Bar Harbor Audio Walking Tour

Highlights

• 
  Jackson Laboratory

  Ahead lies the campus Clarence Cook Little founded in 1929, an independent, non-profit institution for biomedical research. Right here the Bar Harbor campus is one of two research campuses, the Jackson Laboratory for Mammalian Genetics in Bar Harbor and the Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine in Farmington, Connecticut.

• College of the Atlantic

  College of the Atlantic spreads along Frenchman Bay in front of you, a private liberal arts college in Bar Harbor on Mount Desert Island. Founded in 1969, COA awards bachelors and masters (M.Phil.

• 
  Bar Island

  Across the water from Bar Harbor on Mount Desert Island, Maine, a forested hump of pine and birch rises and falls with the tide: Bar Island. Uninhabited and mostly forested in pine and birch, the island is now part of Acadia National Park and offers walking trails that invite exploration.

• The Farm House

  Beatrix Farrand laid out the gardens at this 4.2-acre farmhouse estate on Highbrook Road, and you can still trace her design. This 4.2‑acre property began as a 19th‑century farmhouse and was carefully reshaped in the 1920s into a Colonial Revival design by Arthur McFarland, who also designed the little caretaker’s cottage that sits nearby.

• 
  John Innes Kane Cottage

  John Innes Kane Cottage, an Astor grandson's Tudor Revival estate, rises in front of you at 45 Hancock Street in Bar Harbor, Maine. Built in 1903–04 for John Innes Kane, a wealthy grandson of John Jacob Astor, and designed by local architect Fred L. Savage, this imposing Tudor Revival summer estate is one of a small number of estate houses to escape Bar Harbor’s devastating 1947 fire.

All 29 stops

• Agamont Park (Main Street)

  Here at the northern tip of Main Street, a grassy rise opens into Agamont Park, Bar Harbor's own window onto Maine.

• Bar Island (Bar Harbor)

  Across the water from Bar Harbor on Mount Desert Island, Maine, a forested hump of pine and birch rises and falls with the tide: Bar…

• Grant Park, Bar Harbor (Bar Harbor)

  Frenchman Bay stretches out ahead of you here, halfway along Bar Harbor, Maine's mile-long Shore Path, where Grant Park opens onto the water.

• Bar Harbor Inn (Bar Harbor)

  Notice how this building has worn two identities: a men's clubhouse raised in 1887, then a welcoming inn only since 1950.

• Balance Rock Inn (Albert Meadow)

  This AAA Four Diamond-rated boutique hotel began life in 1903 as the home of Scottish railroad tycoon Alexander Maitland.

• Ben & Bill's Chocolate Emporium (Main Street)

  Ben & Bill's Chocolate Emporium has held this spot on Main Street in Bar Harbor since 1980, and its storefront is right in front of…

• Sproul's Cafe (Downtown)

  Sproul's Cafe sits at 128 Main Street in Bar Harbor's busy downtown, directly in front of you.

• Criterion Theatre (downtown Bar Harbor)

  Ahead at 35 Cottage Street, a projecting marquee juts out over the sidewalk of downtown Bar Harbor.

• US Post Office Bar Harbor, Maine (Main Village)

  Look at the U.S. Post Office—Bar Harbor Main, a granite Classical Revival building raised in 1909 at 55 Cottage Street.

• Jesup Memorial Library (Bar Harbor Main Village)

  Picture a brick Colonial Revival library rising at 34 Mount Desert Street, a 1910 gift to the town.

• Village Green, Bar Harbor (Bar Harbor)

  Four streets hem in the lawn ahead of you: Firefly Lane to the north, Main Street to the east, Mount Desert Street to the south…

• Abbe Museum (Mount Desert Street)

  At 26 Mount Desert Street, in the center of Bar Harbor, you have reached the Abbe Museum's downtown entrance.

• Saint Saviour's Episcopal Church and Rectory (Main Village)

  Saint Saviour's Episcopal Church and Rectory face you at 41 Mt. Desert Street in Bar Harbor.

• Mira Monte Inn (Mount Desert Street)

  Imagine this nineteen-room inn as Orlando Ash's 1864 summer cottage on Mount Desert Street in Bar Harbor, Maine.

• Ivy Manor Inn (Bar Harbor)

  Picture Dr. Weymouth's Tudor‑style home rising in 1936, the house that welcomes you today as the Ivy Manor Inn, opened in 1997.

• West Street Historic District (West Street Historic District)

  Just off Bar Harbor's main village, West Street runs quietly parallel to Mt. Desert Street, opening onto the north coastline.

• Bar Harbor Historical Society (West Street)

  Picture this 41-room brick mansion at 127 West Street, now home to Bar Harbor's Historical Society.

• Harbor Lane-Eden Street Historic District (Harbor Lane–Eden Street Historic District)

  Nine summer houses in the Harbor Lane–Eden Street Historic District outlasted the 1947 fire that swept much of Mount Desert Island, and you can still…

• The Turrets (Bar Harbor)

  On Eden Street a granite French chateau rises, all turrets and dormers, facing you from the shore.

• Cleftstone (Eden Street)

  Across Eden Street from the College of the Atlantic rises Cleftstone, a summer house dating to 1881.

• Eegonos (Frenchman Bay)

  Boston architect Guy Lowell designed Eegonos in 1910 on Eden Street, and you're looking at one of the rare summer houses to survive Bar Harbor's…

• Redwood (Barberry Lane)

  William Ralph Emerson designed Redwood in 1879 on Barberry Lane, the first Shingle style house you'll find in Bar Harbor.

• John Innes Kane Cottage (Bar Harbor)

  John Innes Kane Cottage, an Astor grandson's Tudor Revival estate, rises in front of you at 45 Hancock Street in Bar Harbor, Maine.

• Reverie Cove (Harbor Lane-Eden Street Historic District)

  Ahead on Harbor Lane rises Reverie Cove, its Colonial Revival grandeur named for a mood of quiet daydream.

• Nannau (Bar Harbor)

  Nannau, a historic summer estate house in Bar Harbor, sits in front of you.

• The Farm House (Main Village (southwest side))

  Beatrix Farrand laid out the gardens at this 4.2-acre farmhouse estate on Highbrook Road, and you can still trace her design.

• 33 Ledgelawn Avenue (Main Village)

  Brick and diamond-paned windows greet you at 33 Ledgelawn Avenue, once home to St. Edward's Convent.

• College of the Atlantic (Bar Harbor)

  College of the Atlantic spreads along Frenchman Bay in front of you, a private liberal arts college in Bar Harbor on Mount Desert Island.

• Jackson Laboratory (Bar Harbor)

  Ahead lies the campus Clarence Cook Little founded in 1929, an independent, non-profit institution for biomedical research.

How it works