The Claremont Hotel is a historic hotel on Claremont Road in Southwest Harbor, Maine. Built in 1883, the main hotel building is one of the only 19th-century hotels to survive on Mount Desert Island. “In 1883, Capt. Jesse Pease and his wife, Grace Clark Pease, hired Edward Glover to build a four-story hotel. The Claremont Hotel opened in June 1884.” - The Ellsworth American – October 24, 2002. "The Claremont Hotel was built in 1883-4 by Capt. Jesse H. Pease and was opened to guests in the summer of '84. After the death of Capt. Pease in 1900, his wife successfully conducted the hotel for some seasons and then sold it to Dr. J.D. Phillips, who, with his son. Lawrence D. Phillips, now conducts it as a summer hostlery. Some years after acquiring it [circa 1911] Dr. Phillips purchased the Pemetic Hotel or "The Castle" as it was sometimes called, a building which Deacon Clark erected about 1878 as a rooming house in connection with his summer hotel. This stood in the woods across the road and east of the Island Cottage. It was moved to the Claremont lot and made a part of the hotel. Dr. Phillips has greatly enlarged and improved the hotel during his ownership and it has always been a popular place, commanding as it does a splendid view of Somes Sound and the harbor, with the hills in the background. The fiftieth anniversary of the hotel was observed in 1934 with interesting excercises." - Traditions and Records of Southwest Harbor and Somesville, Mount Desert Island, Maine by Mrs. Seth S. Thornton, p. 168 - 1938. The main building of the Claremont was built in 1883 by Jesse Pease, a retired sea captain, and was one of the first large hotels to be built on Mount Desert Island. It is a 3-1/2 story wood frame structure, finished in clapboards, with a cross-gabled hip roof and a stone foundation. The main (west-facing) facade is seven bays wide, with a simple port-cochere near the south end providing entrance to the building. A single-story porch wraps around the south and east facades (the latter facing Somes Sound). From the eastern facade a broad lawn extends down to the waterfront, where there is a boathouse. The interior has been modernized, but with attention to maintaining original Victorian features. On March 29, 1978 the Claremont Hotel was listed in the National Register of Historic Places - #78000162.
Description: The Claremont Hotel is a historic hotel on Claremont Road in Southwest Harbor, Maine. Built in 1883, the main hotel building is one of the only 19th-century hotels to survive on Mount Desert Island. “In 1883, Capt. Jesse Pease and his wife, Grace Clark Pease, hired Edward Glover to build a four-story hotel. The Claremont Hotel opened in June 1884.” - The Ellsworth American – October 24, 2002. "The Claremont Hotel was built in 1883-4 by Capt. Jesse H. Pease and was opened to guests in the summer of '84. After the death of Capt. Pease in 1900, his wife successfully conducted the hotel for some seasons and then sold it to Dr. J.D. Phillips, who, with his son. Lawrence D. Phillips, now conducts it as a summer hostlery. Some years after acquiring it [circa 1911] Dr. Phillips purchased the Pemetic Hotel or "The Castle" as it was sometimes called, a building which Deacon Clark erected about 1878 as a rooming house in connection with his summer hotel. This stood in the woods across the road and east of the Island Cottage. It was moved to the Claremont lot and made a part of the hotel. Dr. Phillips has greatly enlarged and improved the hotel during his ownership and it has always been a popular place, commanding as it does a splendid view of Somes Sound and the harbor, with the hills in the background. The fiftieth anniversary of the hotel was observed in 1934 with interesting excercises." - Traditions and Records of Southwest Harbor and Somesville, Mount Desert Island, Maine by Mrs. Seth S. Thornton, p. 168 - 1938. The main building of the Claremont was built in 1883 by Jesse Pease, a retired sea captain, and was one of the first large hotels to be built on Mount Desert Island. It is a 3-1/2 story wood frame structure, finished in clapboards, with a cross-gabled hip roof and a stone foundation. The main (west-facing) facade is seven bays wide, with a simple port-cochere near the south end providing entrance to the building. A single-story porch wraps around the south and east facades (the latter facing Somes Sound). From the eastern facade a broad lawn extends down to the waterfront, where there is a boathouse. The interior has been modernized, but with attention to maintaining original Victorian features. On March 29, 1978 the Claremont Hotel was listed in the National Register of Historic Places - #78000162. [show more]
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
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]
Left to Right: Unknown man Joseph Christopher Lawlor (1925-2002) Christopher Wendell Lawlor (1893-1956) Chris, like many people of his time, used the chassis or wheels or parts of a worn out Ford Model A automobiles or trucks as the base for his hay and ice wagons. The wagon shown here has Model A. wheels.
Description: Left to Right: Unknown man Joseph Christopher Lawlor (1925-2002) Christopher Wendell Lawlor (1893-1956) Chris, like many people of his time, used the chassis or wheels or parts of a worn out Ford Model A automobiles or trucks as the base for his hay and ice wagons. The wagon shown here has Model A. wheels.
Description: Fred Mayo holding a wooden ice cream bucket. The building at the far right is the James A. Freeman House (the Inn at Southwest Harbor as of 2016).
The business started when Jimmy moved an old building he had been using to house chickens from his property on Clark Point Road, to the end of Clark Point and began to sell lobsters from it. He then expanded it in to a lunch room and installed gas pumps out front.
Description: The business started when Jimmy moved an old building he had been using to house chickens from his property on Clark Point Road, to the end of Clark Point and began to sell lobsters from it. He then expanded it in to a lunch room and installed gas pumps out front.
Description: Lawler purchased the building in 1923. The other half of the building was occupied by the Robinson Brother's Automobile Accessories salesroom
Started as a contracting business in 1949, Archie McEachern bought out his uncle Jasper Hutchins in 1957 and transitioned the business to a lumber and hardware supply. The store expanded to multiple locations and was taken over by Archie's son, Les.
Description: Started as a contracting business in 1949, Archie McEachern bought out his uncle Jasper Hutchins in 1957 and transitioned the business to a lumber and hardware supply. The store expanded to multiple locations and was taken over by Archie's son, Les.
John C. Ralph’s Studio has a complicated history. The J.C. Ralph Studio and Store, on Main Street in Southwest Harbor, proclaimed itself, "Eyeglasses and Spectacles - Jeweler and Optician." "Jeweler John C. Ralph moved from Bar Harbor to Southwest Harbor in 1888 to open a jewelry window in J.T.R. Freeman's store. Over the course of his 22-year tenure in Southwest Harbor, this ambitious man established many businesses...As described in the newspaper, Ralph never walked when he could run." -“Mount Desert Island - Somesville, Southwest Harbor, and Northeast Harbor” by Earle G. Shettleworth Jr. and Lydia B. Vandenbergh - Images of America Series, p. 57 – 2001. “John D. Lurvey purchased the lot and built thereon a small building which he used as a storehouse for coffins which he made, as he was a skilled carpenter and cabinet maker. Later this building was used as a public library and was twice moved; once to the northern end of the lot and again to the place now occupied by the Lawton Variety store, where it was used as a drug store, a jeweler’s store, a barber shop and the post office. John C. Ralph kept the post office there and enlarged the building.” - “Traditions and Records of Southwest Harbor and Somesville, Mount Desert Island, Maine” by Mrs. Seth S. Thornton, p. 148 – 1938.
Description: John C. Ralph’s Studio has a complicated history. The J.C. Ralph Studio and Store, on Main Street in Southwest Harbor, proclaimed itself, "Eyeglasses and Spectacles - Jeweler and Optician." "Jeweler John C. Ralph moved from Bar Harbor to Southwest Harbor in 1888 to open a jewelry window in J.T.R. Freeman's store. Over the course of his 22-year tenure in Southwest Harbor, this ambitious man established many businesses...As described in the newspaper, Ralph never walked when he could run." -“Mount Desert Island - Somesville, Southwest Harbor, and Northeast Harbor” by Earle G. Shettleworth Jr. and Lydia B. Vandenbergh - Images of America Series, p. 57 – 2001. “John D. Lurvey purchased the lot and built thereon a small building which he used as a storehouse for coffins which he made, as he was a skilled carpenter and cabinet maker. Later this building was used as a public library and was twice moved; once to the northern end of the lot and again to the place now occupied by the Lawton Variety store, where it was used as a drug store, a jeweler’s store, a barber shop and the post office. John C. Ralph kept the post office there and enlarged the building.” - “Traditions and Records of Southwest Harbor and Somesville, Mount Desert Island, Maine” by Mrs. Seth S. Thornton, p. 148 – 1938. [show more]