THE BAR HARBOR AUTO WAR By Richard A. Savage B ETWEEN 1903 and 1913 a little-known "war" was Since the 1840s, resorters had been visiting scenic fought at Bar Harbor, a struggle not over land, Bar Harbor to escape the hectic, nerve-shattering pace riches or the hand of a maiden, but over the automobile. of America's rapidly growing cities. In the decades It was a classic confrontation, with some of America's after the Civil War, Bar Harbor became one of the most wealthy and influential men pitted against some country's foremost watering places, a summer retreat of its most obscure. On paper, the war was a decided of the Vanderbilts, Whitneys, Pulitzers and Searses, to mismatch; on the field of battle, forces were well name a few, and a legitimate competitor of Newport, joined. Strategies on both sides were clever, the tactics Rhode Island. astute, the generalship of the highest quality, the What attracted most of these summer visitors was fighting at times intense. In a setting framed by hills and the resort's rusticity. There one could get "back to sea, the combatants fought to a seemingly inevitable nature" without sacrificing the amenities of the conclusion. comfortable life. Newport was stiff and snobby; Bar 66 Down Zast magazire august 1975 Down Bar Harbor front (page missing) All photos courtesy The Bar Harbor Historical Society Harbor was relaxed and democratic, at least by the It seemed logical that Bar Harbor and the neighboring severe social standards of the 1880s and 90s. It was a resorts on Mount Desert Island must yield to the new paradise not only for the millionaire and his friends, but craze. for the scholar, cleric, artist and writer. Resorters built Visions of hundreds of these noisy, dangerous, palatial summer homes ("cottages") and a permanent "infernal machines" clogging island roads haunted colony of summer cottagers evolved. summer residents. It just could not be allowed to With the new century, however, came a serious happen! The battle against the automobile must be threat to their cherished tranquility and relative joined, and joined at once. Bar Harbor, at least, had to solitude. This threat was the "horseless carriage," to be saved from advancing technology, and set aside for which, by 1900, other leading East Coast resorts had lovers of nature and the "simple" life. already succumbed. The horse was in decline, the The colony's summer elite quickly mobilized and, bicycle in disfavor, and the hiker was losing his resolve. armed with petitions signed by summer and year- 67 1880s round residents alike, descended upon the State arguments, the same opinion: that the introduction here House in Augusta. The despised auto must be kept out, of rapid and powerful horseless carriages would prove they proclaimed, and they would fight to achieve that little short of disastrous to the place. " He added, end. Because the politicians were impressed, perhaps "The feeling against the introduction of automobiles at overawed, by this show of strength, the Legislature Bar Harbor is by no means confined to those quiet folk quickly passed a law giving island voters the power to who dislike and do not use such vehicles but is exclude autos from specific highways in each town. heartily shared by many amateurs of this fascinating Resorters traveling to Bar Harbor would have to get sport." there by traditional means - stage, train, yacht or A few weeks after this meeting, a defiant motorist steamboat. drove into town over the forbidden roadways. Met by From the beginning, a handful of local the police and first selectman, he was escorted to the businessmen, opposing exclusion of the auto, courthouse and fined. "The sad part of the story," immediately undertook a long, determined campaign reported Life's editor, "is that not a single horse was to gain repeal of the law. Even after the law and frightened by the big machine, much to the ordinances of 1903 were endorsed by a substantial disappointment of anti-autoists." Then he hastened to majority of townspeople, these men, reluctant to see add: "Don't let it happen again though." Bar Harbor become a backwater, would not allow the Two years later it did happen again, as New matter to rest. In response to this persistence, two Yorker Fordham C. Mahoney boldly drove his large organizations made up mainly of summer colonists - touring car to the door of a Bar Harbor hotel. He was the Property Owners Association and the Village arrested and compelled to appear in court where, Improvement Association - worked to retain the witnesses reported, insults were hurled and blows legislation. threatened. Reluctantly paying his fine, Mahoney During the summer of 1905, with the crisis over vowed to take the case to the Supreme Court, if cars clearly intensifying, the V.I.A. met to denounce the necessary, to right what he considered an unreasonable automobile. According to the editor of Bar Harbor law. Life, the summer weekly, all of the speakers While several of the town's businessmen backed expressed in different words, and by different Mahoney's stand, they failed to win the support of a 68 majority of the townspeople. At the town meeting of shows, yacht races, and parties and dinner dances at the 1908, under considerable pressure from summer elite Kebo Valley Club, skirmishes continued. Then, in colonists, the residents voted 3-1 against repeal of the the summer of 1909, the opposing camps rejoined anti-car law. battle, and again the dispute was carried to the At this juncture of the automobile war, the summer Legislature. This time Bar Harbor and neighboring colony clearly had the upper hand. The only cottager Northeast Harbor cottagers came together in support actively in favor of autos was George W. Vanderbilt, an of a bill calling for total exclusion of cars from all island innovative sort who had built the resort's first roads. There would be no local option. Should such a swimming pool. More typical was long-time cottager bill be passed, the pro-autoists would no longer pose a and novelist Arthur Train, who wrote a futuristic short threat, or SO the resorters calculated. story, "The Island of Mount Deserted," in which he Though pro-autoists spent more than $1000 to predicted doom for the resort if the anti-auto law defeat the bill, they were unsuccessful because, said should be repealed. Cottagers warned residents in Representative Sherman bitterly, we were snowed menacing tones that if the car came, they would go. under by New York money." Much of that New York Though many local residents bowed to the threats, money was raised by a committee of summer people others would not yield. Under the energetic leadership chaired by the wealthy banker C. Ledyard Blair. Autos of State Representative William Sherman and were now forbidden. prominent hotel owner William Roberts, the pro-auto forces fought back. Sherman's backers argued that the resort ought to be available to all potential visitors, not D ESPITE occasional threats of physical harm, Sherman persevered to have the ban removed. In just to "millionaires and their friends." It was a the year or SO following the passage of the exclusion compelling argument whose time had just about come. law, he and Roberts gradually won a majority of year- To Roberts, the autoist - and thus the auto - was round residents to their side. Meanwhile, a few summer needed to save Bar Harbor's hotels whose patronage colonists, most notably Boston socialite George B. had been declining. Of the sixteen hotels enjoying a Dorr, father of Acadia National Park, began to temper flourishing trade in 1902, only ten were operating in their opposition to cars. To Dorr and his friends it 1906. Clearly, something had to be done to bolster the seemed futile to resist the tide of history; the admission resort's economy. of automobiles to their beloved island retreat was While the auto war did not deter the summer inevitable. Sensing the change in the local mood, they colony from pursuing its normal whirl of horse and dog (Continued on page 84) Featuring fine dining and the Wreck of the Hesperus bar THE BAR HARBOR AUTO WAR Ocean (Continued from page 69) now moved to see that the auto would come with the Island Inn least possible disruption to the resort's social and economic life. Restaurant Dorr thought that the best solution would be to Well worth M. Marina open one access road to motor vehicles, a road which the trouble would terminate at the edge of town. "This would," to find said Dorr, "enable motorists coming from a great Follow Rt. 1 to Rt. 27 south. Turn left onto Rt. 96, go past East Boothbay and watch for turnoff to Ocean Island distance to reach Bar Harbor with their own cars, but, Causeway. once here, would make it necessary for them to use OPEN 12 9, SEVEN DAYS A WEEK horses to get about." Not only would this plan satisfy Box 67, East Boothbay, Me. 04544 Tel. 207-633-3716 the more conciliatory cottagers, he reasoned, but it also would appeal to those natives whose livelihoods depended directly or indirectly upon the horse. Successful gardening The summer colony's initial response to this plan begins Conley's was predictably mixed. The more adamant foes of the auto saw Dorr as a traitor to the exclusion clause. Cottager J. P. Bass, publisher of the Bangor Daily GARDEN CENTER Commercial, editorially castigated Dorr. In the fall of 1910, Sherman's now confident forces, RTE.27 BOOTHBAY HARBOR ME. 04538 supported by many Bar Harbor residents, began a fresh TREES EVERGREENS assault on the exclusion clause. Since the battle would HOME GREENHOUSES be rejoined at the January session of the Legislature, ORGANIC FERTILIZERS POTTERY banker Blair hurriedly called an emergency meeting of FALL SPRING BULBSHONEYE MAPLE SYRUP anti-autoists at his New York home. While Dorr Gardens Gift Shop (201)633-5020 patiently urged compromise, Blair and several other cottagers were unyielding, even though their own attorney advised that total exclusion no longer could be The Windjammer maintained. Dave Hennen Morris, president of the Automobile Club of America and, paradoxically, an Scrimshaw early opponent to cars in Bar Harbor, was SO sure that Down East Handicrafts autos would be admitted to the resort that he began Wilton Armetale (Continued) Wharf Street, Boothbay Harbor, Maine MOTEL Boatel Boothbay 27-UNIT WATERFRONT MOTEL RESTAURANT Open to Public Daily The Hutch & COCKTAIL LOUNGE BOOTHBAY HARBOR Dockage for 45 Boats Plus Moorings MAINE AT BOOTHBAY HARBOR 94 Commercial Street Tel. 207-633-5152 NEWAGEN INN and COTTAGES A lovely New England Inn with several seaside cottages need to drive anywhere. located at the very tip of Cape Newagen. Offering complete recreational facilities for all ages, as well as nightly enter- Escape from the turmoil of everyday life to our clean, tainment. Dining room and cocktail lounge. Both European and fresh, quiet world. Relax, play, eat, drink and enjoy Nature. Modified American Plans available. Once you arrive, there's no Renew your spirit at one of Maine's most scenic spots. For brochure, write: NEWAGEN INN, Box D-1, Cape Newagen, Me. 04552 Tel. 207-633-5242 84 building a large garage for his many vehicles. Publisher Bass vacillated, then sided with the moderate Dorr. The anti-autoists accepted Dorr's clever com- promise as their battle standard when they again went to the Legislature. Unprepared for this flanking Come to maneuver, the opposition collapsed, and the where Legislature voted overwhelmingly for the access road. However, cars were still prohibited from any town The roads. The cottagers' holding action had been STRIKER Big successful, at least temporarily. Ones For the next three years, Sherman and Roberts Are rallied supporters for their cause. They blamed the exclusion law for the 10-percent decline in the resident population, noting that even some summer cottagers Tuna Fish Charter Boat STRIKER were now deserting Bar Harbor because they could not bring their cars. Swayed by the foreboding events and DOCKSIDE the arguments, the townspeople backed Sherman as he prepared for the final battle, an anticlimax at which Motor Inn, Restaurant serious opposition simply failed to materialize. and Marina If Bar Harbor merchants depended upon summer MACKEREL COVE, BAILEY ISLAND residents for their livelihoods, Sherman argued on the Tel. 207-833-6656 House floor, they would go out of business. "We get Live and Cooked Lobsters more business from yachts, from hotel guests, from transients and from visitors from other resorts than Snack Bar - Leeward Dining Room - Sun Deck Marine Supplies and Fishing Tackle - Grocery Store from all these anti-autoists put together." The Motel Open Year Round Legislature relented. The townspeople had won, and in Agents for U.S. Geodetic Charts the spring of 1913 autos were at last admitted to Bar ANNUAL BAILEY ISLAND Harbor without restriction. By that same July, TUNA TOURNAMENTS according to the New York Times, "Motor cars here 00000000000000000 have practically retired the horse." A few irreconcilable summer residents tried unsuccessfully to boycott those merchants who had opposed exclusion. But the war was over, and even CRAFTSMEN IN SLATE some cottagers arrived for the season in their automobiles. Within a few months a dozen adaptable harpswell house Bar Harbor merchants were selling automobiles and supplies. TRADE MARK In 1915, two years after victory at Bar Harbor, gallery 49 WINTER ST., TOPHAM, MAINE automobiles were allowed on the rest of Mount Desert Mon. through Sat. 10 to 5 Island. By that time some 300 cars were registered in Maine craftsmen at work Bar Harbor alone. Though a few horses were still used, producing gifts and accessories. the resort's liveries were in rapid decline, as were Also carriage and buckboard builders and hay and grain Other New England Crafts dealers. Unfortunately for hotelier Roberts and other and selected imports proprietors, the admission of the car failed to save the hotels, which were perhaps past saving. By 1920 there were only seven left; today they are all gone, replaced LOBSTER CLAMBAKES by a multitude of motels and "motor inns," all Cooked - in your backyard - in Downeast fashion dependent on the once much maligned "infernal machine." Bakemaster JIM LUMSDEN Freeport 207-865-4534 Steak and Chicken Barbecues also available C. W. ROGERS INC. 110 Front St., Bath HARDWARE Four Floors of Merchandise 87