Built 1895 (1895) Opened 1895 Added to NRHP 24 December 1974 | NRHP Reference # 74000155 Area 2 ha | |
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Location Eden St., Bar Harbor, Maine Architectural style Renaissance, Chateauesque Similar Cleftstone, Bar Harbor Historical Society, George B Dorr Museum, Jesup Memorial Library, Funtown Splashtown USA | ||
The Turrets is a historic summer estate house on Eden Street in Bar Harbor, Maine. Designed by noted New York City architect Bruce Price and built in 1895, the French Chateau-style building was one of the most elaborate built in Bar Harbor during its heyday as a summer resort. It is now part of the campus of the College of the Atlantic, and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.
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Map of The Turrets, Bar Harbor, ME 04609, USA
Description and history
The Turrets is located on the shore of Frenchman Bay on the campus of the College of the Atlantic, northwest of Bar Harbor's central business district. It is a large three-to-four story granite building, with a complex roof line that includes a wealth of projections, turrets, and dormers. The front facade faces west, away from the water, and is roughly divided into five sections. The central section, four stories in height, has a porte-cochere in front, supported by Ionic columns, with a heavy turned balustrade. The second floor has a group of three windows, topped by arched panels with fleur-de-lis, and the third also has three windows, divided by Ionic columns. The fourth floor is a mansard-style roof with a dormer. To the left of the central section are a three-story wing and a two-story kitchen wing, between which stands a secondary entrance that has a masonry portico topped by a turret. To the right of the central section stands a three-story round tower with a conical cap, beyond which is a three-story wing with a rounded corner. The interior of the house is lavishly appointed with a grand staircase and a richly-paneled dining room.
John J. Emery, a wealthy Cincinnati businessman, commissioned the construction of The Turrets, which was completed in 1895. It joined a number of elegant summer houses that lined Bar Harbor's coast, many of which were destroyed in a devastating fire in 1947. The Turrets stood vacant for many years before its acquisition by the College of the Atlantic in the 1970s.