also Thornton, page 152, which has an excellent photograph of The Freeman House. - MH 2005 - Traditions and Records of Southwest Harbor and Somesville, Mount Desert Island, Maine by Mrs. Seth S. Thornton - 1938.
Description: This Freeman House, which burned in February 1894, was built c1825 by John Clark, brother of Deacon H.H. Clark, as a residence. The hotel was enlarged from the house and opened during the Civil War. The building stood on the site later occupied by Dr. J.D. Phillips residence, Phillips Lane, Southwest Harbor. See also Thornton, page 152, which has an excellent photograph of The Freeman House. - MH 2005 - Traditions and Records of Southwest Harbor and Somesville, Mount Desert Island, Maine by Mrs. Seth S. Thornton - 1938. [show more]
"The Island House, owned by Deacon Henry H. Clark, was the first summer hotel on Mount Desert Island. Deacon Clark began the hotel business by taking into his hospitable home the first occasional tourists who came to the island for a short stay. He gradually enlarged his house until in 1885 it was entirely remodeled and did a thriving business, employing many of the townspeople during the summer season." - Traditions and Records of Southwest Harbor and Somesville, Mount Desert Island, Maine by Mrs. Seth S. Thornton, p. 174 - 1938.
Description: "The Island House, owned by Deacon Henry H. Clark, was the first summer hotel on Mount Desert Island. Deacon Clark began the hotel business by taking into his hospitable home the first occasional tourists who came to the island for a short stay. He gradually enlarged his house until in 1885 it was entirely remodeled and did a thriving business, employing many of the townspeople during the summer season." - Traditions and Records of Southwest Harbor and Somesville, Mount Desert Island, Maine by Mrs. Seth S. Thornton, p. 174 - 1938. [show more]
Description: The MDI Register shows Minnie A. (Young) Harper - Mrs. John William Harper as the proprietor of this hotel. She is listed as having a telephone.
“…the…Hotel Porcupine, later the Florence (1887; burned, 1918), a Main Street, five-story rectangular block with Shingle-style features and a strong sense of verticality represented by its stacked window bays, bay roof caps, steep-pitched roof planes, and tall, corbelled brick chimneys…represented [with the larger Malvern Hotel] an impressive conclusion to Bar Harbor’s opulent Victorian hotel era.” - “Summer By The Seaside: The Architecture of New England Coastal Resort Hotels, 1820-1950” by Bryant F. Tolles, Jr., p. 165, 170, University Press of New England – 2008 - An excellent study including information about The Island House in Southwest Harbor and its place in the range of hotels on the island during this period along with a very complete history of many of the Bar Harbor hotels.
Description: “…the…Hotel Porcupine, later the Florence (1887; burned, 1918), a Main Street, five-story rectangular block with Shingle-style features and a strong sense of verticality represented by its stacked window bays, bay roof caps, steep-pitched roof planes, and tall, corbelled brick chimneys…represented [with the larger Malvern Hotel] an impressive conclusion to Bar Harbor’s opulent Victorian hotel era.” - “Summer By The Seaside: The Architecture of New England Coastal Resort Hotels, 1820-1950” by Bryant F. Tolles, Jr., p. 165, 170, University Press of New England – 2008 - An excellent study including information about The Island House in Southwest Harbor and its place in the range of hotels on the island during this period along with a very complete history of many of the Bar Harbor hotels. [show more]