Reverie Cove is a historic summer estate on Harbor Lane 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. The town is home to the College of the Atlantic, Jackson Laboratory, and MDI Biological Laborat ...

. It was designed by local architect Fred L. Savage and built in 1895, and is a particularly opulent example of

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 arch ...

architecture. A later owner of the property was

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

mayor

Abram Hewitt Abram Stevens Hewitt (July 31, 1822January 18, 1903) was an American politician, educator, ironmaking industrialist, and lawyer who was mayor of New York City for two years from 1887 to 1888. He also twice served as a U.S. Congressman from an ...

. The house was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 1982, and as part of the Harbor Lane-Eden Street Historic District in 2009.

Description and history

Reverie Cove is set near the end of Harbor Lane, overlooking

Frenchman Bay Frenchman Bay is a bay in Hancock County, Maine, Hancock County, Maine, named for Samuel de Champlain, the France, French explorer who visited the area in 1604. Frenchman Bay may have been the location of the Jesuit St. Sauveur mission, establish ...

and eastward toward the village center of Bar Harbor. It is a large frame house stories in front and in back, with a complex

hip roof A hip roof, hip-roof or hipped roof, is a type of roof where all sides slope downward to the walls, usually with a fairly gentle slope, with variants including Tented roof, tented roofs and others. Thus, a hipped roof has no gables or other ve ...

, three brick chimneys, wooden shingle siding, and a granite foundation. The main facade faces west (away from the water), and is five bays wide, with projecting

portico A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls. This idea was widely used in ancient Greece and has influenced many cu ...

-like sections at both ends. Stylistically identical, one shelters the main entrance, while the other is a covered porch. Both are topped by recessed balconies, and are supported by paired large square columns. Between these porticos are a band of four diamond-pane sash windows, with a large round-arch diamond-pane window at the second level. Between this large window and the recessed balconies there are small half-round windows. At the outer corners of the facade are slightly projecting sections topped by hip-roof sections with eyebrow dormers. The half-story between these projections also has a low-profile hip-roof

dormer A dormer is a roofed structure, often containing a window, that projects vertically beyond the plane of a Roof pitch, pitched roof. A dormer window (also called ''dormer'') is a form of roof window. Dormers are commonly used to increase the ...

. The eastern facade, facing the water, is also elaborate, with recessed balconies under arches at the center of the third level, and projecting semi-circular balconies at the second. Reverie Cove was designed by local architect Fred L. Savage, noted for designing a number of Bar Harbor's other summer estate houses, and was completed in 1895. It was built for Dr. John Davies Jones of

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

After Jones died in 1903, the house was purchased by

Abram Abraham (originally Abram) is the common Hebrews, Hebrew Patriarchs (Bible), patriarch of the Abrahamic religions, including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In Judaism, he is the founding father who began the Covenant (biblical), covenanta ...

and Sarah Hewitt; he served as

Mayor of New York City The mayor of New York City, officially mayor of the City of New York, is head of the executive branch of the government of New York City and the chief executive of New York City. The Mayoralty in the United States, mayor's office administers all ...

1887–88. The property was one of a modest number of Bar Harbor's estate houses to survive a devastating 1947

wildfire A wildfire, forest fire, or a bushfire is an unplanned and uncontrolled fire in an area of Combustibility and flammability, combustible vegetation. Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire may be more specifically identified as a ...

ravaged the eastern half of

Mount Desert Island Mount Desert Island (MDI; ) in Hancock County, Maine, is the largest island off the coast of Maine. With an area of it is the List of islands of the United States by area, 52nd-largest island in the United States, the sixth-largest island in th ...

. It was listed on the

in 1982, and was included in the Harbor Lane-Eden Street Historic District in 2009.

References

{{National Register of Historic Places Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Maine Colonial Revival architecture in Maine Houses completed in 1895 Houses in Hancock County, Maine Buildings and structures in Bar Harbor, Maine National Register of Historic Places in Hancock County, Maine Historic district contributing properties in Maine

Description and history

See also

References