MISS SPENCE DISAPPROVES. Dilettante Writes Again

Before movie stars became the tabloid currency of choice, Society figures were America's chief tabloid obsession.  One of 1911's major tabloid fixations was the marriage of 47 year-old John Jacob Astor IV, recently divorced and one of the richest men in America, to 18 year-old Madeline Force, a Bar Harbor summer resident.  Thousands of columns of newspaper ink were expended on the their courtship.  The marriage was denounced from the pulpits, and from Bar Harbor, the redoubtable Clara B. Spence founder of Miss Spence's School for Girls, (who herself had an opinion or two about the proper raising of a Society girl),  weighed in with a letter to the Editor of The New York Times:

Miss Spence had formerly summered across the bay at Sorrento, but now spent her summers at Bar Harbor with her longtime companion, Miss Charlotte Baker, the assistant principal at Spence, an heiress to the fortune left by her aunt's husband, John Steward Kennedy. Two years later, Spence and Baker, with their four adopted children, would move from a cottage on the Kennedy estate to 'The Willows' a beautiful Regency style cottage designed for Miss Baker by the Boston firm of Andrews Jaques & Rantoul on Eden Street. "The Willows" would eventually pass to Miss Baker's sister, Mrs. Francis Kellogg, and later be sold to Canadian mining tycoon Sir Harry Oakes, but that's another story, which can be found HERE

The Misses Spence & Baker, with adopted daughters Margaret Spence & Ruth Baker (Spence School)

Despite Miss Spence's disapproval, the Astor marriage went ahead, only to be cut short when Col. Astor perished aboard the Titanic in April of 1912.  In August of 1912, three of the survivors, Madeline Astor, Mrs. George Widener, and Mrs. John B.Thayer, were in Bar Harbor as the guests of Mrs. A.J. Cassatt at "Four Acres", the Cassatt estate, which abuttied the property where Miss Baker and Miss Spence's new cottage was rising.  

'The Willows', the Bar Harbor cottage of Miss Baker

The next summer, even as the Misses Baker and Spence were moving into "The Willows", Mrs. Astor was also moving, into a nearby cottage also designed by Andrews, Jaques & Rantoul, a few carefully raked gravel driveways up Eden Street from the famed educators.

La Selva, ocean front in better days

That house was 'La Selva', built in 1903 for Pennsylvania coal baron Andrew Davis.  During Mrs. Astor's occupancy members of the press were frequently seen lurking at the gates in search of news about Mrs. Astor and her new baby, John Jacob Astor VI. 

In 1916, Harper's Bazaar caught Mrs. Astor at Bar Harbor as she was about to be remarried.

A few years later, Mrs. Astor would depart "La Selva" for a more secluded cottage on the George Vanderbilt estate, but "La Selva" would soon attract another colorful tenant, Mrs. Leonard Thomas, formerly Blanche Oelrichs of Newport, known professionally as the playwright, poet, and actress Michael Strange. Sometimes referred to as 'the most beautiful woman in America', Mrs. Thomas was already planning to leave her banker husband to obtain a Paris divorce, that she might run away with her lover, John Barrymore, one of the most famous actors of his day.

La Selva's next tenant was the beautiful Michael Strange (nee Blanche Oelrichs), seen here with her lover and later husband, John Barrymore.

'La Selva' is currently for sale, its condition more than a little reminiscent of 'Grey Gardens'.  I have written its colorful history for 'House of the Month' in the current issue of Portland Monthly.  The article may be read HERE.  More pictures HERE.

La Selva, views of entrance front taken two weeks ago

MONEY USED TO GO FURTHER, # 3: Bar Harbor Property Taxes 1903

In the course of researching a story about the Vanderbilts in Gilded Age Bar Harbor for today's New York Social Diary, I came upon this little tidbit in the July 3rd, 1903 New York Times.  Here in down east Maine, late Winter is when the annual Town Reports are released, and absolutely everyone indulges in the voyeuristic sport of seeing how much their neighbors paid in property taxes in the preceding year.  Apparently it has been ever thus:

Naturally, I found this entertaining, and since I had far more important things to do, I decided to match those long-ago taxpayers to their houses instead.

Tax assessing has always been something of a mystery to this Dilettante, and this list was no exception.  It include several of the grandest estates in Bar Harbor, and left out several others.  Four of the cottages, Vanderbilt, Dorr, Kennedy and Morrell, sat on properties of 20-35 acres, and had many support structures---gatehouses, gardener's cottages, greenhouses, stables and carriage houses.  Most, as is typical in many resorts, sat on smallish lots of 2-4 acres, with perhaps a carriage house or lodge.

Pointe d'Acadie, the main house on the George Vanderbilt estate.

'Islecote House' at 'Pointe d'Acadie', the cottage occupied by Mr. Vanderbilt's niece, Mrs. William Jay Schieffelin, designed by Alexander Wadsworth Longfellow, nephew of the poet.

A rights-free image could not be found of 'Whileaway', also designed by Longfellow, the third main cottage at George Vanderbilt's 'Pointe d'Acadie'
Total Tax Bill 1903:  $3,200.

The main house at George B. Dorr's 'Old Farm' off Schooner Head Road, designed by Henry Richards  (click HERE to see the porch at the left today)
Tax Bill in 1903,  $2,390

Augustus C. Gurnee's 'Beaudesert' on Eden St., designed by William Ralph Emerson
Tax Bill in 1903, $1,369

Charles T. How's 'Guy's Cliff', designed by W. Jordan, was next door to Beaudesert on Eden St.
Tax Bill in 1903, $1,263.

George S. Bowdoin's 'La Rochelle' on West St., designed by Andrews, Jacques & Rantoul.  
Tax Bill in 1903, $980.

John Stewart Kennedy's 'Kenarden Lodge' designed by Mrs. Kennedy's nephew Cornelius Baker's firm, Rowe & Baker, on Main St.
1903 Tax Bill, $2,280.

Joseph Pulitzer's 'Chatwold' by designed by Rotch & Tilden, with tower by McKim, Mead & White at right,  on Schooner Head Road.
1903 Tax Bill, $2,198.

John J. Emery's 'The Turrets', designed by Bruce Price, sat on Eden St. next door to 'Guy's Cliff'.  1903 Tax Bill, $1,375.

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Edgar Scott's 'Chiltern' designed by A.W. Longfellow, on Main St., a few doors down from Kenarden Lodge.
1903 Tax Bill, $2,451.

Edward T. Morrell's 'Thirlstane' formerly the R.B.Scott cottage designed by William Ralph Emerson, sat on the largest property, 35 hilltop acres on Eagle Lake Road.  1903 Tax Bill, $1,046.

Charles Allen Porter may well have been one of Bar Harbor's biggest taxpayers in 1903, but he and his real estate eluded all attempts at identification.

Robert P. Bowler's 'Corfield' on Eden Street, designed by Rotch & Tilden.
1903 Tax Bill, $1175.

 Alexander J. Cassatt's 'Four Acres' designed by Chapman & Frazer, on Eden St., two doors of Corfield, and later the summer home of the E.T. Stotesburys.
1903 Tax Bill, $1175.

J. Montgomery Sears's 'The Briars', designed by William Ralph Emerson, was later the birthplace of Nelson Rockefeller, and still later, summer home of Evalyn Walsh McLean and her unlucky diamond.
1903 Tax Bill,  $1200.

One wonders if the article just selected these few, as there were many other houses in Bar Harbor grander than some on the list, one example being Major George Wheeler's 'Avamaya' on the highest summit in town.

'Avamaya', renamed 'Blair Eyrie' by later owners

Having wasted enough time on this silliness, I continued.  I searched the Bar Harbor assessor's site to find out how the properties were assessed today.  This was not as easy as it sounds, for most of the houses referenced have been demolished or were destroyed in the 1947 Bar Harbor Fire, and the properties are mostly abandoned or subdivided. today.  Hence some, like the Vanderbilt and Morrell estates, were impossible to reconstruct for comparative purposes.

The three surviving properties offered some basis for comparison to their 1903 valuations:

Kenarden Lodge retains its original 26 acre property and outbuildings, and is still residential.  The 40 room main house was torn down in the early 1960s and replaced with a (relatively) smaller house on the same site.  The current tax bill on assessment of 7,177,900 was 67,759.  This tracks about right if one accepts a suggested adjustment factor of around 30 from 1903 to 2011 dollars, and a bargain compared to similar property on Long Island.

Gate House at Kenarden Lodge

'The Turrets' is now owned by the College of the Atlantic. Since 1903 it has lost its large stone and shingle carriage house to the Bar Harbor fire of 1947, and sits on 2.41 acres of land, and the cottage has gross square footage of 28,686 sq. ft. of which 18,825 is  living space. The house, used as an administration building, was slightly enlarged after 1903 by the addition of a third floor to the servant's wing (one can never be too rich, too thin, or have too many servant's bedrooms. Sadly, none of these apply to me).  Valuation in 2011 was 4,851,000.  Measured against Kenarden, with its main house gone, the Turrets, in much shabbier condition and without its significant carriage house, seems to have maintained parity with Kenarden from the 1903 assessments,  

The Turrets as it appears today.

Incidentally, College of the Atlantic is the recipient of the Dilettante's 2010 Bad Preservation Award, for removing the original granite wall, iron fence and magnificent iron gates, the finest in Maine, which were a significant landmark on Eden Street for over 100 years.  The College was a 2008 recipient for a willfully insensitive renovation  of 'Sea Urchins', a highly entertaining and idiosyncratic cottage designed by the seminal firm of Rotch & Tilden, given them by an owner who doubtless expected better. In fairness, The Turrets, abandoned for 25 years after the original owner's death in 1953, would not stand at all if the college had not saved it, and thus the college also has a Lifetime Achievemetn Award for that effort..  Although that does not excuse the removal of the gates.

La Rochelle had the biggest discrepancy between 1903 and 2011 valuations and parity.  I suspect that this is because the cottage was probably still under construction at the time of the article. According to the assessor's report, the house sits on two acres has 41 rooms on four levels with 13,392 square feet of living space.  The current valuation is 5,369,000.  The house was donated by the family of its last private owner, Campbell's Soup heiress Ethel Dorrance Colket, to the Maine Sea Coast Mission as their headquarters.  It is a three time winner of the Dilettante's Bad Preservation Award, for removing elegant French windows on the entrance front, and replacing them with blank panels topped with single panes of glass.  They also built a pre-fab 2-car garage in the service court, removed several hundred feet of iron fencing, and removed two of the sculptural tall chimneys essential to the architectural composition.  Although they did not have enough money to repair the chimneys, or worse, just didn't care, they did find the money to re-landscape the entrance court.  Obviously some well intentioned soul thought it was too formal, and replaced it with a 'natural' composition of boulders and shrubs.  

La Rochelle as it appears today.  The cedar trees replace iron grill fence

Good intentions are often the enemy of good design.  I like naturalized clusters of rocks and shrubs just fine, but not when they replace the carefully integrated design intent of the architects and landscape designer, in this case the great Beatrix Farrand.  Context is everything.  This was not one of those cases in which an interesting aesthetic tension was achieved between formal and informal elements.  Rather, it was just dumb.  On the plus side, the Mission did receive the Dilettante Good Preservation award once, for realizing their mistake with the French windows and putting them back.  (For Pete's sake guys, if it ain't broke, don't fix it).  One has to have seen this property when still in private hands to appreciate the sad decisions made since then.

But I've wandered far from the point.  Be sure to check out this week's piece in New York Social Diary (Click HERE)

And to read the Dilettante in a completely different vein, click HERE for a story  in the current issue of Portland Monthly, about a lost mid-century building in Down East Maine with ties to the early days of Design Research. (the article opens on a full-page kitchen ad.  Just scroll down)