Atlantique (1904)
Bar Harbor, Maine (1796)
- Atlantique, originally called Breakwater, was placed on the National Registry of Historic Places by the United States Department of Interior, 26th of March, 1992. Atlantique was named the Great American Home Award Winner in 1995 by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
- Atlantique appeared in the following publications and media reports:
- Architectural Digest July 2001 & March 2002
- Christie's Great Estates Issue One 2001
- Great Estates of the World
- USCA Croquet News Fall 2003, Summer 2005 & Winter 2007
- Robb Report September 2005
- Down East Magazine September 2002
- Palm Beach Illustrated July/August 2002
- Palm Beach Society Magazine September 14, 2007
- The Bangor Daily News
- Portland Winter 2004 & 2006
- Leading Estates of the World
- Maine Cottages by John M. Bryan
- HGTV in June 2002
- Style 1900 Spring 2008
- Atlantique was totally restored by the Barrett family in 2000-2006.
- Atlantique was designed and built by Fred L. Savage for John Innes Kane of Locust Valley, NY. Mr. Kane was the grandson of John Jacob Astor. The house was built during the “Golden Era” of architecture for the wealthy in America, especially in Bar Harbor. Atlantique is the largest house designed and built by Fred Savage in Bar Harbor.
- Atlantique is the home of the Barrett Bar Harbor Invitational Croquet Tournament, which is a nationally registered croquet tournament with the United States Croquet Association, which is described in Croquet News, Winter 2006 Vol. 8 No. 3 (the official magazine of the United States Croquet Association). The Barrett Cup is annually awarded to the doubles champions of that tournament. The Tournament Director is Robert Kroeger of the United States Croquet Association.
- The Barrett family, with the advice of ASLA architects and university professors, designed Atlantique's landscape architecture in a style in memory of Beatrix J. Farrand.
- Atlantique is across the street from the world famous “Reef Point” home and gardens of the most famous female landscape architect in America, Beatrix J. Farrand (the J comes from the Jones of Philadelphia and the phrase “keep up with the Joneses”). Beatrix is the only woman founder of the 9 founders of the American Society of Landscape Architects (1899) and she was the Landscape Architect for the Rockefellers, Dunbarton Oaks (owned and managed by Harvard), the Carriage Paths in Acadia National Park, the White House, Harvard, Yale and Princeton, and other important families and institutions. Her plants and designs are publicly shown at the Asticou Azalea Garden and the Thuya Garden in Northeast Harbor. The Asticou Inn was designed and built by Fred Savage, architect of Atlantique. One of Beatrix's most famous gardens is the “Eyrie” at the Rockefellers home in Seal Harbor, Maine. Beatrix's aunt and mentor was Edith Wharton. Beatrix's head gardener at Dunbarton Oaks, Don Smith, lives on Atlantique's street, Hancock Street, in Bar Harbor, and he still shares many memories of Beatrix. Beatrix's husband was Max Farrand, head of the History Department of Yale University, who was the world's leading historian on Benjamin Franklin. Also, the “Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden” at the New York Botanical Gardens was designed by Beatrix in 1916.
- Beatrix Farrand was the landscape architect at Woodlawns, the Bar Harbor family home of William Scoville Moore, a relative of Catherine Moore Barrett, owner of Atlantique. Woodlawns was lost in the Bar Harbor fire.
- Professor John M. Bryan of the University of South Carolina published in 2005 (Princeton Architectural Press) Maine Cottages, a book describing the architectural work of Fred Savage, including Atlantique. Atlantique is the quintessential Fred Savage Tudor. Fred Savage designed hundreds of structures on Mt. Desert, including the historic Asticou Inn in Northeast Harbor, at the request of Charles Savage, his father.
- An exact replica (taken from Beatrix's papers at the University of California, Berkeley, where Beatrix taught), of Beatrix's now missing “Lych Gate” has been built at Atlantique by the Barretts. Other than the Eyrie, there may not be any other Beatrix physical creations in existence.
- The house facing Frenchman's Bay on the left of Atlantique, “Devilstone” was owned by the Newbold's of Philadelphia, relatives of Beatrix. The house on the right was owned by Evelyn McLean Walsh, who owned the “Hope Diamond”.
- At its height in the early 1900's, Bar Harbor was bigger and more extravagant for society and homes than Newport. It was founded by people running away from Newport, New York, Boston and Philadelphia. High society was the name of the game, and Lester Lanin, the Marshard Orchestra, and most of America's big bands played weekly and especially during the weekends for the great "Coming Out" cotillions of America. Then came the "Bar Harbor Fire of 1947" and most of the town and mansions burned down (see “Lost Bar Harbor”).
- In the summer of 2000, the Barretts brought renowned band leader Lester Lanin, age 90 +, and his band back to Bar Harbor, and they played at Atlantique at a fundraiser for scholarships for the Barrett/Farrand scholarship program at the University of Maine, where Professor Bill Mitchell teaches a course of study involving the landscape gardening work of Beatrix. Maija Kaldro, a past Barrett/Beatirix scholarship student at the University of Maine, became in 2004 Head Gardner and Caretaker of Atlantique.
- Catherine (“Cathy”) Moore Barrett's family, the Moore family, owned a Bar Harbor cottage called “Woodlawns”. Beatrix Farrand was the Landscape Architect of Woodlawns-see Lost Bar Harbor-and a Hulls Cove cottage called Baymeath. Woodlawns was lost in the Bar Harbor fire, and Baymeath has been torn down. Cathy Moore Barrett's relative, William Scoville Moore, who owned Woodlawns, was married to Edith Pulitzer, daughter of Joseph Pulitzer, the St. Louis “Pulitzer Prize” publisher. Cathy's family, the Moores, include Marianne Moore (1887-1972), the famous 20th century poetess, who lived in Brooklyn, won the Pulitzer Prize and who each year would throw out the first baseball at the opening Brooklyn Dodgers game. Also among the Moores was Clement Clarke Moore (1779-1863), who wrote “Twas the Night before Christmas”, and two of the past Presidents of Columbia University, as well as the Moore founders of Southampton, NY. Cathy is a direct descendant of St. Thomas More, the now canonized “Man for All Seasons”. The Moore family genealogy includes listings in The First Families of America.
- Bob Barrett grew up in the summers in Bar Harbor on West Street, and his father, Dr. Robert J. Barrett, Jr., of Morristown, N.J. and Bangor, was a member of the staff of the Bar Harbor hospital and other Maine and New York hospitals. Bob's grandfather, Dr. Robert J. Barrett, Sr., was Professor of Dentistry at the Dental School of New York University and Seton Hall University, in South Orange, New Jersey. Bob's sister, Bonnie, and her husband practiced as clinical psychologists in Bar Harbor, before moving to Boston. Bob is a Mayflower Society member and a retired New York City investment banker.
- Students and faculty of the Landscape Architecture School and the Lyle Littlefield Gardens of the nearby University of Maine have benefited from gifts and scholarships of the Barrett family, through the Barrett Fund and the Barrett Endowment “in the Memory of Beatrix Farrand” at the University of Maine. “Beatrix Interns” from the University now earn Masters Degrees and undergraduate degrees while working at Atlantique and studying under the supervision of faculty and alumni of the University of Maine. The Atlantique property has been landscaped in the memory of Beatrix. Major landscaping was completed at Atlantique in 2006.
- At Atlantique, initial new research has been accomplished on Beatrix's designs, and videos have been created to honor her memory and help with teaching.
- Atlantique itself, with its Carriage House, has 18,500 square feet of structures, and 18 bedrooms and 15 baths, plus other major rooms and a USGA standard putting green and a championship regulation croquet court. Atlantique's noted ocean view is of Frenchman's Bay, Bar Harbor, discovered by Samuel de Champlain (1567-1635), the French explorer who founded Quebec in 1608. In the 1600's the American seaboard below the eastern shores of present day Nova Scotia, including what are now the eastern shores of the State of the Maine, became known as Acadia. Atlantique's view of Frenchman's Bay includes the four Porcupine Islands, plus the views of Hancock, Sorrento and Schoodic Point and Winter Harbor, and other well-known Maine harbors, villages and islands. The QE II and many other beautiful cruise ships anchor almost in front of Atlantique each year. The fall leaf “color season”, or “color tide” and beautiful summers bring these cruise ships to the harbor and over 2 million people a year to Acadia National Park, which surrounds the Town of Bar Harbor. The Town of Bar Harbor has a population of about 3,000 people, with two movie theatres and most of Mt. Desert Island's restaurants and places of lodging.
- Bar Harbor is surrounded by Acadia National Park, the first national park east of the Mississippi and one of America's first and most-visited national parks. Mt. Desert Island, including Acadia National Park, Bar Harbor, Seal Harbor, Northeast and Southwest Harbors, other villages and the ocean, is known for fabulous sailing, rock climbing, scenery and the like. The island is also well known for its boat building, including boatyards such as Hinckley's, in Southwest Harbor. The island, third largest in America, includes 3 golf courses.
- The owners of Atlantique are Cathy and Bob Barrett. Cathy was Fashion Editor of Town and Country Magazine and is a former model in Europe, and US Doubles Croquet Champion and Member of the Croquet Hall of Fame. Bob is an investment banker, retired from Wall Street.
- Atlantique's landscape master and sub-master plans are available through the Barrett family. The videos can be viewed at the Maine Historic Preservation Commission, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the Bar Harbor Historic Society, the Mt. Desert Historical Society, the library at Northeast Harbor, and at the MDI Historical Society.
- Preservationists - In 2002 Richard Moe, President of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, complimented the quality of the historic restoration of Atlantique when he visited Atlantique and addressed Historic Preservationists from throughout America. Atlantique is visited annually by tours of members of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Atlantique was placed on the National Registry of Historic Places by the United States Department of Interior, 26th March, 1992. Atlantique was granted the Great American Home Award Winner 1995 by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Atlantique was totally restored in the period 1999-2002, by well-known artists and craftsmen. Atlantique has been featured in Architectural Digest, Great Estates of the World, HGTV, and other historic preservation publications.
Catherine Moore Barrett
Palm Beach
© Copyright March 7, 2007
|
