From the end of the Great War until the onslaught of the Great Depression, Americans had a good time, and nowhere was that more true than in Bar Harbor during high season. Amid peace and prosperity, the wealthy flocked to Mount Desert Island, foxtrotted at the Swimming Club and tangoed at the Dreamwood Ballroom on Ireson's Hill. Rumrunners made covert pickups from isolated coves along the Mount Desert Narrows while Rockefellers, Vanderbilts and Astors coasted serenely in and out of Frenchman's Bay. Horse-drawn carriages found a haven in the quiet roads of Lafayette National Park while roadsters sped along Bay Drive. Year-round residents faced brutal winters, but even then they had spirited celebrations with Winter Carnivals and Hayseed Balls as the '20s roared on in Bar Harbor.

From the end of the Great War until the onslaught of the Great Depression, Americans had a good time, and nowhere was that more true than in Bar Harbor during high season. Amid peace and prosperity, the wealthy flocked to Mount Desert Island, foxtrotted at the Swimming Club and tangoed at the Dreamwood Ballroom on Ireson s Hill. Rumrunners made covert pickups from isolated coves along the Mount Desert Narrows while Rockefellers, Vanderbilts and Astors coasted serenely in and out of Frenchman s Bay. Horse-drawn carriages found a haven in the quiet roads of Lafayette National Park while roadsters sped along Bay Drive. Year-round residents faced brutal winters, but even then they had spirited celebrations with Winter Carnivals and Hayseed Balls as the 20s roared on in Bar Harbor."

From the end of the Great War until the onslaught of the Great Depression, Americans had a good time, and nowhere was that more true than in Bar Harbor during high season. Amid peace and prosperity, the wealthy flocked to Mount Desert Island, foxtrotted at the Swimming Club and tangoed at the Dreamwood Ballroom on Ireson's Hill. Rumrunners made covert pickups from isolated coves along the Mount Desert Narrows while Rockefellers, Vanderbilts and Astors coasted serenely in and out of Frenchman's Bay. Horse-drawn carriages found a haven in the quiet roads of Lafayette National Park while roadsters sped along Bay Drive. Year-round residents faced brutal winters, but even then they had spirited celebrations with Winter Carnivals and Hayseed Balls as the '20s roared on in Bar Harbor.

Maine's premier tourist destination, Bar Harbor has many historic buildings. The area was once a shipbuilding and farming hamlet that became a Gilded Age resort of the highest order-until a fire in 1947 destroyed many of its buildings. This pictorial history takes Bar Harbor from its origins to the fire. It also offers intriguing curiosities, including insights on the upstairs-downstairs aspects of resort life. The book's captions are packed with fascinating information.

Mount Desert Island has attracted scoundrels and scandals for more than 100 years. Steady as the tide, every summer brings a rush of summer residents from eastern cities to the island and nothing thrilled them so much as a good scandal. In its heyday, Mount Desert was a wild oasis where the summercators could carry on in comparative privacy. Today, unfortunately, unlike Las Vegas, what happened on Mount Desert doesn’t always stay on Mount Desert. The scandals that were the talk of the picnics and outings that filled the summer visitors' days are brought back to life in Bar Harbor Babylon. Murderers, thieves, cheaters and scammers have all made their mark on the tiny towns of Mount Desert. This book will take the reader on a tour of the misadventures and misfortunes that punctuate the island's wealthy and privileged past.

Bar Harbor has evolved from humble beginnings to become one of Maine's most popular destinations. This tour goes beyond the typical travel guide to explore its fascinating historical sites in detail. A trail of existing buildings and monuments provides a backdrop for an unconventional history of places, people and events, with many previously unpublished photographs and untold entertaining stories. Discover the changes wrought by the world wars, the Spanish influenza, Prohibition and the Fire of 1947. Tour the Way Bak Ball, La Rochelle, the Casino and the Wharf. From Bar Harbor's first African American sea captain to the story of the two Miss Shannons, author Brian Armstrong offers a fascinating look into the history behind some of Bar Harbor's most famous landmarks.

From the 1880s to the end of World War I, the fashionable resort of Bar Harbor attracted thousands of summer visitors with the money and leisure to pursue the simple life on a grand scale. Eighty-six vanished summer palaces are pictured in Lost Bar Harbor. Many never before pu...

Mix hundreds of millions of dollars in petroleum reserves; rapacious oil barons and crooked politicians; under-the-table payoffs; murder, suicide, and blackmail; White House cronyism; and the excesses of the Jazz Age. The result: the granddaddy of all American political scandals, Teapot Dome. In The Teapot Dome Scandal, acclaimed author Laton McCartney tells the amazing, complex, and at times ribald story of how Big Oil handpicked Warren G. Harding, an obscure Ohio senator, to serve as our twenty-third president. Harding and his so-called “oil cabinet” made it possible for the oilmen to secure vast oil reserves that had been set aside for use by the U.S. Navy. In exchange, the oilmen paid off senior government officials, bribed newspaper publishers, and covered the GOP campaign debt. When news of the scandal finally emerged, the consequences were disastrous for the nation and for the principles in the plot to bilk the taxpayers: Harding’s administration was hamstrung; Americans’ confidence in their government plummeted; Secretary of the Interior Albert Fall was indicted, convicted, and incarcerated; and others implicated in the affair suffered similarly dire fates. Stonewalling by members of Harding’s circle kept a lid on the story–witnesses developed “faulty” memories or fled the country, and important documents went missing–but contemporary records newly made available to McCartney reveal a shocking, revelatory picture of just how far-reaching the affair was, how high the stakes, and how powerful the conspirators. In giving us a gimlet-eyed but endlessly entertaining portrait of the men and women who made a tempest of Teapot Dome, Laton McCartney again displays his gift for faithfully rendering history with the narrative touch of an accomplished novelist.

The acclaimed social historian provides an in-depth look at eight society women who shaped upper class culture from the Gilded Age to WWII. Astor. Rockefeller. McCormick. Belmont. Family names that still adorn buildings, streets, and charity foundations. While their men blazed across America with their oil, industry, and railways, the matriarchs founded art museums, opera houses, and symphonies that functioned almost as private clubs. Linked by money, marriage, privilege, and power, these women formed a grand American matriarchy—and they ruled American society with a style and impact that make today’s socialites seem pale reflections of their forbears. Stephen Birmingham takes us into the drawing rooms of these powerful women, providing keen insights into an American society that no longer exists. Caroline Astor, who, when asked for her fare boarding a streetcar, responded, “No thank you, I have my own favorite charities.” Edith “Effie” Stern deciding that no existing school would do for her child, so she had a new one built. And the legendary Isabella Stewart Gardner replying to a contemporary who was overly taken with their Mayflower ancestors: “Of course, immigration laws are much more strict nowadays.” These women had looks, manner, and style, but more than that, they had presence—a sense that when one of them entered a room, something momentous was about to occur; Birmingham opens a window to the highest levels of American society with these profiles of American “royalty.”