Building of the Arts 6/6/2015 Athens In The Wilderness PORTLAND MAGAZINE. V. 29,#2 March 28 2014 Brad Emerson By 1888, when the Kebo Valley Golf Club-then only the eighth golf club in America-was founded, Bar Harbor had become an international destination. The clubhouse was a new social center away from the hotels, where the cottagers often found themselves mixing, to their distaste, with the hoi polloi. In addition to golf and tennis, the clubhouse's sweeping lawns and elegant verandas provided a place for Society to promenade in the afternoon, and a theater provided a spot for performances and balls. In 1899, the clubhouse burned. A new one was built, but without a theater. By 1905, this absence was felt, and a few leaders of the summer community decided to build for the Arts a facility as fine as those already provided for the Amusements (Yachting, Drinking, Golf, and Tennis). A site was chosen at the edge of the Kebo's putting green, which would double as an outdoor amphitheater. Five members of the summer colony financed the project: Mrs. Henry Dimock; George W. Vanderbilt; George B Dorr, who would later found Acadia National Park; Henry Lane Eno, whose forebears built New York's original Fifth Avenue Hotel; and Mrs. Robert Abbe. For the design, the group commissioned Guy Lowell, architect of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. The original theatre at Kebo Valley had been in the Shingle Style, but taste had changed, and it was decided that a Greek temple under the pine trees would provide the most appropriate setting for the arts. Unlike the ancient structures that inspired it, this temple was not built of marble, but stucco, "finished to represent Parian marble." According to The New York Times, the red Venetian tile roof was supported by "the largest wooden columns ever turned in Maine." Copies of the Parthenon friezes were imported from Paris and mounted on the facade. Inside, the walls and ceiling of the stage and proscenium adapted principles of sounding boards in the great German concert halls, and natural lighting was provided "from the top after the manner of the ancient Greek shrines. The proscenium's curtain was of elaborately embroidered gold English damask specially woven for the building, the joint gift of George Vanderbilt and Mrs. John Inness Kane, whose late husband was the great-grandson of John Jacob Astor. The new Bar Harbor "Temple for the Arts" attracted national attention, with articles in The Architectural Review as well as Century Magazine and The New York Times. The opening concert on June 13, 1907, featuring the great soprano Emma Eames was followed over the years by many more of the world's musical greats, perhaps more than any other hall in Maine except Portland's City Hall. Among those who came were violinists Kreisler, Zimbalist, and Kneisel; singers Alma Gluck and Roger de Bruyn; pianists Paderewski, Schelling, Horowitz, and Iturbe; conductors Damrosch and Stokowski, and even monologists Ruth Draper and Cornelia Otis Skinner. In addition to music, the building hosted 'serious' lectures and art exhibits, and presented theatrical troupes including the Washington Square Players, The Theatre Workshop, and the local Surry Players, whose numbers included a young actor named Henry Fonda. http://www.portlandmonthly.com/portmag/2014/03/athens-in-the-wilderness/ 2/5 6/6/2015 Athens In The Wilderness PORTLAND MAGAZINE Society has always loved dress-up, and in the early years many amateur tableaux were performed there, including a 1909 Greek pageant arranged by Mrs. Albert Clifford Barney, mother of the saloniste Natalie Barney. One hundred and fifty prominent members of the summer colony danced about the grounds dressed in diaphanous garb as nymphs and shepherdesses (it was the age of Isadora Duncan) to interpret the tale of the love of Egeria for the mortal Strephon. Another tableau featured socialites recreating favorite portraits. Mrs. John Jacob Astor IV was a Reynolds beauty in picture hat, a Miss Maull balanced Mrs. Astor as a Gainsborough portrait, Miss Mary Canfield and John J. Emery Jr. portrayed a Watteau shepherd and shepherdess. Mrs. Ernest Schelling enacted a Polish farm scene with costumes she'd brought from Poland, and family-proud Albert Eugene Gallatin posed as his own grandfather's portrait by Gilbert Stuart. Before Tanglewood, the Boston Symphony lay idle in the summer, and SO a number of the musicians, as the Boston Symphony Players, were engaged to accompany the morning swim at the Swimming Club and to play at parties in the evening. The Symphony Players franchise received serious competition within a few years when a young bandleader named Meyer Davis broke onto the Bar Harbor scene; his eventually became the orchestra of choice from Bar Harbor to Palm Beach. In 1916, Davis was playing at evening dances at the fashionable Malvern Hotel. Mrs. Davis remembered watching the orchestra through a glass door behind the ballroom stage one evening and seeing a compact man, dapper in a gray suit, enter the back of the room. Rather than take a seat as she expected, the man, unseen by the audience, suddenly broke into a little gavotte. Enchanted, Mrs. Davis made inquiries, and to her astonishment, discovered her mysterious stranger was the great dancer Vaslav Nijinsky. During World War I, unable to go to Europe, Sergei Diaghilev sent Nijinsky to spend the summer at Bar Harbor, hoping the fresh air and isolation would inspire the dancer to complete his new ballet, Till Eulenspiegel. Other than his gavotte at the Malvern, no record survives of a public performance by Nijinsky in Bar Harbor. The Building of Arts was his rehearsal space, and there the ballet was prepared for its opening in New York. Nijinsky was joined by the set and costume designer Robert Edmond Jones, who later remembered that "invitations to the great houses of Bar Harbor showered upon me like gold" from hostesses hoping that he could induce the great dancer to accompany him, but Nijinsky rarely went out, rehearsing by day and working on the designs by evening. Till Eulenspiegel opened in New York that winter. The ballet choreographed at the Building of Arts, remembered by Jones as "that beautiful temple overlooking the sea," was Nijinsky's last. During the Great Depression, the Building of Arts soldiered on. New donors and backers were found, impresario Timothee Adamowski continued to book first-string performers, but the clock was running out, and of course, it was never entirely about the art. When the Surry Players performed Aristophanes' The Birds in the putting green/amphitheatre in July of 1935, the review in the next day's New York Times was far more concerned with the audience-Mrs. John D. Rockefeller Jr., Mrs. Reginald De Koven, Mrs. J. West Roosevelt, writer Mary Roberts Rinehart, Mrs. Gerrish Milliken, and Edith Vanderbilt Fabbri- than with the performance. Notably absent from the audience were husbands, either back at their offices in New York, or on their yachts, or perhaps even on the golf course next to the amphitheatre. A 1941 exhibit was held for benefit of the American British Art Center's war efforts. Cecil Beaton's then unpublished series "London's Honourable Scars," recent London war posters and 25 sketches by J.M.W. Turner, were shown. By the next season, wartime gas rationing had made travel to remote Bar Harbor difficult, and the resort was a virtual ghost town, with many cottages shuttered that season. http://www.portlandmonthly.com/portmag/2014/03/athens-in-the-wilderness/ 3/5 6/6/2015 Athens In The Wilderness I PORTLAND MAGAZINE JohnD. Rockefeller Jr. was among those who had quietly made up the Building of Arts' deficit for years. By 1941, the Building could no longer pay its taxes, and the town of Bar Harbor was about to foreclose on its liens. Rockefeller purchased the building for $500, hoping to secure its future as a center for culture. In 1944, he found that adequate support was not forthcoming, and the building was sold to Consuella de Sides, a follower of Indian spiritual master and self-proclaimed 'Avatar' Meher Baba. She intended to make it again a center of performance, but fate had other plans. In October 1947, Bar Harbor was swept by a devastating forest fire. The Building of Arts lay directly in its path, and the make-believe temple of plaster and wood was destroyed Kebo Valley Club itself survives. The famous 17th 'Elbow Hole, where President Taft carded 27 in 1910 remains. In the grove behind, the steps to the Building of Arts remain, leading nowhere. Tags: April 2014 PLEAS TRUE PORTI ND City Magazine HOTHENDA COLD 1 Click the cover to experience our magazine Search the site Search PORTLAND AFTER DARK THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO EAT, DRINK, DANCE, AND SHOP IN THE NEW OLD PORT WWW.PORTLANDAFTERDARK.COM Stonehome Estate Jewelers SINCE B BAYVIEW GALLERY MISTER Experience the kry of Tine Ant Buyers & Sellers Rainbow BAGEL Toys We have a mission and we have passion misterbagel.com 240 US Route 1 HaryWell Falmouth, ME Your Maine Bagel Shep Portland 207-781-4265 Kennebunkport CAPITAL ADVISORS, LLC stonehomeantiques.com harpswelladvisors.com for 37 Years! 58 Maine St. Brunswick www.bayviewgallery.com rainbowtoysme.com http://www.portlandmonthly.com/portmag/2014/03/athens-in-the-wilderness/ 4/5 Reprint from Statement made by Mr. Dorr, as President, in 1905 A New Building for Music at Bar Harbor The idea has been rapidly growing among the residents and cottagers at Bar Harbor that a building suitable for the music requirements of the place would add materially to the advantages which it pos- sesses and fill what has become a real art- istic need. Year after year a greater num- ber of music-lovers and professional mu- sicians have found their way here until it now seems evident that there exists a de- finite possibility of making Bar Harbor something more than a mere summer re- sort, however attractive-of making it in fact, a nucleus that would gather to itself each year whatever might be best in mu- sical and other art. With this ideal in view a committee has been formed to purchase a site for such a building and raise the necessary funds for its erection. The land chosen, on Crom- well Harbor Road, adjoining the grounds of the Kebo Valley Club and Golf Links lectures, etc., as well as for concerts and re- and within easy reach of the village, has citals. Any person will be able, if the pur- been selected not only for its accessibility pose for which the hall is sought commend and unrivalled mountain view but also for itself to the committee in charge, to hire that quiet seclusion and freedom from dis- the hall at a reasonable price, and it is also turbing influences which are necessary to hoped that the hall, when built, will lend all artistic accomplishments. The com- itself, through subscriptions made for that mittee, composed of Mr. Dorr, Mr. Eno, Mr. purpose, to free concerts and musical Vanderbilt, Mrs. Abbe, and Mrs. Dimock, events, within it and upon the lawn outside, have already secured this property, with to which all, townspeople and summer resi- the intention of proceeding at once to the dents alike, would be welcome and which erection of the building in order that it may should help materially in the musical de- be completed before another season. It velopment of the town, already so success- is proposed to form a company whose fully initiated, as well as add to the inter- shares of stock shall be available to every- est and pleasure of Bar Harbor to strangers one who may have an interest in such an coming to it as a summer resort. undertaking but formed, however, not for The architectural plan is to be entrusted the purpose of investment but for the fur- to Guy Lowell of Boston, whose ability has therance of the musical, artistic and intel- already won for him standing among the lectual life of the place and region and of foremost architects in the country and led the social life which naturally springs from to his selection by the Corporation of Har- them. And it is the confident anticipation vard University for its new Hall for Philo- of those who have thus taken the initiative sophy and other buildings of importance. that Bar Harbor can be made to stand for It is therefore the earnest hope of those an ideal of artistic achievement which will at present interested in this endeavor that enhance its reputation throughout the the enterprise will appeal to all those who whole country. are interested in the ends it has in view It is the aim of the founders to increase and that it may receive the support essen- not only the love for music but the desire tial to its success. It is their conviction for whatever is excellent in art. For this that the opportunity is one of true public reason the building will be equipped with advantage and capable of far-reaching de- a stage for theatrical purposes, illustrated velopment. Mr. Dorr's address at the Building of Arts on August 22, 1916, in celebration of the establishment of the Sieur De Monts National Monument. He was presented by President Eliot, who, with others also spoke. Mr. Dorr "Mr. Chairman: My thought turns forward, rather, to the great opportunity that springs from what is now achieved, than back toward the past, save for the memory of those I would were here to be glad with us at this first stage attained. It is an opportunity of singular interest, so to devel op and preserve the wild charm and beauty of a spot thus honored by the Nation that future generations may rejoice in them yet more than we; and SO to conserve, and where there is need restore, the wild life whose native haunt it is that all may find delight in it, and men of science a uniquely interesting field for study. "For both purposes we need more land, as anyone may see by studying the Park and Reservation bounds on Dr. Abbe's wonderfully illiminating relief map. We have begun an important work; we have succeeded until the Nation itself has taken cognizance of it and joined with us for its advancement; let us not stop short of its fulfillment in essential points. Adequate approaches to the National Monument, which men and women from the country over will henceforth come to see, should be secured. The areas adjoining it that are fertile in wild life exceptional forest tracts, wild orchid meadows and natural wild-flower: areas of other type, the pools haunted by later-loving birds, and the deep, well-wooded and well-watered valleys that lie between the mountains -- are necessary to include in order to make the Park what it should be, a sanctuary 2. and protecting home for the whole region's plant and animal life, and for the birds that ask its hospitality upon their long migrations. Make it this, and naturalists will seek it from the whole world over, and from it other men will learn similarly to cherish wild life in other places. "The influence of such work, beneficent in every aspect, travels far; and many, beholding it, will go hence as missionaries to extend it. Ne have a wonderful landscape, to deepen the impression, and, now that the Government has set its seal of high approval on it, wide publicity will be given to all that we accomplish. "By taking the opportunity given us by the richly varied topography of the Island, by its situatio. on the border between land and sea, by the magnificent beginning made, and the Government's co-operation, we can do something now whose influence will be widely felt. And here I wish to say a word which falls in singularly well with the thought of the far-reaching influence this work may have. /Charles Eliot, Dr. Eliot's older son, was a landscape arch.tect of rare ability and enthusiasm. Moved by a public spirit that he derived alike from his own nature and the home influences that helped to form him, he initiated in Massachusetts the sustem of Public Reser- vations on which our own was modelled. To him Mount Desert owes that debt of leadership, while he, in turn, might never have been awakened to the value and importance of such work had it not been for the inspiration, the love of nature and the quickened consciousness of beauty, drawn from boyhood summers passed upon it. During the early summer, when I was at Washington working on this matter of the Park's establishment and was plunged for weeks together in its oppresive heat, it struck me what a splendid and useful thing it would be if we could provide down here, in a spot SC full of biologic interest and unsolved biologic problems, so rich in various beauty and locked around by a cool norhhern sea, a summer camp -- some simple summer home for men of science orking in the Government Bureaus, in the musuems and universities. They would come down to work, as Henry Chapman and Charles Sedgwick Minot used to do, on a fresh field of life, bird or plant or animal, and then go back invigorated, ready to do more valuable work the whole winter through in consequence of this climatic boon and stimulating change. 3. This is one opportunity. Another, which is urgent, is to secure now, while it may be done, tracts of special biologic interest not yet secured, irreplaceable if lost in private ownership or through destruction of their natural conditions, as well as adequate approaches to the National Park, con- venient and scenically worthy of the national possession to which they lead. Bot of these are essentially important at this time. No one who h ad not made the study of it which I have can realize howeruly wonderful the opportunities are which the creation of this Park has opened, alike in wild life ways and splendid scenery. To lose by want of action now what will be SO precious to the future, whether for the delight of men or as a mens to study, would be no less than tragic. Do not, therefore, look onew hat has been accomplished as other than a first step attained upon a longer way, which whould be dollowed only the more keenly for the national co-operation that has been secured, the national recognition won. # Mr. Dorr's dictation, April 18, referring to Buildin of Arts and the meeting in celebration of the establishment of the Monument, at buildin of Arts, on August 22, 1916. When the meeting was over and we had ut upon the lawn, Mrs. Delano Hitch came to me and said: "What is there that I might do to help? I would like to do something if And I, with my Wild Gardens plan still in mind, said: "If you would really like to do something, the thing I most would like would be to take one of my Wild Garden areas and develop it in a way to tell what I have in mind. 11 And she replied that she would be glad to do it. After some study of the possibilities then within my reach, and with the thought of making Sieur de Monts Spring the center of a Wild Gardens group, I chose the valley that the brock from the Tarn has washed out from the glacial gravel deposit left by the melting ice sheet across the outlet to the Gorge between the steep-cliffed through formi the Gorge mountainsbetweon which, ROOKX the ice had torn its seaward way. 2. This forms an exceedingly picturesque valley, just suited to the purpose, between the open Tarn above and the Sieur de Monte Spring below I described it to Mrs hitch, who could wali but little and her brother, Mr. Frederick Delano, who was with her at Bar Harbor, went out with me and looked it over. We decided it might take $5,000 in constructive work to shape it for my plan and make a bottom for it of good loam, ready for my Wild Gardens planting, and Mr. Delano said he would not advise his sister to undertake it without putting aside at least as much in endowment for its planting and aftercare. They left so on afterwards and Mrs. hitch sent me her her check for two thousand dollars which was all I felt I could wisely accept at the time to commence work on it, which I gradually expended in the years that followed. But new problems relating to the future ownership of the land of which it, the Tarn and the Spring all formed a part, arose and confronted me with difficulties which it took lon to solve with confidence as to t he future. 3. . While this was the condition still and I was stru gling with the problems that the development of the National Park created, she died and I received A letter some time afterward fromMr. Delano, asking if his sister ha made any commitment involving any completion of the plan. I wrote him that there had been no legal commitment at any time, that the delay had been unavo dable, caused by matters beyond my control but that all had been done that his sister's interest had made possible and that I had added as much more to it myself; that time had only and added to the interest and distinction of it/should he. wish as her executor to continue the plan in accordance with the original design, I should be glad. To this Mr. Delano made no reply. And I have never heard fro him since. There the matter has rested so far 2. as the Delano family is concerned. The valiy, which I with difficulty protected from road invasion and other use, makes, even in its present state, a beautiful feature at an increasingly important point within the Park, visited annually by many thousands who come to the Spring and some day what is needed to carry out the original plan will be done by the Government if I and my plans have influence to bring it about. 3/4/2015 A Temple for the Arts New York Social YOUR LINK TO SOCIETY iary Published on New York Social Diary (http://www.newyorksocialdiary.com) Jan. 14,2013 Home > A Temple for the Arts A Temple for the Arts [1] 5th Green, Kebo Valley Club Bar Harbor, Maine VISIT BAR HARBOR THIS SEASON 5th green, Kebo Valley Club, Bar Harbor, C. 1915. Summer Society in Bar Harbor by Brad Emerson Summer Society needs its amusements, and Gilded Age Bar Harbor was no exception. Golf came first, as it often does. With the founding of the Kebo Valley Club in 1888, Bar Harbor was in the vanguard of the newly popular sport in America. The new club, with six holes designed by H.C. Leeds, was stated to be "cultivation of athletic sports and furnishing innocent amusement for the public for reasonable compensation." Or at least that segment of the public listed in a new publication called The Social Register, started only two years earlier. With this, the transformation of Bar Harbor from hotel resort to fashionable summer colony had begun in earnest, and Society was off and swinging, literally. http://www.newyorksocialdiary.com/print/1908928 1/17 3/4/2015 A Temple for the Arts First Kebo Valley Clubhouse, designed by Wilson Eyre. 198.8 The new clubhouse was designed by the Philadelphia architect Wilson Eyre in a suitably picturesque style - the marble splendors of Newport were not for Bar Harbor yet. The separation of hotel visitors and the new cottage society, in their large and elaborate villas, was well underway, and by June 1890, The New York Times reported: "Kebo Valley aims to lead in things social, and is certainly in a way a sort of focus, though its claim cannot be said to be generally acknowledged yet. The transient people do not take kindly to it, as it tends to take away from the prestige of social affairs in the village. Nor are the cottage people by any means unanimous in its favor. It is for one thing, a bit away from the centre of things " Whatever aversion the summer colony had to traveling a mile from town soon abated, and in addition to golf, Kebo offered tennis, hosted Bar Harbor's early horse shows, and contained a theater suitable for dances and performances, including the amateur theatricals and tableaux Horse show at Kebo Valley. so loved by Society of a simpler time. The club lawns and verandas also served an all important function as a place to be seen in the afternoon, just as the Swimming Club on the West Street shore provided a morning promenade as the members of the colony swam to music from the Boston Symphony Players. In 1899, the clubhouse at Kebo burned. A new clubhouse was built, but lacked the performance space of the old, and by 1905 a few leaders of the summer community decided that the time had come to build for the Arts the same quality of facility as those already provided for the Amusements Yachting, Golf, Tennis and Alcohol. http://www.newyorksocialdiary.com/print/1908928 2/17 3/4/2015 A Temple for the Arts Society on afternoon Parade at Second Kebo Valley Clubhouse (Maine Historic Preservation Commission). No longer considered too far from town, a site for the Arts Building was secured on Eagle Lake Road, at the very edge of one of the Kebo Valley Club's putting green, which would double as an outdoor amphitheater. Five prominent members of the summer colony stepped forward with funds Mrs. Henry Dimock, sister of W.C. Whitney, George W. Vanderbilt, George B. Dorr, who would become a founder also of Acadia National Park, Fifth Avenue Hotel heir Henry Lane Eno, and Mrs. Robert Abbe, wife of the pioneer radiologist. http://www.newyorksocialdiary.com/print/1908928 3/17 3/4/2015 A Temple for the Arts Mrs. Henry Dimock. George W. Vanderbilt. In addition to his support of the Building of Arts, George B. Dorr was the founder of Acadia National Park. http://www.newyorksocialdiary.com/print/1908928 3/4/2015 A Temple for the Arts Their architect was Guy Lowell, a fashionable country house architect who also designed the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. With the inevitable logic of a volunteer committee, it was decided that a Greek temple under the pine trees would provided the most appropriate setting for the high culture they envisioned. This temple was built not of stone, but stucco over wood, "finished to represent Parian marble," and the red Venetian tile roof was supported by "the largest wooden columns ever turned in Maine." Copies of the Parthenon Friezes, imported from Paris, were mounted on the facade. Inside, the walls and ceiling of the stage adapted the principles of the sounding boards of the great German concert halls, and the natural lighting was provided "from the top after the manner of the ancient Greek shrines." Bar Harbor, Maine. Art Building: Building of Arts, Bar Harbor, ca. 1910 (Jesup Memorial Library). Building of Arts, Bar Harbor, 1915 (Bar Harbor Historical Society). http://www.newyorksocialdiary.com/print/1908928 5/17 3/4/2015 A Temple for the Arts Arriving for a performance at the Building of Arts (Maine Historic Preservation Commission). A golden proscenium curtain of elaborately embroidered English damask, specially woven for the building was donated by Mrs. John Inness Kane and George Vanderbilt. The building immediately attracted national attention, with Owen Wister writing an article for Century, and a large spread in The Architectural Review. The opening concert on June 13, 1907 featured Emma Eames, then one of the world's leading lyric sopranos. She was followed over the years by many others of the world's great the violinists Kreisler, Zimbalist and Kneisel, singers Alma Gluck and Roger de Bruyn, pianists Paderewski, Schelling, and Iturbe, conductors Damrosch and Stowkowski, and monologists Ruth Draper and Cornelia Otis Skinner. Acting troupes such as the Washington Square Players and The Theatre Workshop performed Bar Harbor seasons, as did local stock companies like the Surry Players, sponsored by Mrs. Ethelbert Nevin, whose numbers included a young actor named Henry Fonda. http://www.newyorksocialdiary.com/print/1908928 6/17 The Auditorium at the Building of Arts, with the 'Golden Curtain' donated by Mrs. John Inness Kane and George Vanderbilt (Maine Historic Preservation Commission). The Kneisel Quartet. http://www.newyorksocialdiary.com/print/1908928 3/4/2015 A Temple for the Arts A New York Times photo of the Washington Square Players at the Building of Arts. High Culture was not the only venue at the Building of Arts, and flower shows, including the Bar Harbor Sweet Pea competition were held there, as well as well as 'serious' lectures and art exhibits. And of course, Society has always loved dress up, and in the early years many amateur tableaux were featured, including a 1909 Greek pageant arranged by the ever artistic Mrs. Albert Clifford Barney, featuring members of the summer colony, including assorted Endicotts, Schieffelins, Gurnees, de Kovens, Pinchots and Welds, traipsing about the grounds in diaphanous garb, acting the story of the love of Egeria for the mortal Strephon. At another, in 1915, members of society recreated favorite portraits. http://www.newyorksocialdiary.com/print/1908928 8/17 3/4/2015 A Temple for the Arts SHOWGRBEK PAGEANT ONBARHARBORGREEN 150 of Summer Colony Appear as Nymphs and Shepherdesses on Slope of Parnassus. DANCE BAREFOOT IN GROVE Temple Procession and Big Chorus of Children Fairies a Feature-Pastoral Performance Attended by Throng. Special 10 The New York Times. 9/17 http://www.newyorksocialdiary.com/print/1908928 Greek Festival held at the Building of Arts in Bar Harbor in 1920 (Bar Harbor Historical Society). 3/4/2015 A Temple for the Arts The young widow Mrs. John Jacob Astor was a Reynolds beauty in picture hat, a Miss Maull balanced Mrs. Astor as a Gainsborough, Miss Mary Canfield and John J. Emery, Jr. were a Watteau Shepard and Shepardess, Mrs. Ernest Schelling reenacted a Polish Farm scene with costumes she'd brought from Poland, and the family proud Albert Eugene Gallatin portrayed his own grandfather in a Gilbert Stuart Portrait. It was an innocent era. In those days before Tanglewood and the Pops, the Boston Symphony lay idle in the summer, and a number of the musicians, as the Boston Symphony Players, would spend the summer in Bar Harbor, playing at the Swimming Club pool during the morning swim, and popular tunes at parties and dances in the evenings (This franchise was to receive serious competition when a young bandleader named Meyer Davis broke onto the Bar Harbor scene and his eventually became the orchestra of choice from Bar Harbor to Palm Beach.) But in the meantime, golf and art continued to merge at the edge of the Kebo Greens, and the Symphony Players provided background music for a ladies putting tournament. http://www.newyorksocialdiary.com/print/1908928 11/17 3/4/2015 A Temple for the Arts The Building of Arts and Kebo Golf Course, Frenchman's Bay and Porcupine Islands in the distance (Maine Historic Preservation Commission). For all the glamour of its featured performers, perhaps the most extraordinary performance at the Building of Arts there was not seen by the public. In 1916, Meyer Davis was playing of an evening at the fashionable Malvern Hotel. In her memoirs, Mrs. Davis recounts watching the orchestra through a glass door behind the ballroom stage when she suddenly witnessed a most extraordinary little scene. A compact man, dapper in a pearl gray suit, entered the back of the room, and rather than taking a seat, as she expected, he suddenly, unseen by the others focused on the band, broke into a little gavotte. Entranced, she made inquiries, and to her astonishment, the man proved to be the great dancer Vaslav Nijinsky. The Malvern Hotel, where Nijinsky danced as the Meyer Davis orchestra played. http://www.newyorksocialdiary.com/print/1908928 12/17 3/4/2015 A Temple for the Arts Nijinsky out of character and in Till Eulenspiegel. Unable to go to Europe that summer as World War I raged on, Serge Diaghelev sent Nijinsky to spend the summer at the Malvern, where it was hoped the fresh air and relative isolation of Bar Harbor would inspire the dancer to complete his new (and as fate had it, last) ballet, "Till Eulenspiegel." Rest and isolation were relative concepts with Nijinsky and his wife, after one evening's round of argument, took a car and drove aimlessly for two hours in the middle of the night, returning at dawn. There is no record of a public performance by Nijinsky in Bar Harbor that summer, the Building of Arts became his rehearsal space, and there the ballet was choreographed for its opening in New York that winter. He was joined there by set and costume designer Robert Edmond Jones and by Paul Magriel, who wrote that "invitations to the great houses of Bar Harbor showered upon me like gold," in the hope that the great dancer could be lured along with him, but Nijinsky rarely went out in society, rehearsing by day and working on the designs by evening. http://www.newyorksocialdiary.com/print/1908928 13/17 3/4/2015 A Temple for the Arts Robert Edmond Jones's costume design for Till Eulenspeigel. and Robert Edmond Jones's set for Till Eulenspiegel. Is it true that the world premiere If New York were Paris we of the new ballet created at Bar should be sure that the medieval Harbor by Nijinsky, and danced be- hare of the clothes offered for our fore a rapturous audience in New delectation was a reflection of such York during the last weeks of an important theatrical event as the October, has had an influence on creation of a new Russian master- the prevailing mode? The ballet is piece. France has translated such a terpsichorean version of the "Till artistic occurrences into clothes for Eulensplegel," one of the most hu- many centuries, just as she has re- morous of the symphonic poems of echoed her current events in the Richard Straues, which is founded on fashions of the moment. The Chi- the half-legendary character of "Till." who flourished in medieval Germany. The costumes. designed by an American, by the way, caused only less comment than the virtu- osity and imagination of the won- derful Russian himself. A fashion critic ponders Till Eulenspiegel's impact on fashion (Reading Eagle). http://www.newyorksocialdiary.com/print/1908928 14/17 3/4/2015 A Temple for the Arts The Great Depression came, and the Building of Arts soldiered on for awhile. New donors were found, impresario Timothee Adamowski continued to book important performers, but the clock was running out. The Surry Players performed Aristophanes' 'The Birds' in the outdoor amphitheater in July of 1935. The coverage in the New York Times the next day was far more concerned with the quality of the audience than of the play. Notably absent from the impressive listing of names Mrs. Reginald de Koven, Mrs. John D. Rockefeller Jr., Mrs. J. West Roosevelt, Mary Roberts Rinehart, Mrs. Gerrish Milliken, Mrs. Shepard Fabbri, and others, were husbands, who may have been back at the office in New York, or more likely, on their yachts or the golf course next to the amphitheater, where one assumes that the occasional cry of 'fore' punctuated the Greek chorus. BAR HARBOR COLONY SEES GREEK PLAY 'The Birds,' by Aristophanes, Is Given Outdoors Before an Audience of Notables. Special to THE NEW YORK TIMES. The New York Times gives more coverage to the audience than to the play. In 1941, as America entered World War II, an exhibit was held at the Building of Arts for benefit of the American British Art Center, featuring Cecil Beaton's then unpublished series "London's Honorable Scars," recent London war posters, and 25 sketches by J.M.W Turner. By the next season, Bar Harbor gas rationing had made remote Bar Harbor difficult of access, and the colony was a virtual ghost town, with many cottages shuttered, as some had been since the Depression. John D. Rockefeller, Jr. had been among those who had quietly made up the Building of Arts deficit for years, and he had now taken stronger action, http://www.newyorksocialdiary.com/print/1908928 15/17 3/4/2015 A Temple for the Arts as the structure was about to be sold by the town for tax liens. Through his agent, Serenus Rodick, whose ancestors had built the largest of Bar Harbor's early hotels, Rockefeller quietly purchased the building for $500, hoping to secure its future as a center for culture on the island. President Taft NOT attending a performance at the Building of Arts. By 1944, Rockefeller felt that adequate support was not forthcoming, and sold the building. It was acquired by Consuella de Sides, a pupil of Baba Ram Dass, who intended to make it once again a center of performance. In October 1947, the great forest fire that swept Bar Harbor in that driest of seasons swept across the Kebo Greens, destroying both the clubhouse and the Building of Arts. Bar Harbor's temple for the high arts had lasted but forty years. Kebo Valley Club survives, its golf course the eighth oldest in the country. The 'Elbow Hole," where President Taft carded 27 in the shadow of the http://www.newyorksocialdiary.com/print/1908928 16/17 3/4/2015 A Temple for the Arts Building of Arts, where he was not attending a performance, is now the 17th, and nearby, at the edge of the woods are the broad steps of the Building of Arts, leading nowhere. Source URL: :http://www.newyorksocialdiary.com/social-history/2013/a-temple-for-the-arts Links [1] http://www.newyorksocialdiary.com/social-history/2013/a-temple-for-the-arts http://www.newyorksocialdiary.com/print/1908928 17/17 ORN 000 000 non Building of the Arts lander 3/23/2017 By Deborah Dyer, director, Bar Harbor Historical Society From the March, 1917, Bar Harbor Times S ome years ago there came to the minds of a certain few of Bar Harbor's summer colony, wealthy musical enthusi- lasts, to construct a place that should fitly serve as a sum- mer musical center for the country, a place that should be worthy from every stand point for the best artists of the country to appear in. A wealthy little group which included George B Dorr of Boston, Mrs. Hen- ry Dimock of New York and Washington, George Vanderbilt, Mrs. Robert Abbe, Henry Lane Eno Dave Hennen Morris, and a dozen others, went ahead ISLANDER FILE PHOTO with the project, and at an expense of a good many The ornate interior of the Bar Harbor Building of the Arts. thousand dollars a gem of a building was erected for this boards of the stages in Ger- purpose. man music halls. That was nine years ago The walls are treated in and attractive structure dur- plaster paneling so as not ing the past summer found to obstruct the sound. If almost every day in August they were of wood, there occupied, and a musical would be too much echo. program of artists giving The ceiling is composed of concerts at short intervals 45 large coffers, in every one such as appear in the biggest of which is a large cluster of places in Boston, New York lights. and Philadelphia. A season The building itself is situ- which included such art- ated in a most attractive site, ists as Fritz Kreisler, Alma on the sloping of a hill, ad- Gluck, Ernest Schelling, Al- joining the golfing property win Schroeder, Courtland of the Kebo Valley Club, Palmer and a dozen others ISLANDER FILE PHOTO with a wonderful view of of almost equal note is one that any small town or city A crowd assembles outside Bar Harbor's Building the hills beyond. It suddenly springs into view on round- may look back upon with of the Arts. ing a curve in the road, and pride. the most blasé traveler can It was back in 1906 and temple. On three sides high of this are two large panels hardly resist a start on see- 1907 when the structure was pillars support the roof and nine feet long and four feet ing this Grecian temple set completed and it was first afford a pleasing contrast to eight inches high, in which down in one of the most opened for use with a dedi- the simple lines of the build- are placed plaster casts from beautiful spots of prosaic catory concert on July 13, ing. It is finished in white the Parthenon frieze, espe- twentieth century America. 1907, by Mme Emma Eames stucco, and the effect at a cially imported from Paris. An out-door amphitheater The inside is equally as gives chance for all sorts of attractive as the outside. The out door plays and pageants. interior of the auditorium is Paderewski, Campa- not large, only 70 feet by 33, nari, Ermes, Nordica, Alma with a total seating capacity Gluck, Vladimir de Pach- of about 300, but it is a gem man, and scores of other in every respect. The interior noted artists have appeared is a beautiful creamy white, at the building since it was lighted by large squared of erected, and it has had as au- plate glass on each side, sev- dience nearly every promi- en feet square, and so per- nent man or woman who fect that every person inside comes to Bar Harbor. What's in a Picture? Tragedy in Bar Harbor T HE dark-clad and tormented figure of Medea stands astride wooden folding chairs amid the semicircle indicates that a good the lower step, stretching one long, pale arm in appeal toward number of the other well-to-do vacationers on Mount Desert Island the unlistening figure of her unfaithful husband, Jason. on this glorious August afternoon preferred to take part in the more Behind the desperate pair, marble columns soar upward in stark usual pursuits of sailing, attending extravagant lawn parties, and Ionic splendor. It' S a scene straight out of classical Greece. Well, overseeing construction of palatial summer "cottages," each new almost, if one overlooks the classical Roman clothing. Here, how- one more extraordinary than the last. It S a good bet, nevertheless, ever, Euripedes tragedy from fourth-century Greece has been that at least a few of the same culturally oriented spectators shown transplanted to 1920s Bar Harbor - August, 21, 1920, to be exact here might also have been present thirteen years earlier, when this - and one wonders if the audience of some forty Bar Harbor grand Building of the Arts, built with the support of such well- summercators have even noticed the anachronistic attire. Most of known summer names in Bar Harbor as Mrs. Robert Abbe, the onlookers are arrayed in clothing suitable to their own time George Dorr, and George Vanderbilt. had been officially opened and place: dark suits for the men, matched with summery Panama by a concert featuring world-famous opera diva Emma Eames, her- hats (although one daring soul appears in white flannel pants and self a native of Bath. Alas, the glory days of this grandiose Greek white buckskin shoes) and a full array of fashionable, wide temple. like those of the mournful Medea, were doomed to end in Gainsborough-brimmed hats for the ladies. In strict accordance with tragedy. Always more a monumental curiosity than a renowned the U.S. Plummage Acts of 1913, none of these millinery creations center of culture, the Building of Arts went up in flames in 1947, bear egrets or birds of paradise: lacking that, many have been along with a great many of the island summer homes - including adorned with almost whole gardens of posies. The onlookers are probably a few belonging to those seated here twenty-seven years -Ellen MacDonald Ward clearly here for a summer dose of culture, although a few empty earlier. 8/03 114 DOWN EAST , UL. ACITI, NO. 1789 APRIL 6, 1910 "A BUILDING FOR MUSIC" Copyright, 1910, by the Swetland Publishing Co. BAR HARBOR, ME. GUY LOWELL ARCHITECT NO Weil, Gladys Ris 11/07 BAR HARBOR'S Vanished Temple To The Arts Bu Gladus ONeil S PLENDID absurdities have marked almost every of the building were reproductions of the frieze decade in modern American architecture, Parthenon at Athens. The interior, also pain especially when they are designed to celebrate the arts, subdued shades of red and light blue, was illum either ancient or ersatz. Many can recall the early movie by clusters of lights set into forty-five pale blue c "palaces," their interior decor as lushly rich (under dim Three seven-foot panels of glass on the north and lighting) as Persian hanging gardens or the Moorish walls provided yet another illusion, that of being o extravagances of the Alhambra. doors. Looking through them across the en A far cry from such mock grandeur - though manicured turf, while Jose Iturbi exercised his classically grand indeed - was the Building of Arts in on the piano or Fritz Kreisler on the violin, V Bar Harbor. At the behest of a group of wealthy esthetic experience rarely equalled during Bar H summer residents, Guy Lowell, of Boston, was chosen summers. to design a Greek temple, which was completed in 1907 This $100,000 building, with a seating capa and sited in a grove of pines behind the fourth green of 400 (surely a magic number among Social Regist the exclusive Kebo Valley Club golf course. From a included a small balcony with six loges. One woul distance it appeared to be made of marble, a grand a lot to know what privileged six among the glit illusion, since the actual construction was of wood and nabobs of that day held homestead rights to thos stucco, with red roof tiles. Ten wooden columns, boxes. The Vanderbilts, the Pierpont Morgan twenty feet in height and three feet in diameter, Robert McCormicks, the Joseph Pulitzers? supported the roof, their capitals painted in old gold, Opening day, July 13, 1907, was blessed wit dull red, and blue. On the panels on the front and back weather, and the road leading to the classically ( 54 Courtesy Bar Harbor Historical Society Erected in an opulent era, the monumental Building of Arts dancer Ted Shawn, Josef Hofmann, and many others. was later sold for $305.24. Maine opera singer Emma Eames Later there were plays in which many Hollywood and (right) sang at its opening with baritone Emilio De Gorgoza. Broadway stars appeared. Within thirty years, however, what was to have odeum was lined with horse-drawn carriages. The been an integral part of Bar Harbor's cultural life went entire summer colony turned out in full fig to attend the into gradual decline. Attendance fell off; building concert; all were graciously seated by ushers wearing repairs, SO badly needed, could find no support among white satin sashes with a picture of the temple stamped the millionaire colony, and in June, 1941, the temple on them. Christening the event with their incomparable was sold for unpaid taxes at the humiliating price of voices were soprano Madame Emma Eames, Maine- $305.24. It was finally consumed by fire in that born prima donna, and her baritone husband, Emilio everything-in-its-path devastation that struck Maine in De Gorgoza, old favorites at the Metropolitan Opera the rainless summer of 1947. The building was long Company. Described as "the greatest affair of its kind doomed, in any event, and its destruction not greatly in Bar Harbor history," the concert was noted even in mourned. That the high promise of its beginnings could the society columns of the New York Times. not be long realized might be laid to the fact that more With the flushing enthusiasm a new building and opulent diversions - such as lavish entertaining and ambitious plans induce, the music committee worked steam yachts - SO accessible to Bar Harborites in the hard to secure artists of distinction - and indeed it met grand old days proved more seductive than the greatest with considerable success. The list was wondrous: aria or string quartet heard from even one of the six Ernest Schelling, Paderewski, Walter Damrosch, box seats. 55 18 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston. November 29th, 1905. David B. Ogden, Esq., New York City. Dear David, This is an account of what I did at Bar Harbor with regard to the new building. Lowell went down with me about ten days after I saw you in New York and we located the building, putting the south- ern side of it about one hundred feet back from the road line which is some eight or ten feet back from the present road-ditch). This still leaves quite a space upon the northern side of the building between it and the round turn of the right of way, some sixty feet as I recall it though perhaps not quite so much. The southern facing is practically parallel to the line of the road opposite, and somewhat to the west of the gap between the mountains. East and west, the site we chose is as much to the east as the ledge that rises up to the eastward would permit, 80 that the continuation of the ledge below ground crops out slightly into the cellar. This seemed best, first because it would fall in with building sometime our hereafter Greek scena at the foot of the ledge with the ledge itself for anphitheatre; and second, that we might get as much space as possible at the building's western end, between it and the golf links - and on account of some large trees. The site determined itself as we worked it out very closely, and I do not think could well be other than the one we chose. Lowell brought down with him a man named Buttimer who was 2. building superintendent upon Edgar Scott's house and whom I saw something of at that time, as they were getting their stone from my quarry He is a man very well fitted to do that kind of work well, and economically too I think. Lowell sent him down again a week after he went back, with the completed foundation plans. We then got bids on these, taking concrete as the material. Buttimer, speak- ing for Lowell, who was then just sailing for a few weeks in Europe, and also from his own experience felt sure that concrete foundations rightly laid would be permanent and wholly satisfactory, and that with care they might be safely laid at this season and on into winter. And also that the cost would be much less than that of stone. We got bids from Preble, Westcot, Shea, Strout & Willy (who have the contract for building the Water Company's filter) Stanley, and Norris, their bids ranging from $11,000. down to $5,500., in the order in which I have named them, Stanley's bid - the one that came next to Norris's being $6027. Norris is an excellent mason, the best down there I imagine, and had charge of the stone work on the Scott house, but he is not a man to be relied on financially in any sense, I believe. He is also a splendid foreman, getting good work out of his men and keeping things moving and also good at think- ing out the best method of doing his work whatever that may be. The next step was to make sure that Norris was good for his bid financially. He said that he could bring backers who would en- dorse his contract. I told him to take them to Mr Lynam and let him pass upon them. He produced J. E. Trip and Clifford Doliver, whom Lynam said he should consider satisfactory. We therefore awarded the contract to Norris. Buttimer, however, said that he thought something might be saved even on Norris's bid if we did the work by the day, taking Norris as superintendent which he had found out Norris would be equally willing to do and sending down a man from 3. Mr Lowell's office whom Mr Lowell had had in mind for it to take charge of the work. Norris also said he thought he could save something by doing the work in that way as in making his estimate of cost he had made allowance for unforseen contingencies. I favored working in this way myself because I did not feel wholly satisfied but that laying concrete, of which they have had but little experience down there, at this season when there are liable to be sudden cold snaps and hard frosts might be risky if not done under experienced and careful superintendence. And I also thought that the foundation plan might probably be modified in detail, in the interest both of convenience and economy, to suit the ledge and situation as the work went on if some one were there looking after it who was competent to do it. So I decided. Buttimer also advising it, to do the work by the day, putting Norris in as foreman (at $5.00 a day ) and having a building superintendent down from Mr Lowell's office. Buttimer accordingly went back to Boston and sent down a young architect named Ely, a graduate of the Institute of Technology, who took second prize one of the Rotch travelling-scholarship competitions a few years ago and studied for a year in Paris and then went down to Italy and Greece and spent three weeks at Athens making sketches there. Since then he has done some large johs of constmictional work- one of them for the Cash Register Company at Ohio, if I remember rightly, and another in New York he used concrete on these on a large scale and apparently has had considerable experience with it. The buildings out at Ohio he laid the concrete for through the midst of the severest winter weather, protecting the work as it went along as we have now planned to do at Bar Harbor. He had also been very much interested in his trip to Greece and made sketches there of the old buildings. so that he is very mich interested nor in our plan. He thinks the site remarkably good for such a build- ing, giving it a setting more in the Greek spirit than any he has ever seen in America. Lowell has left the working out of his sketches in detail to him quite largely under his own supervision he says, SO that I was glad to find him really in intelligent sympathy with what we are trying to do architecturally. He also seems an excellent man for the practical work and anxious, as he expressed it to me, "to make a record job of it if possible". He has a little office at the works and will be there steadily now while work is going on. We have ordered a tent whose length shall be the breadth of the building and somewhat more, and which I find can be made to order at Bangor at what seemed an absurdly low price. The concrete laying will be carried on under this, with stoves beneath it to keep the temperature above freezing while work is going on in freezing weather. This tent will be moved along the length of the building from west to east as the work progresses and the walls as fast as finished will be covered with hay or light manure to keep the frost out until the concrete has set hard, which it does in the course of a few days freezing then doing it no harm he says. The building is to have a six-inch akron drain-pipe at the base of the wall upon the northern side, outside of it, with a stone drain above it and vertical pipes to take the surface water down. And an eight-inch pipe will similarly go down past either end of the wall building to discharge into the roadside ditch. A small cess- pool is also being build in the south-eastern corner of the lot, where the terrace-fill will be a deep one, the water from it syphoning out, draining off into a blind stone-drain and losing itself in the ground. This will have a separate pine leading down to it from the as building, laid in the same drain the eight-inch pipe from its east- Arn end. 4. There will be two cellars, one at each end, as long as the building is broad and of moderate width. The one at the western end will be for a toilet room for guests, extra cloak room for any larger function and storage room for chairs, etc. The one at the eastern end will be the same breadth as the stage, and on a higher level than the western one to save blasting out ledge, this Level being per- mitted by the greater head-room which the elevation of the stage will give. It will provide abundant dressing rooms, lighted by electric- ity, for theatrical performance, storage room for musicians' instru- ments, and the like, and also have a toilet room for the performers. Both these cellars will be free from piers. And the ground beneath the rest of the building will not be excavated except for the neces- sary foundations and to leave space for ventillation or for heating. The type of building which we have chosen calls for foundations that show a base wider than the building - I forget what the arch- itectural term for it is and for broad steps descending to the south and west, as well as for the flooring of the columned porticos and on either side the deep bases on which these steps and porticos or whatever their term is must rest to protect them from sinking or being hove by frost. This is the reason why the cost of the foundations is so large in proportion to the building. The approach avenue I threw off further when I came to study it over than we had planned at first. This was necessary in order to leave room for sloping down toward it from the terrace, whose level will he quite high above it. at the road-side. And also it had the advantage of keeping it further away from the building. It passes straight up from the road, running parallel with the west front of the building, which will have a court of ample size in front of it. I laid the avenue out sixteen feet wide: it will have a 5. solid stone foundation and a steady grade. The view from the terrace is going to be magnificent. I was very much struck with it myself when we got the ground for it clear and it is going to make a splendid fore-court to the building on the southern side. In fact I feel that it is all going to work out better than I counted on and I think the whole effect is going to be a very striking one. The building and terrace, and the avenue have been carefully fenced around SO that the trees that lie outside of them will take no injury from the winter's work. Mr Ely's plan is to go ahead with the wooden framing of the building as soon as work upon the foundations is finished, so that all may be ready for the stucco and plaster work when spring opens. In this way only can we be sure of having the work done in season for next year. Lowell will be back in three or four weeks now, and then we shall want to get together and give the plans a very careful study as soon as he can get them into definite and final shape. I think he is really greatly interested in the building himself and has assured me that he looks. upon it as an opportunity of exceptional interest and will give it his best thought and study. And I feel confident he will. [G.B. . DORR] "Building of the Arts a and 4 Emerson Hall. me later in working 11 Ladd Cottage" Hanard College, ng prior to working ilder. For two r see "Albert ARCHIT ECTURE tches of Representative Biographical Dictionary of ssachusetts, Boston, ewiston", Lewiston 2. Architects in Maine ns 1818-1880", A in Maine, Vol. VII, Vol. 7 (1992) the company's Eds. E. 9. shettleworth, Jr. Roger G. Reed. J document Portland: Maine Citizens for Historic Preservation, 1992. te. eene has a large col the need to balance formalism with simplicity, and his the mid-1870s. work here provides an excellent overview of his of Maine projects approach toward adapting historicism. re for the mills in Born in 1870 in Brookline, Massachusetts, Guy d-Greene Engineers Lowell grew up in a leading Boston family, a status riding assistance w which was to benefit his future career as an architect Among his close relations were A. Lawrence Lowell president of Harvard; Percival Lowell, astronomen and James Russell Lowell, poet. Lowell graduated I MAINE PERVISION OF from Harvard in 1892 and went on to two years o OOD architectural graduate work at M.I.T. At the time M.I.T.'s architectural faculty included Constan wood's records in Desire Despradelle, a Frenchman renowned for hi: to document his espousal of Ecole des Beaux-Arts academic training odification of exist and it may have been due to his influence that Lowel 1 of the major proj entered that famous school in Paris in 1895.2 There uted as the princi sultant in many m he spent four years studying architectural design, his igner is problemati tory, and landscape architecture, exposed to the exu 0, Altered. berance and lavishness of French design that so char Destroyed. acterized the school. Upon his graduation in 1899 ton, 1864, Altered. Lowell returned to Boston, whereupon he immedi .75, 1881-82, Extant Falls, 1882, Destroy ately opened an office in the Tremont Building. During the initial years of Guy Lowell's career many of his commissions came from his intricate wel RAWINGS of family and school connections, enabling him to lay c., has original line the foundations for his career. These circumstances n Maine done Lockwood Mills built Guy Lowell may have led to his first commission in Maine, a sum tions to the Worumbo mer cottage for the Goodrich family in York4 (Figur 1870-1927 2). The family of B. F. Goodrich, the rubber tire mag nate from Akron, Ohio, had summered in Yorl One of the most prominent architects in Boston dur- Harbor for several seasons before purchasing proper the early twentieth century, Guy Lowell was well ty on the York River in 1904. The Goodriches appar own for a variety of major public buildings and a ently preferred to build there rather than in the hear ric Preservation range of domestic work for affluent clients in the of the summer colony by the shore in order to avoid tor enclaves of Long Island, Massachusetts, and the coast's inclement weather.5 The following yea: :or ine. His training in historicism resulted in his Mary Goodrich, B. F. Goodrich's widow, retained use of the Italian Renaissance and Neo-Classical Lowell to design a summer house on what is known especially as reflected in his two most important today as "Goodrich Point". A large, hipped roof cot orks, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and the New tage with wings stepping back into a "U" configura County Courthouse. He treated these styles with tion, "River House" looked down from a hillside certain level of restraint, creating architecture which across a wide swath of lawns and terraces to th okinto consideration the surrounding environment wooded banks of the river. Featuring red brick walls culture of America In Maine, especially, he faced overhanging eaves and strong symmetry, this FEDERAL STREET ELEVATION COVRT HOVSE FOR NOTE-FORMER CONTRACT BOVNDED BY HEAVY LINES. CVMDERLAND - can AT PORTI MAN EVENHAM LOWELL DRAW N° 8 Figure 1. Elevation drawing of the Cumberland County Courthouse, Portland by George Burnham and Guy Lowell, 1904 (MHPC). Colonial Revival home exuded a sense of regional- George Burnham, a relatively new Portland ard ism, of being "American". Lowell accomplished this was included in the list of invitees, and he allied not only through the use of brick construction and Guy Lowell to create a competition entry (Figu key stoned, flat-arched window openings, but also The circumstances surrounding the collaboratic through a limited use of detail, centered around the unclear, but both were graduates of M.I.T. withir columned front entrance and rear terrace doorways. years of each other; and Burnham may have de This was in contrast to several of Lowell's recent cot- the input of a more seasoned architect to met tages on Long Island and in Massachusetts, where he demands of the complicated program. In any employed more flamboyant, ornamental European their combined effort won the competition, sel revival styles. Additional wings were added to the for its balance of providing a grand architec cottage about 1915, but a 1925 fire devastated the expression while meeting the practical requiren house; and a Neo-Georgian cottage replaced it a year of the building. 7 later, using the foundation and walls of the original. The Cumberland County Courthouse The new architect was Herbert Rhodes of Portland. Lowell's first major public work of his five year In late 1904 the Cumberland County Commission- career and reflects his training at the Ecole des ers announced a competition to design a new county Arts in his characteristically reserved and courthouse to be built on Federal Street in Portland. manner. The three-story granite structure is stren Eight architects were given three weeks to submit ened visually by a rusticated basement story, drawings for the project, and the competitors includ- supports the Doric colonnaded bays of the upper ed locally prominent names such as John Calvin floors. The principal facade is emphasized by Stevens and Francis H. and Edward E Fassett 6 pedimented bays flanking a five-bay colonn the interest in music and drama shared by many of the well-to-do families in the summer colony. The project directors recruited Guy Lowell in 1906 to design a Greek temple near the Kebo Golf Links, where concerts and plays could be per- formed either inside to a capacity of 400 or outside in an open-air amphitheater. It was to provide an idyllic setting for the "worship" of the arts, from opera to Shakespeare, which were very much a part of the urban life of the summer resi- dents during the rest of the year. Lowell created a building in the High er House," Goodrich Cottage, York, circa 1910 view (Courtesy of Mrs. Classic mode, fronted by a pedimented rson). portico supported by two large Ionic pil- lars. A colonnade of four pillars was cen- entrance, topped by a decorative car- tered on each of the two sides, and all facades featured e high basement story and colonnades plaster casts of Parthenonian friezes. Though con- er monumentality to the exterior, which structed entirely of wood, the temple was sheathed in French architecture of Pascal, to which stucco to give the appearance of marble from afar. 10 exposed at the Ecole. The use of the The interior was lit by electric lights set into the cof- and limited embellishments recalls the fered ceiling, and large windows on the sides opened Fine Arts in Boston and links the court- the interior to the surrounding forests and fields. 11 To simpler Federal and Greek Revival styles create this classic design, Lowell seems to have adapt- 8 ed details from various Greek models and also may well's Beaux-Arts training is strikingly vis- have drawn from his contemporary Neo-Classic Ited vestibule leads to a vaulted hallway, designs for the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and the and double staircase rises on the central New Hampshire Historical Society in Concord. The S of the building. The staircase is set in a Building of the Arts hosted performances for thirty space, open two stories to a half-dome years, but as interest waned, it fell into disrepair; and t above and lit by a massive iron hanging eventually it was destroyed in the Bar Harbor fire of ning as a central stair, the staircase divides 1947. 3, and the two flights turn to lead in a More than likely, Lowell's success with the Building ction up past coupled Corin- ins and pilasters to the Su- t chamber on the second floor. eatures the most delicate orna- of the courthouse, with a cof- g, paneled walls, and finely hes. interiors and restrained classi- exterior combine to make the 1 County Courthouse one of st examples of Neo-Classical For Lowell, the courthouse Ited in wide public exposure nim in receiving other major missions in the future, espe- ew York County Courthouse. sure may have led Lowell to nmission in Maine, the Build- Arts in Bar Harbor (Figure 3). Figure 3. The Building of the Arts, Bar Harbor, circa 1910 y a group of wealthy summer te project was a response to Figure 4. Land side of "Eegonos," Ladd Cottage, Bar Harbor, circa 1910 view (Courtesy of Richard Cheek). of the Arts made his services as an architect very desire- of the entrance elevation, however, contrasts striking able among the elite summer "cottagers" of Bar Harbor. ly with the simplicity and sedate formalism that He received several commissions from within the acterizes the rest of the exterior. The ocean elevation colony, the most significant of these being his cottage is punctuated by French doors opening on to a brid for Walter G. Ladd on the northern shoreline of town patio on the first floor, and second floor windows (Figures 4, 5). Named "Eegonos", the Ladd Cottage ex- fronted by wrought-iron balconies, the only decora hibits a mix of Italian Renaissance and Second Renais- tive elements on this side. A large side porch extend sance Revival styles, featuring simple stucco exterior from the southern end of the cottage, supported walls and a red tile roof. Ladd originally wished to call immense Ionic columns. Inside, there is a forma the house "Sonogee", the name of the first cottage on symmetry to the plan, with rooms leading off a the property. However, when a neighbor used the name ed, marble-floored central hall running from front for his cottage, Ladd had to settle for the reverse back, with a view straight out to Frenchman's Bay spelling. 12 Other interior details include fluted columns Lowell's Beaux-Arts training is clearly evident in the hall, wall friezes and ceiling medallions, his design of the elegant entrance elevation, which grand stairway leading to the second floor bedrooms features plaster ornamentation in the form of swags, The Ladd Cottage is an excellent example pilasters, urns, and medallions. Flanking wings are Lowell's tendencies toward a simplification of decorated with wrought-iron balconies, supported by European revival styles, seeking as he did to cast plaster brackets. This type of exuberance was them to the lifestyles and environments of America typical of the Bar Harbor summer colony, where the As he wrote in American Gardens: residents seemed to be continually contending with We may borrow the details and ideas from Italy, France, and Enoland but we must adant them skillfullv to our side of "Eegonos," Ladd Cottage, Bar Harbor, circa 1910 view (Courtesy of Richard Cheek). ll Mediterranean feeling of "Eegonos" was American and Italian gardens as a result of his exten- many of Guy Lowell's summer houses, sive travels. Only one landscape design by him in ple being the Richard D. Sears Cottage on Maine has been identified, that being a layout of signed concurrently with "Eegonos" in paths, monuments, and plantings for Webster Park in a talented tennis player, was also from a Orono. This small park on the banks of the Stillwater oston family and may have known Lowell River was donated to the town in 1910 by the al connections. He hired the architect to Websters, a prominent local family who were V house on the site of a shoreline cottage involved in the lumber business. That year Orono's urned earlier that year. Sears signed a con- park commissioners voted to "procure the services of H. Glover and Company of Rockland in a competent landscape architect" and hired Lowell to f 1907, and work was completed by June of survey the property and "make suitable charts there- Italian Renaissance cottage consists of a of."16 Lowell's design consists of a simple plan of ;ular main block with a small wing on one paths and benches along the terraces above the river orch on the other. The stucco walls and and includes suitable trees and shrubs, a fountain, of overhang liken it to the Ladd Cottage, and a statue of Chief Orono. The park today remains much more restraint in its decoration. much as it was originally planned, except for the is part of Lowell's refinement of revival omission of the fountain and statue. but it may also reflect the more subdued Guy Lowell returned to Maine in 1926, near the the Islesboro summer community. end of his career, to design alterations and additions principally an architect, Lowell also had a to two large summer cottages in Bar Harbor. The first est in landscape design. He studied it project was a remodeling of "Guy's Cliff", which had Ecole and lectured on the subject at M.I.T. recently been purchased by James Byrne, a New York :O 1913. 15 He designed several private corporation lawyer. Lowell had established a second 1.1.1. 1...1.. -- office in NOTAT Vork City in 1906 and was currently ure 5. Ocean side of "Eegonos," Ladd Cottage, Bar Harbor, circa 1910 view (Courtesy of Richard Cheek). The overall Mediterranean feeling of "Eegonos" was American and Italian gardens as a result of his exten- trasts striking- ommon to many of Guy Lowell's summer houses, sive travels. Only one landscape design by him in lism that char- another example being the Richard D. Sears Cottage on Maine has been identified, that being a layout of cean elevation slesboro, designed concurrently with "Eegonos" in paths, monuments, and plantings for Webster Park in g on to a brick 1907. Sears, a talented tennis player, was also from a Orono. This small park on the banks of the Stillwater r windows are prominent Boston family and may have known Lowell River was donated to the town in 1910 by the e only decora- through social connections. He hired the architect to Websters, a prominent local family who were porch extends design a new house on the site of a shoreline cottage involved in the lumber business. That year Orono's supported by which had burned earlier that year. Sears signed a con- park commissioners voted to "procure the services of re is a formal tract with W. H. Glover and Company of Rockland in a competent landscape architect" and hired Lowell to ing off a vault- November of 1907, and work was completed by June of 1908. 14 survey the property and "make suitable charts there- ; from front to The Italian Renaissance cottage consists of a of."16 Lowell's design consists of a simple plan of :hman's Bay. ong, rectangular main block with a small wing on one end paths and benches along the terraces above the river olumns lining and a porch on the other. The stucco walls and and includes suitable trees and shrubs, a fountain, allions, and a bracketed roof overhang liken it to the Ladd Cottage, but and a statue of Chief Orono. The park today remains oor bedrooms. there is much more restraint in its decoration. much as it was originally planned, except for the t example Again, this is part of Lowell's refinement of revival omission of the fountain and statue. ication of the achitecture, but it may also reflect the more subdued Guy Lowell returned to Maine in 1926, near the did to adapt character of the Islesboro summer community. end of his career, to design alterations and additions its of America. Though principally an architect, Lowell also had a to two large summer cottages in Bar Harbor. The first strong interest in landscape design. He studied it project was a remodeling of "Guy's Cliff", which had 1 Italy, France, at the Ecole and lectured on the subject at M.I.T. recently been purchased by James Byrne, a New York illfully to our 1900 to 1913. 15 He designed private they require. corporation established a second and estate gardens and published books on office in New York City in 1906 and was currently deeply involved in the New York County Courthouse 6. Portland Daily Press, November 30, 1904. project, resulting in wide recognition for him within 7. Eastern Argus, January 2, 1905. the city. 17 This may be the reason behind Lowell's 8. Roger Reed, "George Burnham", Biographical Dictionary of Architects in Maine, 1984. selection by Byrne. The original Victorian cottage 9. Owen Johnson, "The Building of the Arts at Bar was designed by William A. Jordan for Charles T. Harbor", Century Magazine, September, 1908, p.676. How in 1881 and was named after a subsequent The directors included George Dorr, Henry Lane owner's son. Lowell transformed it into an Italian George W. Vanderbilt, Mrs. Henry Dimock, and Mrs. Renaissance, Mediterranean-influenced cottage, with Robert Abbe. hipped overhanging roofs, arched windows, and 10. Gladys O'Neil, "Bar Harbor's Vanished Temple to the Arts", Down East Magazine, May, 1978, p. 54. open balconies. Away from Bar Harbor for nearly 11. Johnson, p. 676. twenty years, Lowell still recognized the need for 12. Barbara Sassaman Report, Maine Historic Preservation reserved formalism in the architecture of the commu- Commission files. nity. Eventually absorbed into the campus of the 13. Bonnell, p. 262. College of the Atlantic, the cottage burned in 1983. 14. Earle G. Shettleworth, Jr., The Summer Cottages of Concurrent with this work were alterations and Islesboro, Islesboro, 1989, p. 98. additions to "Chatwold", the estate of Joseph 15. Guy Lowell Obituary, The American Architect, February 20, 1927, p. 230. Pulitzer, the well-known journalist. Little is known 16. Orono Annual Report, March 1, 1911, p. 36. about this project, but work was being completed at 17. Bonnell, p. 35. the time of Lowell's sudden death in February of 18. G. W. Helfrich and Gladys O'Neil, Lost Bar Harbor, 1927, according to an obituary. 19 Camden, 1982, p. 29. 19. Bonnell, p. 263. In Maine, Guy Lowell created some of the best examples of his public and private work. His eclectic collection of architectural designs provides a wide overview of both his architectural sources and talents LIST OF KNOWN COMMISSIONS IN MAINE and reflects his tendency to work for clients in afflu- BY GUY LOWELL ent communities. The influences of Italy and the Ecole des Beaux-Arts are evident in his work. Yet Charles C. Goodrich House, York, Additions, 1904, through a subtle reordering and restraint in decora- Extant tion, massing, and detail, his architecture is differen- Cumberland County Courthouse (with George th tiated from European models and is provided with a Burnham), Federal Street, Portland, 1904-09, Extant simpler, less formal spirit that suits it to the Maine "River House," Mary Goodrich House, York, 1905, environment. Destroyed "La Selva," J. Andrews Davis Cottage, Eden Street, Bar Jeffrey A. Harris Harbor, Additions, 1906, Extant The Building of the Arts, Bar Harbor, 1906-07, Destroyed "Eegonos," Walter G. Ladd Cottage, Eden Street, Bar NOTES Harbor, 1907, Extant 1. Guy Lowell Obituary, Architectural Record, April, 1927, Richard D. Sears Cottage, Islesboro, 1907-08, Extant p. 373. Webster Park, Orono, 1910-11, Extant 2. Dumas Malone, Dictionary of American Biography, New "Oaklands," Robert H. Gardiner House, Gardiner, York, 1933, p. 457. Alterations, 1917, Extant 3. Douglas H. Bonnell, Boston Beaux Arts: The Architecture "Guy's Cliff," James Byrne Cottage, Eden Street, Bar of Guy Lowell, unpublished Master's Thesis, Tufts Harbor, Additions and Alterations, 1926, Destroyed University, 1980, p. 33. 4. Lowell's mother was Mary Goodrich Lowell, a distant "Chatwold," Joseph Pulitzer House, Bar Harbor, relation of B. F. Goodrich. After B. F. Goodrich's death Additions and Alterations, 1926-27, Destroyed in 1889, his family may have lived in Cambridge dur- ing the winters. 5. Bowdoin Alumni Magazine, Brunswick, December, 1986, p. 11. Banker and Tradesman magazine in October, 1904, Volume 7, 1995 makes reference to alterations to Charles C. Goodrich's cottage in York Harbor by Guy Lowell. This refers to Published by Maine Citizens for Historic Preservation "Orchard", the estate next door to "River House", Earle G. Shettleworth, Jr., Editor which was purchased at the same time by the Roger G. Reed, Associate Editor Goodrich family 6/29/2017 XFINITY Connect Re: Building of the Arts Jack Russell 12:20 PM To Ron Epp Copy Maureen Fournier, Nat Fenton, Sugar Fenton Friend Ron, I believe that I can traffic in good news. It is my understanding that my friend for more than 60 years and colleague on the FOA Board (and current ASC President) Nat Fenton actually owns the Building of the Arts property. I think he and Sugar bought it a while back to have a favorable site should they wish to build back on island if and when Nat retires. Nat, do I have this more or less right? Onward! Jack PS Yes, of course I will be in Blue Hill on Sunday, as will Bill, Cookie and, I think, all of the FOA staff. This comes on the date already set for our traditional lakeside party for our granddaughters, their parents, and their MDI friends, but all understand where I need to be. On Jun 29, 2017, at 12:05 PM, Ronald Epp wrote: Jack, I'm looking forward to seeing you at the FOA annual meeting. On my last visit Maureen and I ate at Kebo and she took me to the site of the Building of the Arts. As you likely know, it is adjacent to a road leading to an active residential development and gives the appearance that the historic property is part of that development. Both of us were disturbed that this site was apparently being lost to the forces of commercialism and I was tempted to shoot off a letter to Earl at the Islander. But I lacked specific information that I thought you might have about this situation; or you might know to whom I might address this query. As I sit here with my large Building of the Arts file, I want to do something to salvage its history as I'm sure you appreciate. I hope you will be able to attend Aimee's memorial service this Sunday. My deepest regrets. Ron Ronald H. Epp, Ph.D. 532 Sassafras Dr. Lebanon, PA 17042 717-272-0801 eppster2@.comcast.net BAR HARBOR ASSOCIATION OF ARTS Bar Harbor, Maine nar August 24, 1937. Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller, 3rd, Wabenäki, Seal Harbor, Maine. Dear Mr. and Mrs. Rockefeller: The Building of Arts was planned during the summer of 1905 to make a home for music at Bar Harbor where dis- tinguished artists who then had their summer residence in its vicinity, at Seal Harbor and Hulls Cove, at Bluehill and elsewhere, should find a welcome opportunity for their art, and where summer residents of the region might gather for its enjoyment. During the following year the Building of Arts took shape and in the summer of 1907 was opened by a series of concerts that at once gave it notable place as a summer center for the best in music; and a reputation among artists that made the opportunity it offered for performance widely sought. That was thirty years ago this summer. The committee that planned the concerts then and the audiences that listened to them have now, with but few exceptions, passed on, but the opportunity created still remains and holds fair promise for the future, with wider possibilities for usefulness along both the old lines and the new ones, musical and dramatic, that the changing times have brought. The building, built to endure at large expense, remains sound and structurally unchanged in all essential features and needs for its preservation and future usefulness but relatively slight repair, though important to be made. The site is splendid with its rising background of old pines and the green golf link lawns about it; the building placed upon it forms a unique, conspicuous feature in the land- scape seen from the mountain road and widely from the trails over the encircling mountains that look down on the Bar Harbor plain. Unless steps such as are herein suggested are taken, it may prove necessary that this beautiful landmark be sold for taxes or demolished. To preserve it to future usefulness, and the beauty of the landscape in which it forms so prominent a feature, is the aim of the undersigned committee who seek your co- operation in it by becoming a member of the Building of Arts Associates organized for the purpose, with an annual pay- ment of ten dollars to create a fund to meet the annual town taxes, a moderate insurance and incidental repairs and ex- penses necessary to the building's upkeep. From those who BAR HARBOR ASSOCIATION OF ARTS take special interest in the building's preservation and the continuation into the future of the Association's aims and purposes, and who feel free to give more largely, any sum they may be moved to contribute will be welcome to the committee in their work. A card is enclosed for signature and statement of the amount contributed for the year September 1, 1937 to September 1, 1938, at the expiration of which term notice will be sent to those contributing, inviting them to renew their contribution. George B. Dorr, President. John Hampton Barnes, Chairman Dave Hennen Morris Arthur Train Executive Committee. ch.21 Bar Harbor, Maine July 22, 1937 BAR HARBOR ASSOCIATION OF ARTS To the Stockholders: For sometime there has not been a demand for the uses of the Building of Arts along the former lines and there has been insufficient income to maintain it. There are now arrears of taxes for the past year and there is need of slight repairs. In order to reestablish the use of the building and to preserve it, it is proposed to revive the activities of the Association by election of a Board of Directors, none having been elected since 1909, of whom only two are now living. The Board could then raise the small amount necessary to pay the taxes and to make the repairs and take steps to broaden the uses of the Building for entertainment, exhibitions and meetings in accordance with the charter powers of the Association. The first step is to call a meeting of the shareholders to obtain from those who cannot attend in per- son their proxies to vote their shares for election of directors and for such other matters as may properly come before the meeting. A special meeting of shareholders is therefore called to be held at 11 o'clock A. M. at the Y. M. C. A. Building Bar Harbor, on Tuesday, August 10, 1937. Shareholders who are unable to be present are requested to sign the enclosed proxy to devote their shares and send it to George B. Dorr, President, Bar Harbor. After a Board of Directors is elected it is intended to create a Voting Trust Agreement (a copy of which is enclosed) between shareholders and trustees selected by the Board authorizing them to hold the shares of depositing holders for a period of ten years with power in the trustees to renew and to continue the agreement and to vote the shares at any meeting of the shareholders. Shareholders are requested to forward certificates of stock endorsed in blank for transfer or if the cer- tificates can not be obtained an assignment of the shares upon the form enclosed, to George B. Dorr, President. If a sufficient number of shares are deposited the continuance of the purposes of the Association and the maintenance of the building and its proper uses are assured. Certificates of deposit of the shares will be issued by the trustees under which the ownership of them, subject to the voting power in the trustees, would be retained. An effort would then be made to obtain the support of those interested in this plan, shareholders and others to make a small annual contribution to the Association, the sum received to be used for the payment of taxes and for repairs. GEORGE B. DORR President of the Bar Harbor Association of Arts. John Hampton Barnes Walter Damrosch Mrs. Peter A. Jay Dave H. Morris Charles E. Sampson Madame Olga Stokowski Arthur Train Committee SH BAR HARBOR ASSOCIATION OF ARTS Bar Harbor, Maine nar August 24, 1937. Mr and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller, 3rd, Wabenaki, Seal Harbor, Maine. Dear Mr. and Mrs. Rockefeller: The Building of Arts was planned during the summer of 1905 to make a home for music at Bar Harbor where dis- tinguished artists who then had their summer residence in its vicinity, at Seal Harbor and Hulls Cove, at Bluehild and elsewhere, should find a welcome opportunity for their art, and where summer residents of the region might gather for its enjoyment. During the following year the Building of Arts took shape and in the summer of 1907 was opened by a series of concerts that at once gave it notable place as a summer center for the best in music, and a reputation among artists that made the opportunity it offered for performance widely sought. That was thirty years ago this summer. The committee that planned the concerts then and the audiences that listened to them have now, with but few exceptions, passed on, but the opportunity created still remains and holds fair promise for the future, with wider possibilities for usefulness along both the old lines and the new ones, musical and dramatic, that the changing times have brought. The building, built to endure at large expense, remains sound and structurally unchanged in all essential features and needs for its preservation and future usefulness but relatively slight repair, though important to be made. The site is splendid with its rising background of old pines and the green golf link lawns about it; the building placed upon it forms a unique, conspicuous feature in the land- scape seen from the mountain road and widely from the trails over the encircling mountains that look down on the Bar Harbor plain. Unless steps such as are herein suggested are taken, it may prove necessary that this beautiful landmark be sold for taxes or demolished. To preserve it to future usefulness, and the beauty of the landscape in which it forms so prominent a feature, is the aim of the undersigned committee who seek your co- operation in it by becoming a member of the Building of Arts Associates organized for the purpose, with an annual pay- ment of ten dollars to create a fund to meet the annual town taxes, a moderate insurance and incidental repairs and ex- penses necessary to the building's upkeep. From those who BAR HARBOR ASSOCIATION OF ARTS take special interest in the building's preservation and the continuation into the future of the Association's aims and purposes, and who feel free to give more largely, any sum they may be moved to contribute will be welcome to the committee in their work. A card is enclosed for signature and statement of the amount contributed for the year September 1, 1937 to September 1, 1938, at the expiration of which term notice will be sent to those contributing, inviting them to renew their contribution. George B. Dorr, President. John Hampton Barnes, Chairman Dave Hennen Morris Arthur Train Executive Committee. UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR NATIONAL PARK SERVICE Acadia National Park Bar Harbor, Maine June 7, 1941 Mr. John D. Rockefeller, Jr., 30 Rockefeller Plaza, New York City. Dear Mr. Rockefeller: I write to ask if you will not give me help in regard to the Building of Arts, saving it from Sheriff's Sale for taxes due, the amount being, for 1938: Tax $240.00 Interest 53.04 This plus $12.05 for cost of suit being the amount for which the Sheriff's Sale is brought, the date for the Sale being June 25th. Two other tax bills, those for 1939 and 1940, are also due, I find, not included in the present sale, whose amounts as obtained for me by Mr. Hadley, includ- ing interest to date, are: For 1939 269.31 For 1940 248.95 bringing the total actually due on this account to 823, 50. Mr. Rockefeller. Page 2. In 1938 a committee was formed, in which I took part and whose chairman was Mr. John Hampton Barnes, to clear the way for transfer of the Building to the National Park Service, but difficulty was encountered by the Committee's inability to get trace of a sufficient number of the stockholders to call a legal meeting neces- sary to take action in the matter. At this point, Mr. Barnes fell ill and with the loss of vision and other infirmities that had come upon me I was unable either to take his place or to find someone else competent to do so, so that the matter has rested where it then stood until now when notice reached me of the impending Sheriff's Sale. I feel confident that, with time given me, the title difficulty, which is merely technical, can be overcome and the Building saved to a new and useful future under the Government's control. But to have it go to Sheriff's Sale at this time would present it most unfortunately before the public, and this I am anxious to avoid. Going back into the past, the high service in music rendered by the Building and the great beauty of the scene and setting as the shadows from the mountains crept over the green golf link lawns in front make me desire most strongly that the Building shall be rescued from its present plight or run the chance of its passing into hands that would not appreciate its past or future possi- bilities along similar high lines. The Committee that organized the Building, five in all, are now all gone except myself, as are those also in greater proportion to whom we sold the stock, leav- ing no record of their ownership behind, which creates the present difficulty. Mr. Rockefeller. Page 3. The amount the Building cost, in which our Committee itself bore a great part, was $65, 000; while the site is unique in its simple dignity, its peaceful beauty and freedom from distrubance. Opened for the season of 1907, it has a long history of good service to the better life behind it and is still, I find, as sound in all essential points as on the day that it was opened. When the present situation first came up, some three weeks since, I sent at once for the most experienced and trustworthy builder whom I know, Mr. Hanson of the R. H. Moon Company, and asked him to explore the Building thoroughly and tell me of any defect that time might have brought upon it. His report, after a thorough investigation, was -- as I have said -- that the Building was as sound and free from all defects as when first built. I have this matter much at heart, and for any aid that you can give me in it I shall be most grateful. Ever, with kind regards, Sincerely yours, [G.B.DORR] Hadley muserm - Summer months. pastport the time to see of four, can't he rareed next accommon Bill, #200 about Spearing Lectures & music if wanted could fix finance security I 180 per year technony Bldg of Arts UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR NATIONAL PARK SERVICE 5 ACADIA NATIONAL PARK Bar Barber, Maine cannot we her the building see be October 16 al termitions. Possible pro- : indiament. (2) for the intergre- alterations, still and I have spent a day and a half examining, measuring, and photo- graphing of Area neer sav Birther, the of of if addresse lamp of Island. the building has been studied inside and outside, from the basement to the attic and roof mediac the suilding of Arte and - PARK. E1 sub- Litérior condition. The principal needs are painting, patching of the plaster, and minor repairs of doors, windows, and " trussed and purkins are in In CONTRANT The piere delid, and the building in well would 30 The exterior, however, is in need of many repairs. The outside doors need repair, the roof has a few broken tile, and the stucco fin- ish is broken in some spots. Most urgently needed are repairs to the con- erate steps, the pillars, and plaster of few win- dows are broken and need to be replaced. The building occupies a beautiful site overlooking part of the Kebe Golf Course and the mountains. The building teallently:designed as an auditorium, but is not suitable for a museum. the first place there are only about 75 linear feet of wall space. There are no rooms suitable for office space, and, perhaps most important, the building is outside the National Park boundaries, off the park circuit or any main line of travel and cannot be easily found. It is visible from the summit of Cadillac, a desirable feature. One of the main needs of a museum in Addition traveler for a few minutes and make him real- ise that rotter that he will have to spend a few days instead of only a few hours. One of the finotions of a museum should be to stimulate the visitor to seek the outdoors and aid in his understanding of the things he sees. If the museum is more attractive than the outdoors, then there is something wrong with the museum, or the individual. A museum should be on a route regularly travelled by the majority of visitors. 1 The style of architecture of the Building of Arts is not in keep- ing with National Park structures, although this may be of minor con- sideration. There is only a small parking space and not much oppor- tunity to enlarge it, unless permission could be obtained from the Kabo Valley Golf Club to utilise some of their land. Such permission should be obtained before the Park Service considers acceptance of this build- ing. I cannot see how the building can be of much use for interpretative work without expensive alterations. Possible uses are (1) Campfire pro- grans when the weather is inclement. (2) Office space for the interpre- tive force (this would necessitate alterations, and the best would still be makeshift. Permanent office space should be in the administration building). (3) A hall for photographic exhibitions, guest speakers, and movies of wildlife. Enclosed are exterior and interior photos, a rough pencil sketch of the floor plan, and reproduction of a sketch of the building. I believe that Mr. Halph Lewis studied the Building of Arts and - ported upon its possible use to the Park. His report must have been sub- mitted in 1936 and should be on file in Washington. In the basement of the building is a furnase and 12 radiatore which are not connected, although steam pipes are fitted to the radiator loca- tione and plugged. If the radiators were set up the wall space would be still further reduced. Respectfully submitted, Maurice Sullivan, Park-Naturalist. Enc: May, sketch of Building, One set of pictures, floor plan. 2 Sun doing parts D6230 UNITED STATES museum DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR NATIONAL PARK SERVICE ACADIA NATIONAL PARK Bar Harbor, Maine October 16, 1941. MEMORANDUM for the Director: This will acknowledge receipt of your memorandum of September 30, asking for data on the Building of Arts, its condition, cost of repairs, cost of maintenance, etc. Background: The Building of Arts was built in the winter of 1905-1906 by the Bar Harbor Association of Arts, a body incorporated under the laws of Maine, whose membership was composed ohiofly of members of the Bar Harber summer colony. Among them were Mr. Derr, Mrs. Henry F. Dimook, Mr. Henry Lane Eno, Mr. W. H. L. Lee, and others. Money for the undertaking was raised through the sale of capital stock. The principal purpose of the Associa- tion was to foster and promote interest in musical entertainment of high quality. From the time the building was opened in 1906, on through the years until the late 1920's, each summer season saw an August series of musical concerts whose artists were khown world-wide. Almost every "big name" in music appeared on the programs. But, while the swamer colony attended the concerts regularly, the burden of carrying on the affairs of the Association fell on a very few. Deficite were regular year after year, and those few dug down and made good. Each year one or two of the original group passed away, and none took their places in active management of the Association. The last regular meeting of the Association was held in September, 1909. Following 1909, Mr. Dorr and Mrs. Dimook carried on until her death a couple of years ago. Times had changed, however, and since about 1927 only an occasional concert was held, and no effort was made to keep the building in first-class repair. Land and Building: The plot of land owned by the Association and on which the building is located is between five and six aores in extent. It is on the south slope of a hill, heavily wooded with old white pines. The building faces south, the view being across the golf links to the mountains. 1 The architecture of the building favors the Grecian temple, both in line and decoration. It is in the form of a rectangle with recessed pillard perches on the north and south sides. The interior is in the form of an auditorium, with a small foyer, coat room, retiring room and stairway at the west end. Over the foyer is a small gallery. The east end of the building is given over to concert stage and wings. Over the stage are the dressing rooms, while beneath it is a basement con- taining a heating plant and space for under-stage storage of the auditorium seats. Structurally the building is sound, having been exceedingly well built. The effects of the elements are noticeable, mainly in the plaster and stucce finish and decorations. Many of the figures behind the board shutters on the upper corners of the building have fallen off. The aement steps are badly weathered and are cracking. The pillars of the perches are shells which enclose solid supports. These shells are not too sound, the weather having gotten in, particularly around the bases and capitals. Repairs: While I have no estimates of cost for repairs, I believe that to - store the building to first-class condition, including cleaning and paint- ing inside and out, not over $2500 would be needed. This would include a new sewer line and disposal tank, both of which are needed. Maintenance: Once restored, the annual maintenance cost ought not to exceed two hundred dollars, except at infrequent intervals when painting inside and out would need to be done. This figure does not include operating cost in case the building were used. Type of use would determine the operat- ing figure. The building as a museum, In its present form the building offers little for muneum purposes. But, by closing up the doors on the north and south sides, as well as the windows over the doors, to give wall space, and continuing a narrow gallery along the north and south walls at a level with the present gallery, a rather good museum would result. However, this should be con- 2 sidered only as a last resort in the event that no other museum could reasonably be expected within a long term of years. The location is not good, it being away from main lines of park travel. Other uses: To own the building for only such use as occasional renting might provide would be a mistake. To have the care of a building devoted to Park use only is quite a care, but to have the added burden of looking after transient tenants would be too much. Pictures of the building are enclosed, as well as a rough floor plan sketch and a report by Mr. Sullivan. George B. Dorr, Superintendent. By Assistant Superintendent. 3 ROOM 5600 COPY. 30 ROCKEFELLER PLAZA NEW YORK February 20, 1942 Dear Mr. Dorri Your letter of February 17th is received. As you point out I sent you word last November that the efforts made by Messrs. Morris and Train to interest various organisations in acquiring the Building of Arts at Bar Harbor had failed, and that you were at liberty, so far as I was concerned, and if you still so desired, to go forward with your original plan to undertake to interest the National Park Service in taking over the Building. On June 30, 1941 I wrote Mr. Dave Morris a letter, of which I sent you a copy and from which I quote the following paragraphs: Mr. Rodick advises me that he purchased the Building of Arts at the sheriff's sale on my behalf and paid therefor $334.05, repres- enting the 1938 taxes plus costs. The property was taken in Mr. Rodick's name. "I have now done all that I intended to do in this matter. The property is at the disposal of yourself and your associates to be saved for donation to Acadia Park or for any other such community purpose as you gentlemen may decide, if the further funds nec- essary to complete its purchase can be raised. So far as I am concerned the property can be used for any purposes you see fit this summer, if such use is legally possible under the title I have acquired to it. If local interest is not sufficient to support you in such steps as you may see fit to take in the matter it will be put up for sale for the taxes then due a year from this time." On July 11th Mr. Morris wrote you a letter, of which be sent me a copy and which I quote in fulls *So that there will be no misunderstanding, I am writing you this letter in regard to the Building of Arts and sending copies of it to Barnes, Train and Rodick. If there is any point to which any of you four do not agree, I beg each will write to all just what is the error. "Firsts Barnes, Train, Rodick and I agree that Rodick has a tax title to the Building of Arts. This title can be perfected in Rodick when all back taxes, interest and penalties are fully paid up and the Trustees and/or Directors of The Building of Arts Association agree not to redeem and further agree to assign all their rights, title and interest to him. -2- *Seconds The amount of such taxes are about $800.00 and there are perhaps $200.00 more of bills against The Association. So alto- gether about $1,000.00 is required to clear the property from tax and other possible liens. "Thirds This money must be raised before September first and George Dorr must do the job. He wants the property for the Park and we are all willing to have it go to the Park. George must therefore get assurances from the Government that it will accept the property as a gift for the Park when clear title can be given. "Fourth George Dorr agrees to get to work at once and promises to give $100.00 towards the $1,000.00 needed. Dave H. Morris will give another $100.00. No subscription is to be called unless the total required is underwritten." You will see from Item 2 in the above that some $1,000. was needed at that time in order to secure the property. I am asking Mr. Serenus Rodick what, if any, further charges have accumulated and when the next tax sale will be held. The purpose of this letter is to say that whatever claim, if any, I have on the property I shall be glad to turn over to the Park Service if it is interested in the acquisition of the property and if you can secure the aum of money necessary to buy it at the next tax sale. As I wrote Mr. Morris I feel that I have done all and more than my part and am not disposed to go further. For their information I am sending copies of this letter to Mesars. Morris, Train and Serenus Rodick. Very sincerely, JOHN ROCKEFELLER, JR. Mr. George B. Dorr Acadia National Park Bar Harbor, Maine. LAW OFFICES LUERE B. DEASY, DECEASED ALBERT H. LYNAM, DECEASED DEASY, LYNAM, RODICK & RODICK DAVID O. RODICK SERENUS B. RODICK BAR HARBOR BANKING & TRUST BUILDING BAR HARBOR, MAINE April 18, 1942. Mr. John D. Rockefeller, Jr. 30 Rockefeller Plaza, New York City. Dear Mr. Rockefeller: In regard to the Building of Arts, Mr. Cecil Higgins was in the other day to see me about this Building, as also a chap by the name of Holt. They are the two who are interested in se- curing the property for dance hall purposes. Higgins explained that the inside of the building would need a minimum of repair, but that in his opinion before any real use could be made of it, there were quite extensive repairs that would have to be made on the exterior. He also mentioned to me that if he and his partner got this building, they would probably extend the building on the North side away from the highway, using the extension for the sale of beer, soft drinks, etc. That towards the highway they would have to repair all of the steps and would probably build there a sim- ple porch which would be in keeping with the rest of the building. He asked if I were going to purchase the property at the next tax sale and I told him that SO far as I knew now I was not going to. I have given the question of the Building of Arts matter considerable thought and while you may not agree with my ideas, I think I should give them to you now. objock SOICK Mr. John D. Jr. 4/18/42 -2- First, in regard to the interest of Mr. Dorr and the mem- bers of the Association. Mr. Dorr wants to retain the property and I think for pure- ly sentimental reasons. To do this he has interested other people in it, but not to the extent that they would contribute any apprec- iable amount towards saving the property. Since he has not been able to get the support necessary in this manner, he would like to have it turned over to the Park whether they have any immed- iate or future use for the property or not. I believe that if it were saved now for the Arts Association, in a very short time it would be back in the same situation it is now, namely, that it would be out of repair and taxes would again be due, for I don't think the Association is such now that they would ever repair it or maintain or operate for the purposes for which it was origin- ally built. The next angle, as I see it, is from a nuisance to sur- rounding territory. I do not believe it would interfere with the Golf Club. The use of the dance hall would be primarily in the evening, and undoubtedly the owners of it would be glad either to rent it during the daytime, or possibly donate the use of it in certain instances for exhibitions, concerts, and etc. The nearest summer property to this is that which is owned by Mrs. George S. Robbins and I wouldn't want to see anything done that would interfere with her use of her property, but I do not believe any use they would make of the Arts Building would affect DEASY, LYNAM, RODICK & RODICK Mr. J. D. R. Jr. 4/18/42 -3- her because if my memory serves me properly, there is consid- erable land between her house and the Arts Building, and that is all wooded. The next angle is from the Park angle. I can think of, and undoubtedly you can very readily think of much better places in the Park area where the Government might build a museum or building which would be used for the purposes which the Arts Building would be used for if the Government were to take it over. As you recall, the Arts Building is not on any of the approach roads to the Park and in fact is out of the way from any of the approach roads, and the land on which it sits is entire- ly detached from any Park area, although it can be seen from the Mountain. It is a beautiful building from a distance and very pleas- ant to look down upon from a few spots from the Mountain Road, and it would be a shame to have it destroyed or anything built there which would spoil this, but it is hard for me to conceive of anyone taking the property over and radically remodelling the building so that it would be objectionable. to look upon from the Mountain. Then there is the angle of taxation. If this went to the Park and the Park did not wish to maintain the building and should tear it down, of course the land would be preserved, but we wouldn't have the building to look at; while on the other hand if someone purchased the building, left it substantially in the factors .DDICK Mr. J. D. R. , Jr. 4/18/42 4 - form it is in now and used it, it would be kept up and the town would get some return from it in the form of taxes, and the Park would not be exposed to the criticism of having taken it and removed a building which someone else wanted to purchase, and operate as a business establishment. Yours very truly, UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR NATIONAL PARK SERVICE Acadia National Park Bar Harbor, Maine. May 25, 1942. Mr. Serenus B. Rodick Bar Harbor, Maine: Dear Serenus: Having from time to time discussed with you the status of the Building of Arts, I believe you may be interested to have a resume of a conversation between Mr. Dorr and Cecil Higgins, at which I was present. After Mr. Dorr received your letter telling him about Holt and Higgins and their desire to acquire the Building of Arts, he asked me to arrange for Higgins to come to Old Farm so that Mr. Dorr might talk with him. I took Higgins down one afternoon about two weeks ago, and Mr. Dorr explained his connection with the Building of Arts from its beginning, stressing his sentimental attachment to it, and expressing the hope that such use as might be made of it would be in all respects proper and dignified. Mr. Dorr said also that he had done all he could to assure the future of the Building, but without success; and that he now felt if it could remain in private ownership in the hands of people who would pay the taxes on it, keep it in repair and preserve it for good public use, such disposition would be best. He did not question Higgins specifically concerning the proposed uses if he and Holt acquired it. Very truly yours, (sgn.) B. L. Hadley Assistant Superintendent. UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR COPY NATIONAL PARK SERVICE WASHINGTON May 29, 1942. Private and Confidential. Mr. John D. Rockefeller, Jr., 30 Rockefeller Plaza, Rockefeller Center, New York, New York. My dear Mr. Rockefeller : At the time of my visit with you in New York we discussed the posi- tion of the National Park Service with regard to conveyance of the Build- ing of Arts by the Village Improvement Association to the United States. Although previous consideration has been given to these possibilities, and investigation made, I told you that I would reopen the question in light of your apprehension that the Building might be put to some im- proper use that would tend to impair the general environment. I have heard from Assistant Superintendent Hadley, who is still of the opinion that the Building and surrounding lands should not come into park ownership. The land is isolated fromspark property by the width of a town highway and several hundred yards of fairway and putting greens in the golf links. The land which Mr. Dorr was instrumental in getting into golf club ownership is not that part directly opposite the Building. Mr. Rodick has prepared an analysis of the conveyances made by Mr. Dorr either directly or indirectly but none of them are subject to absolute reversion. It appears that even if the golf course were abandoned, the Building of Arts is likely to remain as an isolated parcel. As you know, the Building is structurally sound but needs several thousand dollars' worth of repairs to preserve the exterior finish. Even if the exterior finish were restored or modified in a manner to lessen upkeep, the Building would not be suitable for park purposes. As I be- lieve I mentioned to you, our museum experts do not believe its location is satisfactory for these purposes or that remodeling would result in a practical museum yout. I want to see the National Park Service do whatever appears best in the general public interest as well as that of Acadia National Park. All in all, the circumstances seem to indicate that the proper course is to adhere to our earlier decision not to accept the Building of Arts. I should appreciate your further comments on this matter. I am looking forward to the opportunity of discussing Acadia Na- tional Park affairs with you the latter part of the summer when I hope to be in the park. Certain other matters at Acadia have come up on which your comment would be valued, and it may be that soon, if con- venient for you, I shall call ypon you to discuss them. I am writing about these matters separately. Sincerely yours, (Sgd) Newton B. Drury, Newton B. Drury, Director. CC. Mr. Horace M. Albright Supt., Acadia N. P. Regional Director, Region One à COPY S.H. Bad of asts June 9, 1942 Private & Confidential Dear Mr. Druryt x Your letter of May 29th regarding the Building of Arts at Bar Harbor is received. I have no personal interest in this building nor any ideas with regard to its future. Since the Bar Harbor people have shown so little in- terest in doing anything to save it, I see no reason why nature should not take its course as to the dispo- sition of the building. Unless the building would be an asset to the park, which seems clearly not to be the case, there would be no justification for the park's taking it over, Under all the circumstances, I do not see how you could well have reached any other conclusion than the one arrived at. Very sincerely, - JR. x Mr. Newton B. Drury, Director National Park Service Washington, D. C.