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Crocker House Brings Back Old Times
The heyday of
Hancock Point can be traced to 1884 when the Maine Central Railroad
linked Bangor to the Hancock-Bar Harbor Ferry.
The Crocker
House Country Inn at Hancock Point continues to attract fancy
guests, just as it did 100 years ago. The vacationing Sen.
Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., stayed there Aug. 5-6 and called
staffers outside for a photo before he left. From left are Julie
Trask, Rich Malaby and Carolyn Wakefield. |
By the 1920s as
many as 8,000 to 10,000 visitors crossed Frenchman Bay daily to
travel through Hancock Point at the height of summer. They enjoyed
as many as 70 restaurants and 55 lodging options.
Only one commercial
establishment remains today at Hancock Point: the Crocker House
Country Inn.
Many summer people
continue to stay in Hancock Point as private guests of families who
own cottages there.
But just as many
head for the Crocker House, where owner Richard Malaby has carefully
returned to the inn the splendor of Hancock Point lore.
For 23 years, since
Malaby bought the 13-room inn, the Crocker House has been an
overnight destination and dining room.
Malaby does much of
the cooking and always will. He and wife, Elizabeth, keep Crocker
House open all year except in January and February.
Those who go there
for the food or the accommodations enjoy the experience of a place
tied to Hancock Point’s fancy past.
The Crocker House
was built in 1883 by John Crocker. Passengers from the ferries and
trains gave it life among all of the prospering point’s
destinations.
But even though the
inn had a colorful, stylish owner in Olga Zsabo, a Hungarian
baroness, business fell away in the 1930s when the Thompson Island
Bridge connected Mount Desert Island to Trenton and cars replaced
the ferry and train as the way to get around Downeast. The ferry
from Hancock Point was no longer needed to reach
Bar Harbor.
The Crocker House
was closed for several decades before re-opening in 1976 when
several artistic investors from
New Orleans
bought it, bringing with them celebrated Southern chef Paul
Prud’homme to give cooking classes to local chefs.
They weren’t very
business-minded, however, and the inn failed to thrive.
Then Malaby arrived
from Washington,
D.C., to take ownership and Hancock Point hasn’t been the
same since. Neither has all of Hancock.
He is an active,
concerned community member who serves on the Hancock School Board,
and whose two boys attend
Mount Desert Island
High School.
His involvement
goes beyond town lines. For five years, through 1999, he was
president of CADC (Coastal Acadia Development Corp.) for the area’s
economic growth.
He continues as a
longtime board member of the Maine Coast Memorial Hospital in
Ellsworth.
Malaby takes pride
in local business, whether his own or that of greater Ellsworth.
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