Bass Harbor Head Light, Gott Islands in Distance (2003)

[TREE-mont] is a town on Mount Desert Island in Hancock County, settled in 1762 and incorporated on June 3, 1848 under the name of Mansel.

The name was change to Tremont (from the French for three mountains) a few months later on August 8th.

It annexed part of Seaville in 1859 when that town dissolved, the balance going to the town of Mount Desert. Tremont ceded land to Southwest Harbor in 1905.

Bass Harbor is the terminal for the Swan’s Island ferry and the Frenchboro ferry. It also hosts a much photographed lighthouse on its rocky shore.

The harbor itself is somewhat protected by nearby islands, but its southwestern exposure makes it less desirable than Northeast and Southwest harbors around Bass Harbor Head to the east.

Tremont’s cove-rich shoreline abuts Blue Hill Bay, which includes the town’s Tinker and Hardwood islands, among others.

Author Ruth Moore was born on Gott’s Island, part of the town off shore from its southern tip.

The Ketterlinus Nature Preserve on Route 102 features a steep tidal gorge, the only one of its kind on Mount Desert Island, through which eels and alewives pass on their way to Seal Cove Pond.

An historic area borders the gorge, although the former grist mill, lumber mill store, schoolhouse and shipyard are now overgrown by woods. It, along with the Ship Island Group, is managed by The Nature Conservancy.

Ship Island Group preserve consists of four small shrub-covered islands (Ship, Trupet, Barge, half of Bar) housing a significant colony of nesting seabirds, and seal haul-outs. As such, they are closed during nesting season. They are accessible by small boat, approximately five miles from Bass Harbor.

Congressional Medal of Honor winner:

Civil War

JOHN F. BICKFORD

 

---

 

Additional Resources

Historical Records Survey (Maine). Inventory of the Town and City Archives of Maine: No. 5 Hancock County: the towns of Mt. Desert (. . . Seaville, Tremont, Southwest Harbor). Portland, Me. Historical Records Survey. 1938. [University of Maine, Raymond H. Fogler Library, Special Collections; Bangor Public Library; Maine State Library]

Maine. Historic Preservation Commission. Augusta, Me.   Text and photos from National Register of Historic Places: http://pdfhost.focus.nps.gov/docs/nrhp/text/xxxxxxxx.PDF and http://pdfhost.focus.nps.gov/docs/nrhp/photos/xxxxxxxx.PDF

Silverman, Irving. The Historic Homes of the Town of Tremont — : A Perspective in Time. Bass Harbor, Me. Tremont Historical Society. 1998. [University of Maine, Raymond H. Fogler Library, Special Collections; Maine State Library]

National Register of Historic Places – Listings

Photos, and edited text are from nominations to the National Register of Historic Places researched by Maine. Historic Preservation Commission.
Full text and photos are at https://npgallery.nps.gov/nrhp 

Bass Harbor Head Light Station

[Bass Harbor Head] The light station was established in 1858 by the Federal government to provide additional aids to navigation along the coast. Its location here was to aid vessels entering Bass Harbor, a small fishing village located northwest of the light. The station was automated in 1974.

The tower is twenty-six feet from its base to the original focal plane of the beacon. Its brick walls are punctuated by a pair of small windows facing Blue Hill Bay. Capped by a walkway and iron railing, the tower supports a lantern whose iron base features paired round arched panels in each face. A modern beacon has replaced the original lens.*

Bass Harbor Memorial Library

[89 Bernard Road] The Bass Harbor Memorial Library is a small Colonialrevival style brick building located in the village of Bernard. Tremont is comprised of several distinct villages distributed along small harbors and coves on the south and southwestern coast of the western lobe of Mount Desert Island. The villages of Bernard and Bass Harbor occupy the west and east shores, respectively. Bass Harbor is a moderately sized harbor that extends north from Blue Hill Bay. Bernard is characterized generally by modest 19th century frame houses with a few commercial structures on or near the harbor, a church, and a few civic structures.

The Bass Harbor Library is one of the most visually distinctive building in town and is the only building with formal Colonial Revival style features as characterized by the Palladian windows, fan light and central portico. Built in 1922, the east facing structure is set on a small grassy lot near the center of the village. The Library was built with funds donated by Rhoda M. Watson, a former resident of the community, in memory of her husband Edwin L. Watson, a successful industrialist. The building reflects the nationwide trend of philanthropic underwriting of Maine’s libraries in the 20th century.

The Old Red Store

The Old Red Store in the Village of Bernard was built in 1885 in the Town of Tremont. It is a small-town grocery store that also served as post office and social gathering place. Originally housing the T.W. Jackson Market, the building was maintained in the same family as a store for fifty years. For sixty years, a part of that time overlapping the store use, the building was the Bernard post office with the same family serving as post masters.

Additional businesses operated out of the store in the early to mid-20th century. A barber shop, pool room, and radio shop added to the store’s commercial offerings and provided social space.  The period of significance begins with its use as a store around 1885 and continues up to 1940.

 

Dix Family Stable, Rt. 102A Bass Harbor

Moore–Mayo House, Lighthouse Road., Bass Harbor