BAR HARBOR BANKING TRIAT LUBEC Organized 1887 BLUE HILL. BAR HARBOR USE N.E. HARBOR S. W. HARBOR Bar Harbor Banking and Trust Company OFFICERS Sheldon F. Goldthwait, President Albert H. Cunningham, Vice President - Treasurer Milroy Warren, Vice President Richard E. McKown, Vice President Robert H. Avery, Assistant Vice President Dora E. Brewer, Assistant Treasurer Alton W. Douglas, Assistant Treasurer BLUE HILL OFFICE Harold S. Parker Anna H. Piper LUBEC BRANCH Alden S. O'Brien, Manager NORTHEAST HARBOR AGENCY Julia G. Manchester, Manager SOUTHWEST HARBOR AGENCY Marion Clark, Manager Elsie M. Dolliver, Assistant Manager BOARD OF DIRECTORS Carroll C. Brown David R. Harding Horace E. Bucklin Hugh N. Kelly A. H. Cunningham Moses P. Lawrence John B. Ells James C. MacLeod Robert L. Gilfillan G. Liston Paquet Sheldon F. Goldthwait Lawrence D. Phillips Victor F. Gooch Milroy Warren This booklet has been prepared in recognition of The Bar Harbor Banking and Trust Company's service to the people of Eastern Maine during three-quarters of a century. It was founded in 1887 as a small bank with a capital stock of $50,000 serving only Bar Harbor and nearby communities. Now its services extend throughout Eastern Maine and its resources total $19,946,792. ULL Bar Harbor about 1887 Bar Harbor Banking and Trust Co. about 1887 BAR HARBOR BANKING & TRUST CO. A man, slightly built and soberly dressed, closed the door of the big wooden hotel and went down the steps. As he turned into the street the boards of the side- walk echoed sharply under the brisk clip of his heels. The mid-September sun beat warmly against the crown of his derby hat, and a line of perspiration began to col- lect along the edge of his high stiff collar. He met Mrs. Leeds, who was staying a little late this year, walking slowly back toward the Ash Cottage, a small bundle tucked under her arm. He tipped his hat and murmured: "A fine day, Ma'am." In this time a lady would never consider appearing on the street without hat and gloves. Nor would a gentle- man pass her there without tipping his own headgear. Manners were important. As he turned left on Main Street, Juliette Nicker- son whirled around the corner in a cloud of dust giving her smart team its head as usual. She did not look in his direction nor would have expected the customary greet- ing if she had. Main Street was built almost solid with stores and hotels; and his partner, George H. Grant, was toying with the idea of building a brick block between the street and the shore. The veranda of the Grand Central Hotel, filling the whole corner, was empty as he passed; but, he noted, they hadn't taken in the rockers yet. Hamor and his sons had done well with their enterprise. As he went by, he glanced into the window of Hig- gins Bros. store. They were advertising choice family groceries, dry goods, boots, shoes, rubbers, crockery, hardware, hats and caps, farming tools, wooden ware, ready-made clothing and gents' furnishing goods. You also, he knew, could obtain from them less mentionable articles necessary to household sanitation. Their grocery stock was just as choice as they said it was too, and there was quite a variety of it; for the Higginses had plenty of competition right in the same block. A couple of decades before the village had had only one store and that was located near the waterfront. In its barrels and on its shelves were a stock of liquor, tobacco, molasses, raisins, cod fish, ginger bread, corn meal, flour - all brought from Boston by coasters. A lucky child could select from its glass jars a bit of striped candy, "gooseberry," jawbreakers, or molasses kisses. As a matter of fact, the pedlar's carts did a better job of supplying the housewife in those days. He drew even with Rodick House and stopped, squinting against the light, to stare up at the towers looming above the roof of the enormous building. It claimed to be the largest hotel in New England, and well it might be with its accommodations for 600 guests. The Rodicks had done all right for themselves, he mused, for a family who had started accepting rusticators in two small cottages. He went on up the street and stopped at the corner of Cottage with scarcely a glance across the way at the Steamboat landing at Bar Harbor building where his own office was. Tucking his hat firm- ly under his arm, he removed his glasses and polished them carefully before hooking the steel bows back over his ears. Then he stared down over the bay, reluctant to go inside where he would be cut off from the fresh salti- ness of the air. The bay was as quiet today as the village streets, scarcely making a ripple against the pilings of young Tobias Roberts' pier, the one he had built in competition to his father's thus causing a family squabble. The big steamboat wharf stood between them now, but all of them had been busy enough two or three weeks since. The summer before the Maine Central Railroad had carried over 19,000 passengers to and from the village to say nothing of ten thousand who came down from Boston on the steamers which touched in each week. Summers had become a busy time - and a gay one. The village had changed, he thought, within the years of his own memory. It had become an institutionally well equipped summering place. The seeds for change had been planted when some New York artists started coming to the Island before the Civil War, the first of them staying at his own homestead on Schooner Head. They looked, found the place to their liking, and told others about it. The site of the village had been only a couple of farms then, Higgins' and Hamor's, their pastures studded with stones. They had been good publicists, those artists, and after them came the writers who were even better. By the 1850's all sorts of people had heard about the place and were coming to visit, and a good thing for the town it was too. The early economy of the community had been based on the sea and the forest with enough farming for home use. By the middle of the nineteenth century ship- building had fallen off, and the amount of fishing bounties granted in Frenchman's Bay had dropped. The lumber boom had ended, and the accessible supply on the Island had been largely cut over anyway. The town was bare of trees. Financial prospects were gloomy. However, it was about this time that the outsiders from the cities west along the coast began coming to the place, seeing a beauty that the farmer-fishers would have missed had they been removed from it but seldom bother- ed to look at as long as it was there. By 1855 there were enough visitors for Tobias Roberts to open his Agamont House near the shore just east of the line which would G.M.RY. Green Mountain Railway about 1884 later be Main Street. David Rodick converted two cottages to summer use, and in 1857 Captain Charles Deering began running the Rockland up Frenchman's Bay en route from Southwest Harbor to Machias. The next year he opened a hotel, Deering House, not far from the Agamont. After the Civil War Roberts built a wharf near his hotel and the steamers began running in from Portland. A village grew up, and in 1866 the same Tobias Roberts was able to bludgeon the selectmen into building Main Street. Not to be put off, he concluded his petition to them by saying, "And your petitioner will ever repeat his request until it is granted." Quite a literature grew up about the place - guide books, magazine articles, memoirs. The early guests seemed to like it although some of them were something less than ecstatic over the fare offered in some of the early lodging places. In the words of one writer: "They will make bread with about equal quantities of flour and saleratus (baking soda) ; they are deter- mined to fry meat rather than roast, broil, boil, or stew it; they insist upon calling beans coffee Very little meat is furnished the hungry sojourner, but he is per- mitted to feast and fast upon fish. This diet is perhaps satisfying to the intellectual Bostonian, who seeks that food which stimulates and adds to the brain; but the more sensuous New Yorker, or the rearing tearing half horse and half alligator of the West, must have beef, fowl, and mutton." However, visitors seemed more than willing to suffer the outrages of coastal cookery for other values received. The same author said: "With scarcely any previous warning, we saw one of those grandest of all Nature's grand displays - the mountains rising out of the sea These mighty mountains, some thirteen peaks in all, rise out of the clear water, their graceful outlines sweeping across the blue sky, their summits bare, hard, and unyielding, and with the strong flood of vertical sunlight which now pours down upon them, they have a burnished, brazen look " The village had become a resort, nationally known and loved for the simplicity of its summer life. By the early 1870's there were fifteen hotels, adequate provision for buckboard and boating excursions, and other enter- tainment commensurate to the situation. Water was ob- tained from wells, and sewage drained past them in open ditches. In 1873 disaster struck and was nationally publicized. A typhoid epidemic broke out. Thirteen people became ill, and business was almost ruined. Local reaction was prompt and decisive. By Febru- ary of the following year the state legislature passed enabling legislation and construction was begun on wooden flumes to bring the pure water of Eagle Lake to the village. Surface drainage was eliminated through cesspools and pipes draining into the sea. A little well placed and well timed publicity on the new health measures did the rest. That year the summer trade was better than ever. By 1887 the village had grown from a rustic resort to an internationally known summering place. Electricity had been brought in, thanks to the vigor and business acumen of Grant, who had also been the moving spirit in the establishment of the telephone circuits. The water company had replaced its open flumes with pipes and secured the right to enlarge its capital stock to $250,000. There was a fire fighting company, complete to steam fire engine; a weekly newspaper, the Mount Desert Herald; and a village improvement society. The hotel business was booming with some of the houses booked a season in advance. When the summer visitors tired of "rocking" (spelled locally "romancing") they could be entertained at the Oasis Club (later the Reading Room), the Canoe Club, at the electrically light- ed Phoenix roller-skating ring, said to be the largest in New England, or through the innumerable social events and excursions which were scheduled during the summer. They could ride up Green Mountain on the cog railway and go sight-seeing via buckboard on well publicized drives throughout the Island. Or they could drop into the Belmont for a cup of tea and a piece of its most favored dessert -- wild goose liver pie. Just this year a rash of land companies had mush- roomed into being on the coat-tails of a real estate boom. This boom was based on a comparatively recent development -- the building of "cottages" which looked like, and were, summer mansions. The first summer cottage, a modest one, had been built by Alpheus Hardy of Boston at Birch Point on land which he purchased from Stephen Higgins for $400. At the time everyone thought Higgins had driven a pretty hard bargain, but he had retorted that the man was willing to pay. A few years later Giles Snow offered a piece of land at Crom- well's Harbor for $800. In the years following the Civil War a monied aristocracy arose nationally from the developing com- merce and industry of the nation. They had money to spend, and they spent part of it building summer estates to which they could retreat from the city heat. A couple of decades after Giles Snow made his $800 sale a portion of this same parcel of land was sold for $150,000; a New York banker bought another part of it for $75,000; and there was still a piece left valued at $190,000. Some years later a reporter was to write: "In 1887 there appeared a speck on the horizon in the form of a land boom The wonderful advances of the com- munity as a summer resort started the fire of speculation till it glowed wildly in the breast of every man and woman who was possessed of or could buy a piece of property Land companies sprang up in a night. Stories of fabulous sales and rise in land values spread like wildfire. "A strip of land surrounding the old Hamor wharf and called the 'Devil's Half Acre' arose in fictitious value till they saw millions in it. Men mortgaged their land to buy more in the enchanted sections. Fortunes were assured and some men did profit greatly. "Discretion and business judgement disappeared. The boom burst suddenly and the wreckage fell mostly upon the native residents. "Then followed a reaction -- a strong, steady. healthy growth which has continued and will continue." In 1860 the summer estates were valued at $662,900. A decade later they would be worth $5,034,600 East Eden had become Bar Harbor. Money had become important, but the town had no bank. Fred C. Lynam replaced his hat and turned abruptly from the corner of Cottage and Main to enter an office. Main Street looking north from the porch of Rodick House A Bank Is Born Lynam hung his hat on a peg behind the door and glanced quickly around the room. Most of the men ex- pected for the meeting seemed to have arrived before him. They were looking a little solemn; for the task before them was a serious one and would require careful planning to say nothing of much hard work in the future. All of them were able, responsible men, most of them with business experience. In addition to Lynam, who had been managing Lynam House as well as running an insurance business for some years, there was his insurance partner, big. bluff George H. Grant. Grant's energy had already led him into a number of enterprises, and there would be others before he finished. Their insurance partnership represented eleven of the biggest companies in the country. Grant had been one of the prime movers in the land boom and a leading figure in bringing electricity and telephones into the town. There was Andrew P. Wiswell, one of the state's outstanding attorneys. He had been asked to chair the meeting, and his prestige would carry no little weight in its outcome. Later he was to become Chief Justice of the Maine Supreme Court. There was young L. B. Deasy, law partner of John T. Higgins. Already the partnership had established the reputation of being one of the ablest legal firms in Han- cock County. A brilliant future was in store for this pleas- ant faced young man. It would lead him eventually also to the position of chief justice of the Supreme Court in the state. There were others present, also capable and steady, most of them with business experience. They were met to solve a fiscal problem which had reached inconvenient, even serious, proportions. In spite of the developing enterprises in the com- munity there was no local bank. At times even people whose wealth was nationally known had trouble getting a check cashed in Bar Harbor. People who wanted to cash checks either had to ask the shopkeeper for this ser- vice or go to the Grant, Lynam Co. who would cash them for a fee. Frequently the storekeepers were unable to accommodate, unwilling to carry the amount of cash necessary for the service. Commercial loans were for the most part obtained from private individuals in Bar Har- bor, Ellsworth and Bucksport. Interest rates were exor- bitant. Although most of the hotels were locally owned, some outside capital had already come into the town for the development of other kinds of business. Unless some- thing were done, and soon, it looked as if outsiders might fatten while homeowners waxed lean. In March, 1887 the Maine legislature passed a special act incorporating a bank to be known as the Bar Harbor Banking and Trust Company authorizing a capi- tal stock of $50,000. Nothing more was done to formally establish the bank until the summer trade had come and gone giving the townspeople a chance to settle down to careful planning for the step. Organization of the bank was completed during that mid-September meeting in the office on Main Street, and subscriptions were opened to the capital stock. By December 1 the entire $50,000 had been taken up by 48 subscribers. Sixty shares each were taken by Wiswell, Grant, Lynam, and E.H. Greeley, a famous Ellsworth horseman who always gave his address as Bar Harbor. Among the other subscribers were Deasy, 30 shares; Dr. J.S. Moore, fifteen shares, Charles T. How, ten shares, L.A. Emery, who was also later to become a chief justice in the supreme court, ten shares; Byron Boyd, for many years Secretary of State in Maine, two shares; Dr. C. C. Morrison, ten shares; the Rev. C. S. Leffingwell, two shares; and Edmund Pendleton, one share. Wiswell was elected president of the bank; Lynam, vice president; Grant, treasurer; and Higgins, secretary. The trustees were Wiswell, Greeley, Grant, Lynam and Deasy. The treasurer was voted a salary of $500. The bank opened for business in part of the Grant, Lynam offices in the old Mount Desert block. The bank- ing equipment -- a safe, a copy of the Revised Statutes, six chairs, and a tin bread box to use for a check case -- were purchased from the insurance firm. The trustees also voted to buy from Grant and Lynam all their notes and bills, discounted according to a list kept on file. aggregating $114,718,420. Five years later the Bank declared a six percent dividend, carried $2,000 to its surplus account. Every year since that time it has earned, declared, and paid a dividend. By September, 1897 a trial balance certified by a bank examiner showed: Capital Stock $50,000.00 Real Estate loans $ 39,389.39 Surplus 20,000.00 Other loans 220,065.20 Profit & Loss 3,763.57 Stocks & bonds 9,307.53 Demand deposits 333,736.17 Trust investments 6,000.00 Cert. of deposit 58,322.58 Real Estate owned 5,600.00 Trust funds 6,000.00 Furn. & fixtures 900.00 Due other banks & Expense account 712.61 bankers 6,162.34 Cash on Deposit 181,951.11 Cash on Hand 14,058.82 $477,984.66 $477,984.66 The first trust accepted by the Bank was the Edith Staples Trust, an indenture between her and John Staples. The Golden Age By the turn of the century Bar Harbor had entered its Golden Age, an era which would persist for fifty years and make the town's name a by-word throughout America and Europe. The "cottage" pattern of summer life was well established, and eventually the roster of summer residents would read like a Who's Who of wealth and professional and artistic achievement. Years later a writer reported: "Among the houses mentioned in the 1896 Cen- tennial number of The Record as being open that summer were those of J. S. Kennedy's 'Kenarden Lodge' on the shore path; J. J. Emery's 'The Turrets' on Eden Street; 'Baymeath' at Hull's Cove, built by Joseph Tilton Bowen of Chicago ; Charles C. Jackson of New York built on the Eagle Lake Road; and J. L. Ketterlinus built on the Shore Path. " 'Kenarden Lodge' cost over $200,000, has its own electric power plant and at night, when its hundreds of incandescents are lit, it looks like a fairy palace to one gliding in a canoe or a yacht over the cool waters of Frenchman's Bay." Joseph Pulitzer of the New York World spent over $100,000 on Chatwold and expanded to the tune of $40,000 the next year. James A. Garland of New York spent $150,000 on the Willows on Eden Street, and Edgar Scott of Philadelphia a like sum on a summer home at Cromwell's Harbor. The stables alone would have been enough to establish a legend. One owner has left this description of her estate's facilities, necessary to keep the household mobile: "We used to call our stable, which was quite a dis- tance from the house, our Greek temple, because it looked exactly like a Greek temple from the outside. It was painted white like the house, and had accommoda- tions for about twenty vehicles and stalls for 22 horses. There was also a large harness room, and upstairs a big hay loft and two rooms with bath for a coachman "The grooms' liveries were very colorful. The men wore black boots with tan colored tops, white broadcloth breeches, dark blue cloth coats with silver buttons, white socks, heavy white gloves, and high silk hats. They had morning suits of black and white cloth, cut-away coats tall and striped vests, wore black leather puttees and black straw hats. When it was very cold, they wore dark blue astrakhan trimmed overcoats with much heavy braid across the front." THE TRUST COMPANY Northeast Harbor Southwest Harbor The head coachman, who had five assistants, told her that the overcoats cost $300 each. The opening of the summer season was always marked for the townspeople by the arrival of the horses and grooms of the summer colony. They were sent a few days before the families were due to arrive. Most of them were landed off the Mount Desert ferry at the wharf at the foot of Main Street. Although the shops and offices didn't declare an official holiday, the arrival of the horses did create a festive atmosphere when some of the best horseflesh in the country, gaily blanketed in their stables' colors, were led down the street and distributed to their respective estates. An elaborately organized summer life developed around already existing clubs, such as Swimming Club (now the Bar Harbor Club), the Reading Room (former- ly the Oasis Club), the Canoe Club on Bar Island, the Kebo Valley Club which was finally converted from racing to golf, the Pot and Kettle Club, and the Yacht Club. The season culminated in the horse show at Morrell Park; here some of the finest horses in the world were displayed to some of the world's most prominent people. The summer colony brought a great deal of money to Mount Desert Island each year and left behind it a considerable amount in payment for goods and services. It was the chief factor in the economy in Bar Harbor, Seal Harbor, and Northeast Harbor, where a branch office of the Bank was opened in 1914. Five years later a branch was opened in Southwest Harbor. Even a partial list of the Bank's depositors during the period includes many of the most renowned names of the time. Among business men there were General Thomas H. Hubbard, Maurice K. Jesup, John S. Kennedy, Henry Morgenthau, Frank B. Noyes, Herbert L. Satterlee, William Jay Schieffelin, E. T. Stotesbury, John D. Rocke- feller, Jr., and Joseph T. Bowen of Chicago. Among writers there were Arthur Train, author of the Tutt stories in the Saturday Evening Post; Mary Roberts Rinehart; Joseph Pulitzer of the St. Louis Post Dispatch. Churchmen included Bishop James Freeman of Washington; the Rev. William Lawrence, Bishop of Massachusetts and the Rev. William Appleton Lawrence, Bishop of Western Massachusetts; and Bishop Atwood of Arizona. Among educators there were Jane Addams, Francis Howe Johnson, Dr. Clarence Little, Dr. Nicholas Murray Butler, Dr. Charles Eliot, and President Ernest M. Hopkins of Dartmouth. The list of musicians included Walter Damrosch, Reginald DeKoven, Fritz Kreisler, Courtland Palmer, Ernest Schelling, Leopold Stokowski, and Olga Samaroff. Other men and women of prominence who were depositors included Dave Hennen Morris, ambassador to Belgium; Peter Augustus Jay, minister to Argentina; Bourke Cochran, politician and orator; Mrs. John T. Dorrance; Francis Burton Harrison, once governor of the Philippines; and Mrs. Henry F. Dimock, a social leader in Washington. Some of the deposits ran as high as $4000 per month to be checked against for household expenses. The grocery bill alone for some of the estates amounted to $1000 monthly. Many of the estate owners used the vaults of the Bank for winter storage of items too valuable to be left in the cottages when they were closed in the fall. The parade of prominent people accompanied by a retinue of servants coming to claim or leave their property was al- most as much a mark of the season's end or beginning as was the parade of blanketed horses up and down Main Street. The storage of silver, rugs, jewelry, and such in- creased SO that the vaults had to be enlarged several times. Storage also included such items as a painting by John Sargent and other art objects. Before the turn of the century summer life in Bar Harbor had been marked by an unusual amount of in- formality. It attracted people of prominence and wealth but anyone, whether he had a name and fortune behind him or not, could be accepted, given a certain degree of manners and cultivation. By the time the cottage pattern was established in the summer colony, social life became somewhat more formalized and backgrounds were more carefully scanned. Because the summer colony was the major factor in the community economy, it served as an integral in- strument in the growth and development of the Bank. Management and control, however, has always remain- ed with local people. By the 1920's the capital of the Bank had risen to $200,000 and a hundred percent dividend was paid in both 1922 and 1927. Before the latter was paid, a new by-law was passed to ensure that control would always remain in the hands of active businessmen in the community. Some operational changes were made in the fall of 1929 to increase the flexibility of handling the Bank's affairs. The old by-laws required a meeting of the Directors once a month, leaving too much responsibility on the president and treasurer during the interim. New by-laws were adopted at this time placing the business in the hands of an executive committee which could meet informally each day and in executive session once a week for decision making. This committee meets with the whole board of directors once a month. Northeast Harbor Southwest Harbor The November 1, 1930 statement showed resources of $5,269,613.36. This was a grim year for America. Following the stock market crash, industry after industry slowed down almost to a standstill. Unemployment spread rapidly, and businesses of long standing were closed. Hunger and fear preyed upon the land like a ravaging disease. Depression came to Bar Harbor, but its impact was cushioned to some degree by several factors among them the fact that the bank was able to continue its operations. The Bank is especially proud of its record during the de- pression years. Its officers watched with keen interest the de- claring of bank holidays in Michigan, Louisiana and North Dakota; and they went on record in a letter to the State Bank Commissioner, dated February 28, 1933, as opposed to any State Bank Holiday in Maine, and as opposed to any legislation making such a holiday possi- ble. On March 4th the Bank opened as usual, and twenty minutes later received a telegram from the State Bank Commissioner announcing that the governor had de- clared a State Bank Holiday covering March 4 and 6. Word came that the governors of New York, Massachu- setts, Illinois, New Hampshire and some other states had declared similar Holidays at the same time. The Bar Harbor Banking and Trust Company, being advised by counsel that there was no law in Maine giving such power to the governor or bank commissioner at the time, refused to close. There were no unusual activities at the Bank and no withdrawals. All through the day the radio announced banks closing all over the country. All the banks in Bangor and Ellsworth were closed. The principle difference in the Bank's business during this period was that it accepted checks drawn on other banks to be credited only when collected. After President Roosevelt's proclamation of a national banking holiday, made on March 5, the Bank closed, as did every bank in the country. Its banking rooms were open to allow people entrance to their safety deposit boxes and clerks were kept busy across the street in the Western Union offices to make change. By Presidential proclamation on March 12 banks in all states, outside of the some 250 clearing house cities, were, if sound, to be allowed to open on March 15. On that date the Bar Harbor Banking and Trust Company opened. On and from that date its deposits have in- creased. Late in November of that year the Bank was accepted as a member of the Federal Reserve System and its deposits were insured in the Federal Deposit Insur- ance Corporation. Throughout that dark period for American business and American banks, no borrower at this Bank was sold out or forced to sell out even though his collateral was insufficient to meet his obligations. No real estate mortgage held by the Bank was foreclosed except where the real estate had SO depreciated in value that the mortgager requested the Bank to take the real estate for the full amount of the debt and relieve the mortgagor, or unless other creditors had actually brought and entered suit against the borrowers involving property to which the Bank looked for security. Dividends were earned and paid regularly through this period, and no preferred stock was ever issued. In fact, in July, 1936, the Bank, having received permission from the Banking Department to increase its capital stock to $250,000, for the purpose of purchasing the Lubec Trust & Banking Company, declared a stock dividend of twenty-five percent to be paid out of surplus. In November 1962 capital stock was increased again to $300,000. The stock was split 5 for 1 and a stock dividend of a new share for each old share was declared. This increases the total outstanding shares to 15,000 with a par value of $20 a share. Presidents of the bank from its start until the pre- sent have been A. P. Wiswell, 1887-1892; L. B. Deasy, 1893-1928; Vernon G. Wasgatt, 1929-1931; Fred C. Lynam, 1932-1941; David O. Rodick, 1942-1945; R. W. Wakefield, 1946-1947; Sheldon F. Goldthwait, 1948 to present. Treasurers have been George H. Grant, 1887-1888; Fred C. Lynam, 1889-1931; Richard E. McKown, 1932- 1943; Sheldon F. Goldthwait, 1944-1947; Albert H. Cunningham, 1948 to present. West Quoddy Head Light To The East Lubec, easternmost town in the United States, has had a somewhat different economic history. Although there is a small summer colony, which once included the Franklin D. Roosevelt family on nearby Campobello Is-- land, the community's economy is based primarily on fishing and sardine packing. The village itself lies almost in the heart of the sardine packing industry along the coast, and the pack- ing factories along the waterfront give the town a character which nothing else could rival. About half the population works, in one way or another, in this industry. Other factors contributing to the economy are lobster fishing ; clam digging; a good trade, especially in the winter, from the Canadian population on Campo- bello ; some poultry raising and truck farming; and in- dividual pulp wood cutting in the winter. A large deposit of lead and copper, said to be one of the richest in the nation, lies just west of the village. Several attempts, thus far unsuccessful, have been made to develop it. As one of the last outposts of Downeast patterns, still almost pure in form, the community has considerable potential for developing a tourist trade, which of course might be the death of the very patterns which could attract it. The surrounding country and adjacent coast has a wild undeniable appeal all its own. A few tourists are beginning to respond to it. This summer a middle westerner exploring one of the sardine plants asked why the wharves had such long legs. When told they had to be tall to reach above the tides, he wouldn't believe it. Feeling that his own leg was being pulled, he hung around until the tide came in, thus witnessing a run which may go up to 27 feet. The Lubec bank was established as an aid in financing the sardine industry and for the convenience of the workers. It was organized by B. M. Pike, R. J. Pea- Sardine packing plant in Lubec Lubec cock, and F. M. Tucker. The first two were both heads of sardine packing plants. Tucker was for many years treasurer of the bank and later its president. The bank was not large enough to care for all the needs of the packers; and, being primarily interested in the industrial rather than the commercial process, they were not exactly happy over becoming involved in it. However, they found it an accommodation for a number of years. Since the Bar Harbor Banking and Trust Company had begun doing business in the community and was primarily interested in banking operations, it was a logical development for it to take over the banking business in the community. Pots, Painters, and Pianists The Bank's newest branch was opened in March, 1960 at Blue Hill, famed for its pottery, its artists, and its summer school of music. Before the branch was open- ed the banking needs of the community were met largely through the institutions in Ellsworth. The Blue Hill branch of the Bar Harbor company now serves a com- munity which includes in its area Castine, Brooksville, Deer Isle, Surry, and Stonington. Blue Hill, which this year celebrated its bicenten- nial, was originally settled by men and women from Newburyport, Salem and Andover. During the early years its economy was based on lumbering, fishing, fish packing, ship building, quarrying and mining. In the early days cordwood and sawed logs were heaped high along the shores during the winter, and it was not uncommon for as many as half a dozen vessels to be anchored in the bay waiting to load the wood for ship- ment to Boston and other ports. The first saw mill, powered by the tides, was built in 1765. By the early 1800's at Mill Brook alone there was the Matthew tool shop, the Curtis furniture factory, the Daniel Osgood grist mill, a threshing mill, stave mill, cooper shop, and George Stevens' carding and fulling mill. Ship building was important from 1792 until 1891 with 119 vessels, including 77 schooners, nine barks, and four ships, constructed during this period. According to the custom of the place, wages included a small grog, usually rum, which was served to them at eleven o'clock. Granite, first quarried there and shipped to Boston in 1816, has furnished materials for many famous structures including the Charlestown navy yards, the Dutch Reformed Church in New York, paving blocks for streets in New Orleans, the treasury building in Wash- ington, the Pittsburgh post office, and the Brooklyn Bridge. Blue Hill Blue Hill Bay Blue Hill almost took off for the wild blue yonder in the late 1870's after copper was discovered nearby. The community had a land boom all its own based on metals rather than real estate. Mining engineers came in from the West and workers poured in from all over the country. Hotels and huts were put up everywhere to house them, and the Fiske House, which had cared for boarders until then, was enlarged and called the Copper and Gold Exchange. Speculation spiraled; and, in spite of warnings against swindlers, many people scraped together their pennies to buy stock, hoping the coppers would be trans- muted into gold. The foundations were shaking by 1881. Poor management and an unstable copper market finish- ed the job. Of 45 companies in Blue Hill, the last closed in 1884. In the meantime the summer trade had started. Visitors had come first as boarders then began building cottages to form the summer colony which first took root on Parker Point about the turn of the century. Today the summer colony is the backbone of the community economy. The New Age In Bar Harbor the summer colony had reached a peak by the 1920's; but several changes had occurred, nationally and locally, with others to follow which sowed the seeds for radical changes in the economic and social patterns of the Island. As the national product increased, more and more middle income families were accumulating enough finan- cial security to afford some leisure time. Mass production of the automobile brought the price of cars down to a point where these families could afford them. With the means of mobility at hand a bit of money to spend, people developed the yen to use their leisure by being on-the-go. They started to move in every direction crossing each other's lines of travel in a restless desire to see new places and new people. The places they had heard about were generally the targets for their travels. Famed as Bar Harbor had become, it could not have become an available target for tourists had the local people not won a battle to allow automobiles on the Island over the resistance of the more conservative elements of the summer colony. The fight is a famous yarn now involving meetings, writings, flaring tempers, various shenanigans on the part of both opposing groups, and finally an act by a no less august group than the state legislature. The Trenton bridge was made toll free ; and during the 1930's several excellent and scenic roads were built to accommodate the increasing number of automobiles. With the constant absorption of untrained workers into industry the upkeep of the summer estates became burdensome on some of the summer families, particularly those whose financial status had been hurt during the de- pression. Also, their own patterns were changing with the younger generations less prone to elect spending an entire summer in one place. Through the untiring effort of George B. Dorr and a number of other men Sieur de Monts National Monu- ment was established in 1916 and finally became the Acadia National Park. It was the first national park east of the Mississippi and for years the only one on the east coast. To the fame of Bar Harbor's name the Park added the attraction of making the beauty of the place availa- ble to anyone who could reach it. By 1916 over 100,000 people had already visited the monument. In 1929 the Roscoe B. Jackson Memorial Labora- tory for research in congenital diseases was established. The growth of its year-round payroll was a major factor in changing the financial habits of the community. Heretofore bills had generally been paid once a year. "If you don't get it in August, don't ask for it" was a by-word among businessmen, and the Bank's business practices followed this pattern. Mortgages and notes were extended on a yearly basis only. With the monthly payroll from the Laboratory this pattern began to change. A policy was instituted whereby monthly payments could be made on mortgages and notes at the Bank, and installment buying was instituted in the stores. The great fire of 1947 dealt a death blow to the classic patterns of the summer colony in Bar Harbor. In the fall of that year after a summer of severe drought, fire broke out in a bog near Hulls Cove. It spread through the parched forests driven by shifting winds which final- ly reached gale proportions. Even the heroic and well integrated efforts of local fire fighters and finally state and federal groups could not control it. Before it finally died out, it had burned over half the town's area. Sixty seven of the 222 summer cottages were destroyed and most of them were never rebuilt. One hundred-seventy of the town's 667 year around residences were burned. Total loss was over $2,200,000 - one sixth of the 1947 assessment of permanent homes and two-fifths of the assessed cottage value. It was a dreary winter in Bar Harbor, but one which was faced with wisdom and courage. Planning for the future must be founded on what was left and on changing American patterns. Although great stretches of woodland had been destroyed, the basic beauty of the place remained - the spectacular coastline, the mountains rising from the sea, glacial lakes, and even yet, great stretches of wild beauti- ful forest. People would still want to come, though their summer visits would assume a different pattern now. And they began to come each summer by the thousands - people of modest means, for the most part, without a whole summer to spend away from their jobs. Bar Harbor began to build for them, and the construction of facilities and services to meet their vacation needs has continued as a steady growth in which the Bank has played a fundamental role. In 1962 almost two and a half million visitors came to the Island providing it with its principal source of income. The economy of Bar Harbor and Eastern Maine has changed during the past 75 years. The Bank, constantly aware of new and expanding financial needs, has grown with the community and in its turn has been a vital factor in the material progress of the area. It looks forward to continued growth in the years ahead to pro- vide services for the individuals, institutions, and industry of Eastern Maine. TELLER Bar Harbor Southwest Harbor Northeast Harbor Miss Marion Clark, Man- ager of the Southwest Har- bor branch (upper left) ; Mrs. Julia Manchester, Manager of the Northeast Harbor branch (upper cen- ter) ; Harold Parker of the Blue Hill branch (upper right) ; Alden S. O'Brien, Manager of the Lubec branch (center left) ; Albert Cunningham, Vice President and Treasurer (center right) ; and Sheldon F. Gold- thwait, President (lower right). Lubec Blue Hill Bar Harbor Banking and Trust Company Statement Of Condition RESOURCES Cash on Hand and on Deposit $ 1,303,199.13 United States Government Bonds 2,775,587.60 Municipal Bonds 1,038,849.65 Federal Reserve Bank Stock 18,000.00 Other Bonds and Stock 107,090.65 Loans and Discounts 7,395,035.31 Banking House, Furniture & Fix. 186,526.99 Real Estate Owned 21,176.53 Other Assets 5,032.14 $12,850,497.90 Trust Department 7,096,294.48 Total $19,946,792.38 TRUST DEPARTMENT RESOURCES Income Cash $ 110,774.11 Principal Cash 149,440.06 Bonds and Stocks 6,541,237.95 Bank Deposits 42,926.69 Mortgages 20,210.41 Real Estate Owned 134,341.64 Annuities 16,000.00 Notes Receivable 104.09 Miscellaneous 81,259.53 $7,096,294.48 LIABILITIES Capital Stock $300,000.00 Surplus 350,000.00 Undivided Profits 762,568.54 Total Capital Account $ 1,412,568.54 Res. for Taxes, Ins. and Int. 33,825.22 Demand Deposits 5,036,010.15 Time Deposits 6,201,904.34 Club and School Savings Deposits 44,253.81 Certified, Treasurer's and Managers' Checks Outstanding 121,935.84 $12,850,497.90 Trust Department 7,096,294.48 Total $19,946,792.38 LIABILITIES As Trustee $5,153,288.38 As Agent 1,367,174.21 As Executor 490,288.56 As Custodian 85,543.33 $7,096,294.48