Northeast Harbor Library

In 1892 a group of year-round and summer residents, inspired by Daniel Coit Gilman, President of Johns Hopkins University, founded the Northeast Harbor Library and Reading Room. The original library was a seasonal operation housed in shingle bungalow designed by local architect Fred L. Savage on South Shore Drive.

To make part of the Reading Room collection available in the winter, a second library opened brifely in a room at the Neighborhood House. In the winter of 1944 a room was rented on the first floor of the Burr Building in the Joy Block on Main Street to house a winter library.

Property was purchased in 1949 at the intersection of Joy and Summit roads for a town library. The old Reading Room was disbanded; its assets transferred to the new Northeast Harbor Library Corporation.

Roger Griswold designed a building at the new location as a classic Cape Cod style house with a large carriage shed. The building underwent many modifications: the Milliken family added a small wing to house Maine books; in 1966 Mrs. Flagler Harris donated a wing to serve as the library for the the Mount Desert High School across the street; in 1980 Mrs. Brooke Astor gave a room for children, and the library expanded the Patterson Room in the same year; in 1985 Matthew Mellon gave money to provide space for meetings, music, and other programs; and finally in 1990 the libary combined the various roofing, heating, and electrical systems into an integrated system.

In 2002 the Trustees reluctantly concluded it was time to say good-bye to the much modified old building and replace it with one that would serve for many years to come. The generosity of more than 700 donors raised $5.5 million! The architectural partnership of Samuel Woodward and Stewart Brecher was chosen to design a new building (preserving the Mellon Room from the second building). The building opened in 2007.