Cleftstone
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Cleftstone is a historic summer house at 92 Eden Street (
Maine State Route 3 State Route 3 (SR 3) is a state highway located in southern Maine. It is a major interregional highway, connecting the Interstate 95 corridor to the Atlantic coast. The western terminus is at SR 8, SR 11 and SR 27 in Augusta and the eastern ...
) in
Bar Harbor, Maine Bar Harbor is a resort town on Mount Desert Island in Hancock County, Maine, United States. As of the 2020 census, its population is 5,089. During the summer and fall seasons, it is a popular tourist destination and, until a catastrophic fire i ...
. Built in 1881 and enlarged in 1894, it is an architecturally eclectic combination of elements from the Shingle, Queen Anne, and
Colonial Revival The Colonial Revival architectural style seeks to revive elements of American colonial architecture. The beginnings of the Colonial Revival style are often attributed to the Centennial Exhibition of 1876, which reawakened Americans to the archi ...
styles. It is now Cleftstone Manor, a hotel with seventeen guest rooms. It was listed on the
National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
in 1999.


Description and history

Cleftstone is a large -story wood-frame structure, set on the west side of Eden Street across from the campus of the
College of the Atlantic College of the Atlantic (COA) is a private liberal arts college in Bar Harbor on Mount Desert Island, Maine, United States. Founded in 1969, it awards bachelors and masters (M.Phil.) degrees solely in the field of human ecology, an interdiscipli ...
. It is roughly a long, rectangular building, set parallel to the road. Its busy roofline is pierced by a number of cross gables and gabled dormers, with a project section ath the northwest and a large entrance portico roughly in the center of the main (west-facing) facade. A low polygonal tower is located at the northeast corner of the building. The east facade, screened from the road by trees, is relatively undistinguished. The interior in part reflects the various periods of construction of the building. The downstairs public spaces are elegantly appointed, with Colonial Revival woodwork from its latest period of alteration predominating in the living area and dining room. Remnants of older styles are found elsewhere in the house, including a Queen Anne fireplace mantel in a second-floor bedroom. The oldest portion of the building was built c. 1880 for the How family, which included Bar Harbor's major real estate developer of the period, Charles How. Design of this structure is attributed to Pennsylvania architect
Bruce Price Bruce Price (December 12, 1845 – May 29, 1903) was an American architect and an innovator in the Shingle Style. The stark geometry and compact massing of his cottages in Tuxedo Park, New York, influenced Modernist architects, including ...
, known for his designs of summer properties. John How sold Cleftstone in 1894 to the Ellis family of
Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...
, who expanded and altered the property in 1894 and again in 1903. Laura Ellis apparently retained ownership when the couple divorced in 1912. Her heirs sold Cleftstone to Joseph McCaffrey in 1947, shortly before a fire swept through the area, destroying all of the other summer houses in the immediate vicinity. McCaffrey opened the Cleftstone Manor Inn in 1948.


Facilities

The inn has seventeen guest rooms, a formal dining room, breakfast room, and lounge areas. The property has a swimming pool overlooking
Frenchman Bay Frenchman Bay is a bay in Hancock County, Maine, named for Samuel de Champlain, the French explorer who visited the area in 1604. Frenchman Bay may have been the location of the Jesuit St. Sauveur mission, established in 1613. In a 1960 book ...
.


See also

*
National Register of Historic Places listings in Hancock County, Maine __NOTOC__ This is a list of the National Register of Historic Places listings in Hancock County, Maine. This is intended to be a complete list of the properties and districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Hancock County, Maine, ...


References

{{National Register of Historic Places Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Maine Queen Anne architecture in Maine Shingle Style architecture in Maine Houses completed in 1881 Houses in Hancock County, Maine Hotels in Bar Harbor, Maine Buildings and structures in Bar Harbor, Maine National Register of Historic Places in Hancock County, Maine 1881 establishments in Maine Bruce Price buildings