Creating Acadia Table of Contents Outline N.P. The Making of Acadia National Park 1/1TH Table of Contents Ronald H. Epp, Ph.D INTRODUCTION 1. FIRST IMPRESSIONS Following the end of the Civil War, residents in cosmopolitan areas of the northeastern United States sought exposure to the restorative effects of America's vanishing wilderness. In 1868, Charles and Mary Dorr of Boston traveled by steamboat with their two teenage sons to Maine's Mount Desert Island. The grandeur of the one hundred square mile coastal island sufficiently impressed the family that they immediately purchased a large farmland parcel on Frenchman Bay less than a mile from the Eden (now Bar Harbor) village green. The family ancestry of these visitors is set against communities that stretched from cosmopolitan Salem and Boston to the idyllic Berkshires. 2. DR. ELIOT SAILS INTO FRENCHMAN BAY. Three years after the Dorr family's first visit to Mount Desert, Harvard College President Charles William Eliot departs Boston on his thirty-three foot sloop. He skippers his vessel 'downeast' to Calf Island, a few nautical miles north of Bar Harbor; sailing to Bar Harbor, he is reunited with his wife and two sons, For the next five decades Dr. C.W. Eliot carried on the family seaside tradition at his Asticou residence in Northeast Harbor, a gathering place for academics a dozen miles southeast of Bar Harbor. Back in Massachusetts, the childhood of George Bucknam Dorr unfolds in the rugged rural environments of Jamaica Plain, Canton, and Lenox. Prior to the outbreak of the Civil War, the family relocates to the Park Street Boston home of George's maternal grandparents, adjacent to the Boston State House and the Common. 2 3. THE MOST IMPRESSIONABLE YEARS The impact of the Civil War on the Eliot and Dorr families is balanced against George Dorr's education at Dixwell's Latin School. The Dorr family relocates to Commonwealth Avenue, the premiere residential property on the reclaimed Back Bay. The Dorr and Eliot families experience the 1867 American tour of Charles Dickens just prior to Dorr's entry into Harvard College. There newly elected President Eliot advances a most formidable agenda that threatens longstanding academic policies and customs. Trans-Atlantic summer vacations provide Dorr with cultural sophistication and natural stimulation, devoid of the threat experienced during the Great Boston Fire of 1872. Concentrating his studies in history and foreign languages, Dorr secures his degree despite episodic blindness and a recurring stutter that had plagued him since childhood. 4. THE LONG JOURNEY TO MOUNT DESERT The Dorr family embarks on what will be a four-year exploration of the British Isles and the Continent. Dorr's brother is fatally struck down by typhoid fever. The family finds consolation in the hospitality offered at Naworth Castle by George and Rosalind Howard, the future Earl and Countess of Carlisle. Julia Ward Howe, the childhood friend of Dorr's mother whose son-in-law was later selected to design their Mount Desert residence, often travels with the family. President Eliot's eldest son, landscape architect Charles Eliot, guides fellow Harvard classmates on several summer natural history research studies in Frenchman Bay. 5. RESTLESS INDECISION In 1881 Charles Eliot recommends to his father that he acquire a one hundred twenty acre Northeast Harbor site for their summer residence. Several miles distant, the Dorr family showcases the splendid landscape from their "Oldfarm" estate. Here George Dorr's mother offers the exceptional hospitality that had gained her such a reputation in Boston. Prominent families increasingly take notice of the scaring of the island landscape due to commercial and residential development. Despite George Dorr's continuing career indecision, he cultivates abiding friendships with Harvard professors Josiah Royce and William James. 3 Following the death of his father, George Dorr enters the world of commerce. He launches his own business, the Mount Desert Nurseries, inspired by the horticultural exhibits of the Columbia World Exposition 6. BETWEEN BOSTON AND MOUNT DESERT Landscape architect Charles Eliot completes three landmark essays for Charles Sargent's Garden and Forest. These precede Eliot's founding of the Massachusetts Trustees of Public Reservations, the first state- wide land trust-six years before his death in 1897. His father publishes an essay on "The Forgotten Millions" that demonstrates-contrary to the prevailing social norm-that Mount Desert is organized in ways that reflect "the basal American society." In Cambridge, Dorr is selected by the Overseers to participate in evaluating the quality of Harvard's philosophy department. Later, he leads the effort to erect a new facility in the Harvard Yard that would bear the name of a family friend--Emerson. Leadership in these activities will serve him well in raising conservation funds and securing donations on Mount Desert. 7. IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF PERFECTION George Dorr retraces Henry David Thoreau's route into the northern Maine wilderness. His daily hikes on Mount Desert impress upon him the troubling impact of expanding residential development-not to mention the threat of the axe and fire to our cultural landscapes. Working with other path makers, he contributes to an Acadian style of trail architecture, ever mindful that residential development resulted in segregating landscapes from public access. Dr. Eliot's eldest son Charles, the founder of the Massachusetts Trustees of Public Reservations, is fatally struck down with meningitis. President Eliot familiarizes himself with the posthumous papers of his son, realizing that the concept of a land trust must be applied to Mount Desert Island. 4 8. FIN DU SIECLE As the new century dawns, the internal combustion engine begins to impact conservation efforts nationwide-but at this time automobiles are not permitted on Mount Desert. With the death of his mother, Dorr inherits the family properties and financial resources. Charles Eliot Norton speaks of the death of Dorr's mother in 1901 as the loss of "almost the only one who had many familiar memories in common with me." Julia Ward Howe correctly interprets Mary Dorr's death as a new beginning for her son, George. As the sole surviving bachelor son, Dorr embraces this challenge. 9. The BIRTH OF THE TRUSTEES, THE ENTICEMENTS OF THE NATIONAL PARKS Under Eliot's leadership, the Hancock County Trustees of Public Reservations is formed in 1901 to hold coastal Maine landscape for the perpetual use of the public. In Cambridge, Dorr's Emerson Hall fund raising is complicated by his alliance with Francis Appleton, Edward and Cameron Forbes to raise funds for a New Yard for Harvard. Dr. Eliot publishes his Right Development of Mount Desert, providing a template for the conservation of Mount Desert landscapes. After offering horticultural advice to Edith Wharton in Lenox and another forestry consultation to George W. Vanderbilt at the Biltmore Estate, Dorr spends weeks on horseback in the western U.S. He experiences the landscapes of Yosemite, Bryce, Zion, Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, Kings Canyon, and Sequoia directly. 10. PROMOTERS OF MOUNT DESERT CULTURE Edward Waldo Emerson reminds all present at the December 1905 Emerson Hall dedication that his father was "a teacher-at-large for life [committed to] the theory and practice of Philosophy for the People." Behind the scenes, philosophy department chairman Hugo Munsterberg feuds with William James and only President Eliot's mediation wards off an academic calamity. On Mount Desert, Dorr persuades George W. Vanderbilt to contribute to the City Beautiful Movement by joining him and others in funding the construction of Guy Lowell's Building for the Arts. At the request of William James, Dorr becomes Vice President of the 5 Society for Psychical Research and Dorr's interviews with medium Leonora Piper at Oldfarm are integrated into articles James published prior to his death in 1910. 11. TRUSTEE FIRST STEPS American Civic Association President J. Horace McFarland comes to the national forefront by publicizing the absence of a federal managerial agency overseeing national park expansion and development. A series of superb property donations to the Maine Trustees presents them with similar organizational issues. These seem to resolve when the State of Maine took the unprecedented step of agreeing with Dorr's arguments to grant the Hancock County Trustees the power of eminent domain. As the importance of creating a national park bureau gained attention, Charles W. Eliot and Dorr become increasingly concerned about the vulnerability of Trustee holdings to ever-changing political currents in Augusta. 12. MR. DORR GOES TO WASHINGTON Arriving in Washington on the heels of President Wilson's inauguration, Dorr champions federal protection as the only stable land protection solution. As houseguest of Gifford Pinchot, former head of the U.S. Forest Service, Dorr meets key leaders of the new government, including Interior Secretary Franklin Lane and Assistant Interior Secretary Stephen Mather. The paramount objective of Mather is the establishment of a national park bureau. Dorr's proposal offers an unprecedented challenge since historically all national parks had been carved out of federal property. There is great political suspicion about any offer of public-inspired gifts. Several years of astute political maneuvering will be necessary for Dorr to establish a new federal precedent. 6 13. MONUMENTAL ACHIEVEMENT Passage of the 1906 Antiquities Act enables national monuments to be created by Presidential executive order. Mount Desert summer and permanent residents respond to this new Island political force, recognizing fully for the first time the fruitful relationship between the conservation Triumvirate: Mr. Dorr, Dr. Eliot, and Mr. Rockefeller, Jr. As Dorr publicizes the merits of establishing Maine's national monument as a stepping stone to national park status, Mather and his allies build the necessary political support for the establishment of the National Park Service (NPS). Their efforts join and Mount Desert Island becomes the site of a national monument one month before the July 1916 establishment of the NPS. Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. drafts its fundamental statement of purpose: conservation of the scenery, historic objects, and wildlife therein without impairment for future generations. 14. THE FIRST NATIONAL PARK WITHIN THE ORIGINAL UNITED STATES At a time when no national park exists East of the Mississippi River, the new custodian of the national monument in Maine-who else but Mr. Dorr--spends much of the year in Washington lobbying Congress for national park status. As Dorr secures additional land donations and the legal justifications for national park status, the NPS faces its first crisis. In the midst of World War I, Mather suffers a nervous breakdown and his assistant, Horace M. Albright, assumes responsibility for the fledgling service for nearly two years. As the nation mourned the death of Theodore Roosevelt, Dorr's goal is realized with the establishment of Lafayette National Park (renamed Acadia in 1929). He becomes its first superintendent, a role that will span a quarter- century. 15. THE PRINCE OF ALTRUISTS The initial absence of automobiles on Mount Desert factored heavily into Mr. Rockefeller's attraction to the Island. The pro-automobile policy of the NPS presents a new challenge to Dorr: how to encourage automobile based park visitation while protecting the privacy of Rockefeller's expanding carriage road system. Dorr and Mr. Rockefeller develop a deep relationship that results in a shared vision for park 7 development. Dorr is comfortable with Mr. Rockefeller's applying his conservation philanthropy to landscapes of what will become the Great Smokey Mountains National Park, the Grand Tetons National Park, and Colonial Williamsburg. Because Maine's national park is more thoroughly integrated with established population centers, Maine's national park is frequently portrayed as being developed for the benefit of wealthy summer residents. 16. ATTACK MAY COME AGAIN Local suspicions arise concerning Dorr's motives. These are articulated most forcefully by U.S. Senator George Pepper, a summer Mount Desert resident who represents a small enclave who claim that road development destroys the Island wilderness experience. They suggest that Dorr is an organizational rogue operating outside the constraints of the federal government. The road development issue escalates and in 1924 a public hearing-on the relationship between public access and the private agenda of Mr. Rockefeller's philanthropy--is scheduled in Washington before Interior Secretary Hubert Work. This meeting is scheduled immediately after Harvard University celebrates the 90th birthday of Dr. Eliot. Nonetheless, he sends the Interior Secretary several letters supportive of the plan and expressive of his admiration for the character and actions of the Park superintendent. . 17. BEGINNINGS AND ENDINGS A favorable 1924 road development decision by Secretary of Interior Hubert Work permits Dorr to shift his energies to research initiatives on Mount Desert. The discovery of native American stone implements by physician Robert Abbe inspires the creation of the Lafayette National Park Museum of Stone Age Antiquities, where Dorr takes on the yeoman's responsibilities. He also donates land and provides civic leadership for the development of the Jackson Laboratories and the Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratories. On the tenth anniversary of the formal celebration of the establishment of Maine's national monument, the most senior member of the Triumvirate-Charles W. Eliot--dies in his Northeast Harbor home. 8 18.. DRIVING TO THE CADILLAC SUMMIT Dorr adopts a more intense form of land stewardship-anticipating F.D. Roosevelt's principle, "Action and action now!"-as he negotiates, buys, and transfers to Mr. Rockefeller several hundred properties which fit their shared vision for the Park. Less than a week after passage of the 1929 Acadia National Park Act (which expanded its boundaries and altered its name), the superintendent attends the funeral of NPS Director Mather. Horace M. Albright accepts the position and immediately travels for the first time to Acadia National Park. He is one of the first to ascend the nearly completed government funded motor road to the summit of Cadillac Mountain. 19. THE ELONGATED SHADOW OF A MAN The future of conservation on Mount Desert is threatened when Mr. Dorr is struck by an automobile on Christmas Eve, 1927. The Reverend Samuel A. Eliot continues his father's labors by publishing Mount Desert: A History. Dr. Eliot's grandson, landscape Charles W. Eliot II, is enlisted by the Bar Harbor Village Improvement Association to research Island land development. Park growth is paralleled by an expansion of the NPS bureaucracy. No year rivals 1932 for the frequency of visitation by NPS officials, culminating in the dedication of the Cadillac Summit road. U.S. Congressman John E. Nelson likens Dorr to the former-NPS director: what Mather had been to the NPS, Dorr is to Acadia National Park. Nearing eighty years of age, Acadia's superintendent is on hand in Washington following the inauguration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The superintendent seizes the opportunity to make the case for several Civilian Conservation Corps camps on the Island. 20. THE MATHER ERA CLOSES The 1933 resignation of Horace M. Albright brings closure to the Mather era. From then until 1941, a steady supply of federally sponsored Works Progress Administration and Civilian Conservation Corps human resources enables park staff to achieve conservation goals that the superintendent had thought were beyond their means. The rapidly expanded NPS landscape department prepares detailed project drawings that provide 9 Mr. Rockefeller and Dorr with heightened aesthetic coherence throughout the Park. Much of this work is delegated to the man who would become Dorr's successor, Benjamin Hadley. Dorr's interests center on his magnum opus: convincing the federal government to accept his most cherished possession-his Oldfarm estate. Further debilitated by encroaching blindness, Dorr avoids public gatherings, including the Tercentenary of Harvard College, though his cousin Thomas Wren Ward was an honored guest. 21.. A FULL AND USEFUL LIFE As the United States ramps up for war, Dorr feels increased urgency to finalize the transfer of Oldfarm to the federal government. Former director Horace Albright repeatedly provides wise counsel, advocating for Mr. Dorr's interests. Described by a fellow superintendent as the patriarch of the NPS, Dorr finalizes the complex negotiations with Washington a week before his eighty-eighth birthday. Much relieved, the sightless superintendent turns his attention to updating his posthumously published Story of Acadia National Park. Mr. Rockefeller accelerates his donation of parkland, doubling the area of Acadia National Park from 1935-1942. In early August 1944, Dorr dies of heart failure at Oldfarm and his ashes are scattered at the park's Beaver Pool. EPILOGUE The executors of Dorr's estate are presented with a daunting task. A legal morass challenges Dorr's trustees since many of his properties intended for addition to the Park are still mortgaged. Ultimately, the NPS takes the position to honor the conditions of Dorr's will related to the development of Oldfarm-yet to this day most legal requirements have not been realized. Tragically, many personal and professional papers are disposed of in the local land fill. His executor, Judge John A. Peters, provides the most careful attention to fulfilling the objectives of Dorr's last will and testament. The estate trustees salvage artifacts and personal papers that were subsequently donated to historical and literary societies. Judge Peters champions the erection of a memorial at the park Sieur de Monts Spring beneath the Mount Desert mountain that now bears Dorr's name.