Discover 6 hidden attractions, cool sights, and unusual things to do in Northeast Harbor (United States). Don't miss out on these must-see attractions: Thuya Garden, Asticou Azalea Garden, and Somes Sound. Also, be sure to include St. Mary's-By-The-Sea in your itinerary.
Below, you can find the list of the most amazing places you should visit in Northeast Harbor (Maine).
Table of Contents
Thuya Garden
Garden in Mount Desert, Maine. Thuya Garden is a semi-formal herbaceous garden, in the style of Gertrude Jekyll, located at 15 Thuya Drive, Northeast Harbor, Maine. It is open daily from May through October.
The garden is located on the grounds of Thuya Lodge, built between 1912 and 1916 for Boston landscape architect Joseph Henry Curtis. At that time, today's garden was an orchard. After Curtis' death in 1928, Thuya Lodge and its grounds were placed in a trust directed by his friend Charles K. Savage, an heir of the nearby Asticou Inn and creator of the Asticou Azalea Garden. Today's greatly expanded garden was originally conceived in 1933 by Savage, and built from 1956 to 1961 with plants from Beatrix Farrand's Reef Point Garden in Bar Harbor when that estate was dismantled in 1956, and with financial help from John D. Rockefeller Jr. It opened to the public in 1962.
The garden is laid out as a narrow lawn axis with cross-axes, edged by a rustic pavilion to its north and a shallow reflecting pool to the south. Flower beds contain about half perennials and half annuals, with plantings of rhododendrons and mountain laurels.[1]
Asticou Azalea Garden
Botanical garden in Mount Desert, Maine. The Asticou Azalea Garden in Northeast Harbor, Maine, United States, is a popular visitor attraction. It was created by lifelong resident of the village, Charles Kenneth Savage, in 1956. Much of the initial plant collection originated at Reef Point Estate in nearby Bar Harbor, the summer residence of renowned landscape architect Beatrix Farrand. The collection was moved with the financial assistance of John D. Rockefeller Jr. including the weeping hemlock, just north of the main bridge.
Located at the intersection of Route 198 and Route 3 (Peabody Drive), the 2.3 acres (0.93 ha) garden and its pond are open to the public during daylight hours from May 1 to October 31. It features a selection of rhododendrons and azaleas, including the Rhododendron canadense, Maine's native azalea. Styled after a Japanese stroll garden, the fine-gravel paths are raked regularly in a manner that suggests flowing water. There is also a sand garden, where this effect is repeated but with the addition of stones, which are meant to represent islands.
Savage was also the owner of the Asticou Inn, which is located on the opposite side of Peabody Drive. Prior to the establishment of the garden, the Savage children and grandchildren had made a treehouse and rope swing in the white pine still standing today. The present-day pond was formerly surrounded by an alder swamp.
Group photographs for weddings at the inn are often taken in the Garden.[2]
Address: Asticou Way, 04662 Northeast Harbor
Somes Sound
Somes Sound is a fjard, a body of water running deep into Mount Desert Island, the main site of Acadia National Park in Maine, United States. Its deepest point is approximately 175 feet, and it is over 100 feet deep in several places. The sound almost splits the island in two.
While often described as the "only fjord on the East Coast", it lacks the extreme vertical relief and anoxic sediments associated with Norwegian fjords, and is now called a fjard by officials — a smaller drowned glacial embayment.
Somes Sound was named for Abraham Somes, who was one of the first settlers on the island and had a home at the end of the sound in Somesville, the first village on the island.[3]
St. Mary's-By-The-Sea
Church in Mount Desert, Maine. St. Mary's-By-The-Sea is a historic Gothic Revival church at 20 South Shore Road in Northeast Harbor, Maine. One a few known designs of Maine architect Harry Vaughn and built in 1902, it is one of a number of architect-designed summer chapels built around the turn of the 20th century with funding from wealthy summer residents. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2000. Its parish is also responsible for services at Saint Jude's Episcopal Church, another National Register-listed chapel in Seal Harbor.[4]
Address: 35 S Shore Rd, 04662 Northeast Harbor
Mt. Desert Chamber of Commerce
Museum
Address: 41 Harbor Dr, Northeast Harbor
Saint Jude's Episcopal Church
Church in Mount Desert, Maine. Saint Jude's Episcopal Church is a historic church at 277 Peabody Drive in Seal Harbor, Maine. Built in 1887–89, this Shingle-style church is the least-altered surviving example of ecclesiastical architecture in Maine designed by the noted exponent of the style, William Ralph Emerson. Principally used as a summer chapel, it is affiliated with the Episcopal mission of St. Mary's in Northeast Harbor. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.[5]