Today

Frank Jones, Sorrento’s original developer in the 1880s, built this library as a reading place for his wife. Today, it is the town’s best-known landmark.

Down East magazine tried to pump up Sorrento in the late 1980s as “the best-kept secret on the Maine coast.”

It still is a secret. Sorrento holds fast to its origins as a private and pristine place.

By geography alone, Sorrento exudes isolation. Its peninsula-shaped profile on the map, extending off Sullivan into Frenchman Bay, allows for but one road—Route 185—in and out.

The town isn’t big at all, land-wise: With just 2,580 acres, it is the smallest town in Hancock County that is not an island. (Two island towns, 1,539-acre Frenchboro, and 2,043-acre Cranberry Isles are smaller in both size and population).

Such intimate qualities make for a town where time stands still.

Louis Sutherland, Sorrento’s first selectman, has held that position for more than 30 years.

Esther Clement, the town clerk and tax collector, has held her positions for almost 20 years.

And the same families keep returning to their “cottages” in the village, summer after summer.

The town was developed in the 1880s as a destination for fancy travelers from Boston, New York and Philadelphia. The cottages that dot the village are a reminder of years past.

Few things change here, and both the locals and summer residents like it that way.

“It hasn’t changed much since I was a kid,” said Clement, a life-long resident except for 18 months in Ellsworth as a newlywed. “But there are a lot fewer kids here in general, and it is busier in summer.”

Of Sorrento’s 290 souls, 14 of them are grammar schoolers attending Mountain View School in Sullivan. Twelve more students go to Sumner Memorial High School.

A generally aging population makes up the rest of the Sorrento headcount. Many are former “summer people,” now retirees, who have changed over their waterfront cottages into year-round residences.

At last count, according to the 2000 census, 136 of the homes in town are seasonal properties, and 146 of them are year-round.

Short of those conversions in the last 10 years, relative to other county towns, there is not much building occurring in Sorrento. That is partially because a good proportion of property belongs to a few families with deep roots.

Most of the building is taking place offshore, according to Clement. On Treasure Island, one of the 11 small islands within sight of the town dock, nine families have property. Treasure, one-half mile wide by less than a quarter mile the other way, is the town’s only island that is connected to the peninsula with a causeway.

 There, one house is being completely renovated; one new house is going up; and one smaller one is being torn down for replacement by a bigger one.