NORTHEAST HARBOR, Maine - Most mornings Constance Madeira climbs on her old
Of the "waste not, want not" generation, Madeira rides a three-speed that was found abandoned and brought back to life. With minimal maintenance it gets her where she needs to go in this coastal village where she has summered since 1931.
"It still has that same feeling," Madeira said, gazing out a rear window at the lupine field behind her sea blue-shuttered house, which she made her permanent home in 1978. "It isn't suburbia."
The sight of Madeira on her bike adds to the sense of continuity that has kept the Eliots, Peabodys, Rawles, Rockefellers, and other families returning for summers ever since the village was first popularized as a vacation spot in the late 19th century.
The Pastime Theater, Mrs. Flye's Sandwich Shop, and the Mt. Desert Apothecary with its soda fountain are gone but residents can still buy brooms, nautical charts, and other standbys at F.T. Brown on Main Street. There they can catch up with the proprietors of the century-old hardware store, Tom and Frederick "Buddy" Brown, and eye the stuffed guillemot, cormorant, and other seabirds displayed in glass cases in back.
At the Kimball Shop & Boutique, run by the same family since 1931, shoppers will find plush towels, porcelain cookware, cashmere sweaters, and ballet flats. At The Romantic Room across Main Street, they can check out the latest "Lillies," pastel-print dresses named for Palm Beach socialite Lilly Pulitzer who first designed them to conceal citrus stains while tending her juice stand in Palm Beach in the late 1950s.
That an entire commercial block on Main Street and most of the village's surviving old inns and summer homes were designed by one man has helped preserve the hamlet's character. American architectural historian John M. Bryan's handsome tome "Maine Cottages: Fred L. Savage and the Architecture of Mount Desert" (Princeton Architectural Press, 2005) is too big to carry around, but the coffee table book is a walking tour of more than 70 surviving structures designed by the local sea captain's son from 1886 to 1924. They range from the grand old Asticou Inn, which presides over the harbor, to a shingle-style cottage, Rosserne, overlooking Somes Sound.
"Savage had a very good sense of how the Victorians lived," said Peter Forbes, the architect who restored Rosserne and who himself lives in a century-old Savage house on Greening Island. Forbes, who is best known for ultra-modern steel and glass houses, pointed out Savage's thoughtful inclusion of a "writing porch where you did your correspondence after breakfast."
Savage, whose Scottish ancestors were among settlers in Northeast Harbor in the 18th century, designed numerous summer cottages and public buildings in Bar Harbor including the Breakwater Inn, Kebo Valley Golf Club, and the Bar Harbor Municipal Building. On the island of Islesboro in mid-coast Maine, many of his designs are still inhabited summers.
To see examples of Savage's Northeast Harbor work, get a coffee to go at the Pine Tree Market or Full Belli Deli and take an early-morning walk north on Harbourside Drive. The street, which wraps around the western shore of Northeast Harbor, could be called Savage Drive. On the right, look for Isis. The 1890 house, whose name means "seat," boasts scalloped shingles and a fence wreathed in creamy climbing hydrangea. Sometimes the front Dutch door's top half is open, giving passersby a clear view through the house to the water.
Savage designed Isis and six other summer cottages, still bearing the original names of Aerie, Grey Pine, Sweet Briar, Wagstaff, Fermata, and Journey's End, as part of a late 19th-century development centered around the Harbourside Inn. These privately owned homes have been lovingly preserved. Each has its own character created by half-timbering, diamond-paned windows, and other architectural features.
Or start at the southern end of Main Street. Bear right and head down Rock End Road. Turn onto Manchester Road and look for Over the Way, Ready About, Hard Alee, The Old Library, Sunni Holme, and more Savage houses.
Savage's jewel, though, has to be Rosserne. Built in 1891, the classic shingle-style cottage crouches like a sleek cat and has an audacious air. It features a rounded piazza, outside staircase, bay and eyebrow windows, and a turret with a bell-shaped roof. Sunset church services are sometimes held on the lush lawn flowing down to the natural fiord.
In his designs, Savage paid great attention to natural light and the sun's course during the day. "Circulation paths begin in lighted alcoves, pass through large openings to the south, terminating in bay windows," Forbes says. "If there is an opening emitting light on one side of the house, the house yields on the other. It is a remarkable architectural idea, quite modern and far more powerful than the picturesque cottages designed by architects 'from away.' "
Letitia Baldwin, a freelance writer living in Gouldsboro, Maine, can be reached at jbhlb@prexar.net.
