Summerguide 2018 | view this story as a .pdf

Dare to disappear.

By Colin W. Sargent
Olivia Gunn Kotsishevskaya
& Sofia Voltin

White Island
Deer Isle
Price: $1,675,000
Taxes: $4,367
Acreage: 61

Everybody’s hunting him–from fellow Penobscots to Yankee settlers–but he keeps slipping away, hopping from island to island just ahead of his pursuers. Soundlessly the sachem Joseph Orono and his followers head their fleet of canoes for the shore of a large island that seems almost to be floating ahead. With a leader’s alert gaze and blue eyes some say were inherited from his legendary ancestor, the third Baron de Saint-Castine (for whom the town of Castine is named), the ambassador and warrior Orono (from whom the University town got its name) directs his party toward a beach lined with white sand, granite formations rich with blue mussels, and evergreens. His grandmother, the daughter of the Penobscot chief Madockawando, might have fallen under the spell of this island and its noble aspect. What a stunning place of seclusion!

“With a Récollet missionary, Orono, persecuted for being a ‘zealous Catholic,’ debarks to establish [his] headquarters on White Island, off Sunshine, with several wigwams and a chapel,” according to William A. Haviland in Canoe Indians of Down East Maine.

Everybody needs to disappear sometimes. How about you? A new summer means a new beginning. White Island became the rustic capital of Orono’s spiritual journey in 1783. In 2018, this dreamy island can be yours for $1.675M. Imagine 7,500 feet of shorefront just a strong paddle away from the WoodenBoat school and Brooklin Boat yard–making White Island an international landmark in the yachting universe.

There’s an A-frame and dock at the north end,” says listing agent Terry Sortwell. “At low tide, it’s really lovely. Granite wedges rise up on the north side of the island, facing Eggemoggin Reach.” Sixty-one acres are for sale.

“The only thing that’s not being sold is a south-end parcel of about five acres with a house and dock. The sellers sold that to friends some years ago.”

Why would the sellers ever leave this Shangri-la?

“It’s one of those things where the parents are of a certain age, the children are scattered, it’s not being used, it’s time to move on. There’s a conservation easement that limits future building on part of the island, but a part of the southwestern shore can be built on.”

Hope Island
Casco Bay
Price: $7,950,000
Taxes: $79,010
Acreage: 86

When they were shooting The Whales of August on nearby Peaks Island, some of the cast members stayed here on Hope Island,” says John Saint-Amour of LandVest. “So who knows? Maybe Bette Davis, Lillian Gish, or Vincent Price stayed here.” Back then, Hope “was owned by the Hope Island Club, a group of business people from Philadelphia.” The original Shingle Style house was a Dutch Colonial with white shingles and five fireplaces, dating to 1913. The Club was also enlivened by members of “The American Federation of Amiable, Avaricious, and Continuous Clam Diggers.”

“Back in the day, people used to row over from Deer Point on Chebeague to attend grand parties out there,” a Chebeague resident tells us.

Nowadays, the island gets power “through a submerged cable to the mainland,” Saint-Amour says. “It was installed between 1991 and 1992 for a figure between $75,000 and $100,000.”

It was Saint-Amour who sold the 86-acre island in 1993 (for a reported $1.3 million) to New York (and international) commercial real estate developers John and Phyllis Cacoulidis. After overseeing $12M in improvements, Phyllis died in 2016. The Cacoulidis family has had Hope on the market since 2017.

Think of this compound as Neverland (including peacocks) with an 11,000-square foot castle, a tavern, a 10-horse stable, and over two miles of soaring oceanfront cliffs. “The kind of person who’ll buy this is a kingdom buyer, someone with Maine connections, whether it’s through camp, college, or business,” Saint-Amour says. “It’s a perfect place for a new extended family to enjoy. The [present] family’s enjoyed owning the island for 24 years. Now it’s time for the island to go.” Maybe Vincent Price had it right. This one’s a thriller.

Mistake Island, Jonesport
Price: Best Offer
Taxes: $1,438 Acreage: 5.89

With a name like Mistake, you’d think this island off Jonesport could hold its own in Maine seafarer lore. Unfortunately, the curious name may only be the result of a linguistic blunder. According to Jeremy D’Entremont, author of The Lighthouses of Maine: Acadia Region and the Bold Coast, “the name of the approximately 30-acre Mistake Island, about four miles south of Moosabec Reach…appears to be another corruption of Mooseabec [deriving from a Native-American term for moose head].” But Jonesport Realty executive William Milliken, president of the Arnold Memorial Medical Building Society (the current owners of the island), thinks there’s more to it. “Nobody knows why it’s called Mistake. I think some of the earlier settlers were there, someone messed up, and the story is lost to history.”

The island still has its draws. Home to Moose Peak Light, Mistake Island was recently used as the location for the award-winning film To Keep the Light, which tells the heroic story of Matinicus Rock Light keeper Abbie Burgess. Director Erica Fae says she insisted on shooting her period film here because the lighthouse is authentic, from the 1800s. “And it’s just all so, so beautiful.”

Originally built in 1826, Moose Peak Light and the fog-signal building (built in 1912) are part of the 5.89 acres for sale. Milliken, a descendant of the first lighthouse keeper, says the society hopes to find someone who’ll be a good steward of the island. “We hope to find someone who respects the island and its history, and shows an interest in opening it to the public.” Milliken spends a lot of time on the island himself, birdwatching or picnicking. “It’s really dramatic. There’s nothing here. Just going out here and being is a humbling experience.”

The island is accessible by boat, five minutes from Jonesport’s harbor. A walkway takes guests to the lighthouse from a boathouse and gangway on the 24 acres managed by the Nature Conservancy.

According to the Bangor Daily News, Mistake Island was donated to the AMMBS by Donald J. Vaccaro of Connecticut not long after he bought it for $93,500 in 2013, when it was auctioned off by the General Services Administration. Asked why Vaccaro bought the island only to sell it five years later, Milliken says, “You’d be surprised who will just buy an island.” Here, the old saying couldn’t be more true: one man’s Mistake is another’s opportunity.

—By Olivia Gunn

Greer Island Penobscot Bay, Vinalhaven
Price: $395,000
Taxes: $2,589 Acreage: 5.1

Imagine if your family’s legacy included a private island nestled in the famously scenic Penobscot Bay. Greer Island has belonged to Elizabeth Arey’s family for over a century. “My late husband inherited it. His great-grandfather sold him the island when he was a little boy.” Greer Island was passed down as a place where the family gathered for reunions, cookouts, and camping trips. “We always had an annual family picnic with grilled lobster, all kinds of clams, and all sorts of things.” One of Arey’s favorite pastimes was scouring the beaches around Greer Island for sea glass. Today, she has an enormous jar full of cobalt, rose, and green gems collected over a lifetime of family summer vacations. The jar is full, and she’s is ready to sell the property to a new family, who dreams of collecting their own island memories.

Greer Island lies 1,000 feet offshore from Vinalhaven, the largest of the islands in Penobscot Bay. From Vinalhaven, Greer Island is easily accessible by boat or kayak, and within swimming distance of Geary’s Beach. At low tide, you can skip the water travel altogether and take a 10-minute stroll across the land bridge. At the end of this natural walkway, a rustic 12-by-15 shack rests in a wildflower meadow by the shore. Years ago, this modest building was rented out as a cabin to fishermen catching herring in the cove. Now, lobster buoys speckle the same stretch of water between Greer and Vinalhaven–a friendly reminder of the town’s long history as a traditional Maine seafaring community.

Wild roses and strawberries are scattered across the island between stands of evergreens. The Camden Hills rise out of the west, Isle Au Haut lies to the east, and little island gems, such as Sister’s Ledge and Mitten Ledge, dot the wide blue beyond Greer’s rocky shore.

Elizabeth and family have loved Greer Island as a retreat from their busy lives in New York, where Elizabeth worked as a reporter photographer and her late husband was a director of public relations for Pan American World Airways. Among the best times here: fishing for mackerel out of a small boat. “My children, my husband, and I used to go out and stay overnight and picnic. We’d go every single day” from the Areys’ ancestral home on Vinalhaven. “My boys would treasure hunt and scavenger hunt on the island. With five acres, there was a lot to discover. We never had any problem entertaining them.”

Greer Island is certified through FEMA as outside the 100-year floodplain, and also has MDIFW (Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife) certification to prove it’s not a significant wildlife habitat. Elizabeth had plans to build a summer home on Greer Island, but despite these certifications, Vinalhaven has the island zoned for resource protection, with restrictions on building anything larger than a 600-square-foot structure. (This seems inconsistent with nearby Sheep Island, which falls under the same protections, yet has two homes.) However, resource protection doesn’t mean you can’t acquire a building permit. In fact, “I am holding a current building permit,” Elizabeth says, “for a cabin and for a float dock and ramp.” She already has the foundation footings and a septic plan in place. There are even arrangements to add a cistern or small desalination plant, solar panels, and hydroelectric power. Greer Island is prepped to become a virtually self-sustaining summer home.

All that’s needed now is you.

Brown Island Nicatous Lake, Hancock County
Price: $499,000
Taxes: $800  Acreage: 5

This is solitude and a wildlife experience second to none,” says realtor John Colannino of Brown Island. Nicatous Lake, a “forever-wild area” sixty miles northeast of Bangor, is the centerpiece of 20,000 contiguous acres of state-protected forest, including 30 miles of undeveloped shoreline. Nestled in this wildlife haven, Brown Island startles visitors with its savage beauty.

From the lake’s north end, a scenic five-mile ride from the boat launch at Nicatous Lodge and Cabins takes you over still blue water past sinuous coves to Brown Island. There’s a good chance of spotting nesting loons or even a bald eagle or two along the way. Take your pick of one of two docks on the island for tying up the boat. From here, wooded trails weave through white birch and pine to the rustic dwellings that make up a family-style compound. The main house includes a master bedroom, bathroom, and living room with a fieldstone fireplace, while a nearby building houses the kitchen and additional living space, all drenched with sun through sliding glass doors. The forest backdrop has clearly inspired the warm wood paneling, exposed beams, and forest-green accents, and this natural theme extends to the four separate guest cottages, painted in the same deep green. The property is reminiscent of a summer sleepaway camp, but with the added luxuries of running water and electricity. The whole compound is being sold fully furnished, with the added bonus of an 18-foot speedboat, canoe, paddle boat, cook stoves, and more essentials to equip your private island camp.

Current owner Phil Brown has researched a bit of the island’s history. The structures on Brown Island were built in the 1930s by a man named Dr. Butterfield, a surgeon from Boston. “Dr. Butterfield was an avid hunter and fisherman,” says Brown. “Brown Island [and the lands surrounding Nicatous Lake] were basically his own hunting and fishing grounds. He brought up doctors from Mass General to hunt, fish, and unwind.” In 1997, the Robbins Lumber Company purchased the Nicatous Land and worked with the state of Maine to conserve the abundant wildlife through a combination of working forest conservation easement and state acquisition of key shoreline areas. The former private hunting and fishing grounds of Dr. Butterfield are now “protected in perpetuity.”

Pine Island Long Lake, Naples
Price: $550,000
Taxes: $5,326  Acreage: 1

Sometimes you just want a little solitude without having to take a 30-minute boat trip to the mainland and drive another hour because you forgot the milk. “I call it privacy in the heart of the party,” says Pine Island owner Jay Bailey.

“One of the challenges of selling an island is getting there,” says realtor James Bump. Here, it’s only a five-minute trip from Naples, the hot spot of the Sebago Lake region, with its marinas, float planes, and restaurants.

Sure, you need a boat, but isn’t that why you’re buying an island in the first place? Bailey laughs. “The problem with most waterfront properties is that the boat doesn’t have a real purpose. You take it out and drive it in circles. But with Pine Island, the boat has a real life. You need the boat.” As you approach Pine Island from midway down the aptly named Long Lake, Mt. Washington towers in the distance. Bailey says, “Go up the lake [in early spring] you see Mt. Washington snow-capped. When you see the snow, it’s dramatic.”

Pine Island is just one acre, shaded by cathedral pines, with paths meandering to the dock and little sandy beaches. “My kids grew up out here. They learned to swim here. It’s a great island to snorkel. The light reflects off the fragmented glacial rock, so there is bright, pretty snorkeling with a lot of interesting rock formations.” Not to mention, “You can swim out and see where the bass hang out.”

After nesting loons intrigue with their calls after sunset, another neighbor might drop in. “We have nocturnal flying squirrels,” says Bailey. “They [float down from trees] after dinner and go for our dishes. They land on our picnic table and crawl around–I had one travel up my shoulder one time.” While flying critters might not appeal to the faint-hearted, for Bailey’s family it’s dinner, then a show. “It’s one of our regular evening events: hanging with the flying squirrels come sunset.”

Phoebe Island Sebec Lake, Bowerbank
Price: $459,000 Taxes: $1,200
Acreage: .11 (additional 22 acres on land)

Phoebe Island on Sebec Lake is a petite .11-acre island with a 1930s cottage built on its shoreline. “It’s almost like you’re in a boat, but without the seasickness,” says Jay Bailey. If you’re puzzled by the $459,000 price tag, Phoebe Island is just one of a three-piece package that encompasses an additional twenty-two acres on the mainland, including another house with two fishing ponds.

Barely 100 feet from shore, Phoebe Island can be reached by a walkway even in the dead of winter.

Just off the front porch of the cottage is tournament-quality fishing; the lake is teeming with trout and bass. Front-porch fishing transitions to ice fishing once Sebec Lake freezes over, and the acreage on shore is prime for snowmobiling, making Phoebe Island, in Bailey’s opinion, “a true Maine sportsman’s paradise.”

Little Clapboard Island
Falmouth
Price: $4,500,000
Taxes: $3,452
Acreage: 22 acres

One mile from Falmouth Foreside, Little Clapboard is a modest island located just off its namesake, Clapboard Island. The tiny getaway, with a rich green center and private sandy beach, can be accessed by rowboat, by swimming, or by walking at low tide from Clapboard Island. For $4.5 million dollars, this gem can be all yours–along with 22 acres of Clapboard Island, which includes an historic estate equipped with eight bedrooms, six bathrooms, 10 working fireplaces, a guesthouse, a teahouse, a children’s playhouse, a large barn, a boathouse, five beaches, a helipad, and a stone pier with docking room for large ships stretching into Casco Bay.

Samuel F. Houston, owner of the Pennsylvania Railroad, bought Clapboard Island in 1897 and with the help of his friend the architect Joseph M. Huston hired 100 local workers, mostly shipbuilders, to create this historic island home in 100 days. The shipbuilders left a kind of signature above each fireplace. “Having come from the shipyards, [the workers] introduced an architectural motif to represent the bow of a ship,” says owner Alfred Hoffman. “Every fireplace has some sort of rendition of that design concept.” As soon as it was complete, the Houston family began spending their summers at Clapboard and continued to do so for generations. It wasn’t until the late 1990s that Clapboard left the Houston family when it was bought by Alfred and Dawn Hoffman.

Details such as the pine Samuel Houston shipped all the way from Oregon have been lovingly restored to their natural luster. The house has been updated with modern conveniences such as a new kitchen and solar panels but maintains the same period feel. The Clapboard Island estate for sale consists of 22 acres on the south end of 40-acre Clapboard Island. In 2014, Maine Coast Heritage Trust purchased the northern half of the island, with the exception of one other private home on the northwestern side.

“[Clapboard Island] is shaped like an hourglass, so there is a natural boundary between what the Heritage Trust owns and what is private property,” says realtor David Banks.

For a convenient departure from the mainland, Madokawando Landing in Falmouth provides two gated parking spots, a mooring, and use of the dock. From there, your stone pier, historic estate, and private Little Clapboard Island are just a five-minute boat ride away.

Scabby Island Chain Machiasport
Price: $400,000
Taxes: $3,845
Acreage: 18

Scabby, indeed. We promise–the name of this string of pearls does it no justice. If you’re craving wide-open spaces, a 20-minute boat ride from Starboard Cove in Machiasport will take you to three sunny islands that make up the Scabby Island Chain. The chain is surrounded by deep water–very deep water–but at low tide Haul Out, Petrel, and Laridae Islands connect and add up to 18 acres with four landing places. Petrel is the largest of the three, with a field, freshwater pond, and sheltered sites for camping. To the east lie the Libby Islands and Libby Island Lighthouse. To the south is open ocean stretching to the horizon. No trees means truly breathtaking panoramas with the possibility of whale spotting. An added bonus? Black flies seem to bypass the area all summer long.

Bare Island, Machiasport
Price: $2,800,000
Taxes:$5,362
Acreage: 77

Far from being bare, this 77-acre island in Machiasport has it all–rugged shoreline with sandy beaches, dense forest lush with wildlife, freshwater springs, and hiking trails surrounding a four-bedroom home.

Bare Island is a ten-minute boat ride from the nearest harbor and five minutes from the mainland beach. At the center of this massive island is a forest populated by deer, great blue heron, and moose.

Trees screen the house, set back a short way from the shore, from view of passing boats, preserving the untamed look of the island yet maintaining a view of the inner harbor for the inhabitants. Inside the lodge, natural wood paneling and tall ceilings make the most of the windows’ natural light softened by the tree canopy. Outside, ample porches and balconies surround both your main house and your separate two-story treehouse. Because you’ve really made it here. Embrace the wild with open arms.