The Criterion Theatre is a cinema, performance theatre, and venue located on Cottage Street in Bar Harbor, Maine. It opened in June 1932 featuring vaudeville performances and movies during a time when Bar Harbor's summer scene was at its height. Today it is one of only two Art Deco theaters in the state of Maine and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The 760 seat theatre was built for a convicted bootlegger named George McKay. After his release from federal prison, McKay solicited bids for constructions of a glamorous movie palace. The high bid of $95,206 was beat by Bunker & Savage Architects of Augusta, Maine who built the theatre in just six months for a contract price of $58,000. That's about $900,000 in today's dollars, a surprisingly low figure for such a magnificent structure. A $2 million dollar contribution from an anonymous donor in 2014 made possible the purchase and restoration of the Criterion which now operates as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization committed to safeguarding this historic space for stories, storytellers, and audiences. Today, almost everything in the building is original or as close as possible to it, including the light fixtures, curtains, seats, and stencils on the ceiling.
Description: The Criterion Theatre is a cinema, performance theatre, and venue located on Cottage Street in Bar Harbor, Maine. It opened in June 1932 featuring vaudeville performances and movies during a time when Bar Harbor's summer scene was at its height. Today it is one of only two Art Deco theaters in the state of Maine and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The 760 seat theatre was built for a convicted bootlegger named George McKay. After his release from federal prison, McKay solicited bids for constructions of a glamorous movie palace. The high bid of $95,206 was beat by Bunker & Savage Architects of Augusta, Maine who built the theatre in just six months for a contract price of $58,000. That's about $900,000 in today's dollars, a surprisingly low figure for such a magnificent structure. A $2 million dollar contribution from an anonymous donor in 2014 made possible the purchase and restoration of the Criterion which now operates as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization committed to safeguarding this historic space for stories, storytellers, and audiences. Today, almost everything in the building is original or as close as possible to it, including the light fixtures, curtains, seats, and stencils on the ceiling. [show more]
Founded in 1905 to provide access to medical and dental care, spiritual support, education, and crisis services to the islands, lighthouses, and isolated coastal communities around Mount Desert Island. The first of the Mission's ships, the Sunbeam, was commissioned in 1912. The current vessel (in 2017) serving the mission is the Sunbeam V. "Founded in 1905 by two brothers, Angus and Alexander MacDonald, [the purpose of the Maine Seacoast Mission Society] was "to undertake religious and benevolent work with the people in the neglected communities and among the isolated families along the coast and on the islands" (from the Society's by-laws). The Society maintained a mission for three decades on Head Harbor Island (1910-1940) and another intermittently for some years on Crowley (Moose) Island in the Indian River. Its vessels - initially the sloop Hope, followed by the Morning Star and later by the steam and diesel-powered Sunbeams I, II, III, and IV - cruised regularly back and forth along the coast, summer and winter, to maintain contact with the missions as well as to visit other islanders, including the life saving and lighthouse crews at the fifteen or more island stations in our sector. Alexander MacDonald, a large and impulsive man (who once physically removed a heckler from his church at Frenchboro), was the first pastor as well as captain of the Mission's vessels; he died aboard Sunbeam I in 1922. He was succeeded by the Reverend Orville J. Guptill and in 1935 by the Reverend Neal D. Bousfield, who served for thirty-seven years (to 1972). The work of the society continues." - "Islands Of The Mid-Maine Coast, Vol.II: Mount Desert To Machias Bay" by Charles B. McLane. Falmouth, Maine, The Kennebec River Press, Inc., c. l989, pp 22-23. - "Islands Of The Mid-Maine Coast, Vol.II: Mount Desert To Machias Bay" by Charles B. McLane. Falmouth, Maine, The Kennebec River Press, Inc., c. l989, pp 22-23.
Description: Founded in 1905 to provide access to medical and dental care, spiritual support, education, and crisis services to the islands, lighthouses, and isolated coastal communities around Mount Desert Island. The first of the Mission's ships, the Sunbeam, was commissioned in 1912. The current vessel (in 2017) serving the mission is the Sunbeam V. "Founded in 1905 by two brothers, Angus and Alexander MacDonald, [the purpose of the Maine Seacoast Mission Society] was "to undertake religious and benevolent work with the people in the neglected communities and among the isolated families along the coast and on the islands" (from the Society's by-laws). The Society maintained a mission for three decades on Head Harbor Island (1910-1940) and another intermittently for some years on Crowley (Moose) Island in the Indian River. Its vessels - initially the sloop Hope, followed by the Morning Star and later by the steam and diesel-powered Sunbeams I, II, III, and IV - cruised regularly back and forth along the coast, summer and winter, to maintain contact with the missions as well as to visit other islanders, including the life saving and lighthouse crews at the fifteen or more island stations in our sector. Alexander MacDonald, a large and impulsive man (who once physically removed a heckler from his church at Frenchboro), was the first pastor as well as captain of the Mission's vessels; he died aboard Sunbeam I in 1922. He was succeeded by the Reverend Orville J. Guptill and in 1935 by the Reverend Neal D. Bousfield, who served for thirty-seven years (to 1972). The work of the society continues." - "Islands Of The Mid-Maine Coast, Vol.II: Mount Desert To Machias Bay" by Charles B. McLane. Falmouth, Maine, The Kennebec River Press, Inc., c. l989, pp 22-23. - "Islands Of The Mid-Maine Coast, Vol.II: Mount Desert To Machias Bay" by Charles B. McLane. Falmouth, Maine, The Kennebec River Press, Inc., c. l989, pp 22-23. [show more]
"A. Bird Cough [Adoniram Bird Cough] has opened a most attractive store at 26 Cottage Street. The store is stocked with a fine line of groceries and the usual vegetable lines." - The Bar Harbor Record, June 16, 1909 - quoted in The Bar Harbor Times, June 18, 2009, p. 34. A. Bird Cough was Daniel and Elvira's son Adoniram Bird Cough (1872-1949) who opened his store in Bar Harbor in the 6th building from Main Street on the south side of Cottage Street, a site occupied by Cadillac Mt. Sports in 2013.
Description: "A. Bird Cough [Adoniram Bird Cough] has opened a most attractive store at 26 Cottage Street. The store is stocked with a fine line of groceries and the usual vegetable lines." - The Bar Harbor Record, June 16, 1909 - quoted in The Bar Harbor Times, June 18, 2009, p. 34. A. Bird Cough was Daniel and Elvira's son Adoniram Bird Cough (1872-1949) who opened his store in Bar Harbor in the 6th building from Main Street on the south side of Cottage Street, a site occupied by Cadillac Mt. Sports in 2013. [show more]
“…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]
A landmark along the Shore Path was the Musgrave Tea Tower. In 1881, New York banker Thomas Musgrave built Edgemere, a Shingle-style cottage designed by William R. Emerson. Five years later he added a second cottage, Mare Vista, to his property. Musgrave's tower contained a second-floor tearoom and an attached bowling alley and dance hall." - "Bar Harbor" by Earle G. Shettleworth Jr., Postcard Series, Arcadia Publishing, Charleston, South Carolina, 2011, p. 50. The Musgrave Tea Tower was built by Thomas Bateson Musgrave (1831-1903) and his wife, Frances 'Fannie' Eleanor (Jones) Musgrave. Archivists researching the life of the Musgraves embark upon a sea of stories combining opulence, litigation and controversy.
Description: A landmark along the Shore Path was the Musgrave Tea Tower. In 1881, New York banker Thomas Musgrave built Edgemere, a Shingle-style cottage designed by William R. Emerson. Five years later he added a second cottage, Mare Vista, to his property. Musgrave's tower contained a second-floor tearoom and an attached bowling alley and dance hall." - "Bar Harbor" by Earle G. Shettleworth Jr., Postcard Series, Arcadia Publishing, Charleston, South Carolina, 2011, p. 50. The Musgrave Tea Tower was built by Thomas Bateson Musgrave (1831-1903) and his wife, Frances 'Fannie' Eleanor (Jones) Musgrave. Archivists researching the life of the Musgraves embark upon a sea of stories combining opulence, litigation and controversy. [show more]