THE NEW SORRENTO - PART 3

 THE NEW SORRENTO - PART 3

Listings for Sunday church services were posted every Saturday on the front page of the Boston Evening Transcript.  During the first week of March 1886, the Religious Intelligence column listed more than forty worship options -- including one at the Hollis Street Church.  Located at the corner of Newbury and Exeter Streets, the 10:30 service at the church would be led by the Rev. H. Bernard Carpenter.

In other news of the day, it was reported that 125 "Chinamen" had been forcibly chased out of a town in Oregon, the employees of a NY trolley service were threatening another job action, and the Western Union Company was settling a judgment on back taxes to avoid the seizure of its offices on Broadway in Manhattan.

The newspaper also contained several pages of real estate advertisements. On page 9, among the listings for homes for sale or rent from the Back Bay to Wellesley Hills, was a notice for a "NEW SUMMER RESORT."

Located only 20 minutes from Bar Harbor, "Sorrento" at Point Harbor Maine was hailed as a "good opportunity to acquire seashore homes at moderate rates and easy terms." The Frenchman's Bay and  Mount Desert Land and Water Co. announced it had "secured extensive tracts of land comprising seashore with beach, mountain island property," for sale "in desired quantities and in locations suitable for cottages, villas, hotels, wharves and buildings for business purposes."

The ad boasted that the new resort, on the northern shore of Frenchman's Bay, could be reached by train from Boston in only nine hours.  It also touted that with "the rapid growth of Bar Harbor in popularity and value of real estate," Sorrento was both an attractive vacation spot and a good investment.

It does not appear that this advertisement in March resulted in any immediate land sales.  However, Charles H. Lewis was an adept salesman, and the skills he had honed during his years trading stocks on Wall Street would soon attract buyers.  The advertisement listed the company's office on Milk St. in Boston where "...plans, maps, and photographic views of the property..." could be seen.  In addition, subscription books to the "...stock of the company..." were also available.

In July of 1886, Lewis made his first few land sales in Sorrento.  The Hancock County deed records indicate the very first lot was sold on July 7, 1886, to Frank Hill Smith of Boston (see Hancock County deeds Book 208, page 121).

This first Frank Hill Smith deed -- like a handful of other early Sorrento sales -- is notable as it references the lot's location (Number 2 in Section 7{?} in Sorrento, Point Harbor), on the plan made by Hermann Grundel, Landscape Architect.  The transfer was authorized for the land company by its president Charles H. Lewis and its secretary, Charles P. Simpson.

Frank Hill Smith was a Boston artist and interior designer whose house on Beacon Hill still survives today. Smith had trained in Europe and worked in Boston in the 1870s with his contemporaries, the painters Thomas Robinson and William Morris Hunt.

Smith worked not only in portraiture but also in other forms of decorative arts. More on his life and work was compiled by historian Michael Henry Adams, in this blog post. Adams writes that in 1880, Smith:

"...was among the group engaged to decorate New York's new Union League Club. Had this high point of Aesthetic Movement tastes survived, doubtlessly it would be ranked today alongside the widely admired Seventh Regiment Armory. At the Union League Smith worked in collaboration with John La Farge, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, and Will H. Low."

Frank Hill Smith was also an architect. Around this same time, Smith was asked to draft a plan for a new home for Walt Whitman in New Jersey. However, even though money was raised, the poet never seemed interested in a new cottage for himself.  

By the end of 1886, Smith had acquired five lots in Sorrento and began to design two cottages he would build on speculation.

During the first year of operation, Charles Lewis and the land company would sell over twenty additional lots to others, including Charles V. Wood, Albert S. Rice, Mary Worrall, John H. Haines, Francis W. Goss, J.W. Suminsby, brothers George Henry Forsyth & James Bennett Forsyth, George Howe Eddy, and John P. Riley.

Following the first few purchases, the deeds of sale also contained several new restrictions.  The new owners had to stipulate that:

"...no buildings shall be erected on the herein granted premises except dwelling houses and necessary outbuildings & churches. No low-class tenements or elements and no house costing less than one thousand dollars (exclusive of outbuildings) shall be erected thereon.

No intoxicating liquors or merchandise of any kind shall be kept for sale on the land herein conveyed. "

 

Among the final sales of the year were several more lots to Frank Hill Smith (see Hancock County deeds Book 217, page 56 & 58).  In addition to the new covenants, his were the first deeds that did not reference the plan drawn by Hermann Grundel.  Going forward the developers only referred to lot locations on the new plan, drawn in 1886 by Gilbert E. Simpson (see Hancock County Deeds Book 1, page 36).