Yesterday

The Claremont Hotel, built in 1884, remains as the last of Southwest Harbor’s grand hotels from the 19th century.

Geography has shaped each community on Mount Desert Island. With their backs to the mountains and a distinct geographical separation from the mainland, these communities faced the sea and grew up around harbors small and large, connected by the great ribbon of blue at their doorsteps.

Southwest Harbor was simply that, a small community on a great harbor, actually a community of two halves.

The main community was  at Manset, with a smaller community on the northern peninsula at Clark’s Point. The community at Clark’s Point gained prominence in the 1850s through the energy and vision of Deacon Henry Clark and his wife Caroline.

A devout Christian and leader in the Congregational Church, Deacon Clark built a wharf large enough to accommodate steamboats. A cannery was soon built.

By 1866, the cannery was boiling 2,500 lobsters a day, providing a new opportunity for fishermen by increasing  demand for a product sometimes used as fertilizer.

The main community at Manset would contain the community post office, the Customs House, the Union Church and, in 1860, numerous shipyards and fishing outfits. In years later, a customs house was built. By the late 19th century, this was a major center for the cod fisheries, providing dried cod for eastern markets.

The communities at Southwest Harbor were part of Tremont, which would also include McKinley (later Bass Harbor), Bernard and Seal Cove. Community differences and disagreements in development led to the breakaway of Southwest Harbor in 1905.

The steamboats brought great changes. After the Civil War, steamboats brought  travelers, seeking relief from the Eastern cities.

Deacon Clark built the Island House Inn in the 1850s.  Clark also operated a shipyard, a chandlery, a stable and another hotel, called the Prospect House.

Tourism rapidly became a critical factor in the growth of the community. By 1881, there would be three grand hotels, a cannery, a bowling alley, a telegraph office, at least five stores, numerous shops and fish houses in the northern settlement, along with the steamboat wharf, the Customs House, Tremont Hall, a butcher and a  physician.

In 1883, Capt. Jesse Pease and his wife, Grace Clark Pease, hired Edward Glover to build a four-story hotel. The Claremont Hotel opened in June 1884.

The village at Manset, in 1881, included two hotels, a sail loft, the community church, at least two stores and three principal wharves. Manset would have its own school, as would the northern settlement.

Today’s economy is based on tourism, providing for every whim and need. Summer homes now occupy the fields and wood lots, which used to play a critical role in the family’s survival. The canneries are gone, and the racks of drying cod, but fishermen still call the harbor home.

An automobile dealership has come and gone, and the Claremont remains as the last of the great hotels of the 19th century. Restaurants abound and most critical household goods are now purchased in Ellsworth rather than from the shop down the road.