Eegonos, known more recently as East of Eden, is a historic summer estate house at 145 Eden Street 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 1910 to a design by

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

architect Guy Lowell, it is one of a small number of summer houses to escape Bar Harbor's devastating 1947 fire, which resulted in the destruction of many such buildings. It is an architecturally sophisticated expression of Beaux Arts and Mediterranean Revival styles, and 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 1980.

Description and history

Eegonos is set on the shore of

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 ...

, about north of Bar Harbor's center. It is a -story H-shaped structure, with a central block flanked by projecting sections on each side. The southeastern section has a single-story porch, supported by paired Ionic columns, extending across much of its width. The building is of masonry construction with a stucco finish, and is topped by a red tile roof. The roofs of the side sections are hipped, while the central section has a side-gable roof pierced by four hip-roof dormers on both the land and ocean sides. The interiors are elegantly appointed, with a marble-floored vestibule, fireplaces finished in marble and wood, and ceilings with decorative friezes and medallions. The building has seen only modest alterations since its construction. The first summer house built on this property was called "Sonogee", and was destroyed by fire within two years of its construction. Mr. and Mrs. Walter G. Ladd commissioned the noted Boston architect Guy Lowell to design the present building, which was completed in 1910. They called it "Eegonos", reversing the spelling of the previously named estate. The property was described in an architectural journal in 1910, along with another Lowell commission, Eden Hall, a performance hall in Bar Harbor which burned down in the 1947 fire. The house remained in the Ladd family until 1949, and was used as dormitory housing for a French language school from 1959 to 1975. Since 1975 the house has been owned by various private individuals and groups. In 2020 USA Today listed the property as the grandest house in Maine.

References

{{National Register of Historic Places Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Maine Houses completed in 1910 Houses in Hancock County, Maine National Register of Historic Places in Hancock County, Maine Gilded Age mansions Beaux-Arts architecture in Maine

Description and history

See also

References