THE TURRETS

The Turrets was designed by Bruce Price in 1893 for John J. Emery of New York. Price also designed Chateau Frontenac in Quebec City that same year. Bruce Price was no stranger to Mount Desert Island, having designed three other private cottages and the annex for the Best End Hotel. The Turrets, however, is the only remaining Bruce Price building on Mount Desert Island. Construction of this massive summer cottage was handled by a local Bar Harbor contractor at a cost of $100,000. It took two years to complete, with all the exterior granite having been cut near Eagle Lake on Mount Desert Island.

Mr. Emery summered at Turrets with his family for eleven years before his death in 1908. Mrs. Emery and her five children continued to occupy the cottage each summer until 1915. They entertained such noted people as Sumner Welles, Fritz Kreisler and Paderewski. Mrs. Emery later remarried and became Mrs. Alfred Anson. The Ansons had some major remodeling done in 1938-39. They added an extra story onto the servants' wing, remodeled the front porches and upgraded the plumbing and electrical systems throughout the building. Mrs. Anson had other interior remodeling done on the ground floor several years before Mr. Anson died in 1944.

In the late 1940s, the cedar-shingled roof caught fire in one small area. The blaze was contained, but the entire roof was soon replaced with slate shingles. The date of the fire was unclear, but it was probably 1947 -- the same time of the large fire which burned over one-third of Mount Desert Island. The 1947 fire did destroy the Turrets' gatehouse, less than 500 feet from the main building.

Upon Mrs. Anson's death in the summer of 1953, the property was left to her children. They retained the estate until 1958 when it was purchased by a local businessman who opened the house up briefly as a tourist home. The property was purchased by the Franco-American Oblate Fathers in 1967. The Turrets adjoined their other property known as Guy's Cliffs, which burned in 1983 -- the site of the new Kaelber Hall, completed in 1989.

The Oblate Fathers began some much needed exterior work by repointing the stone, but only finished approximately one-third of the building before the entire property was sold, this time to an investor from Connecticut who later sold it to a local businessman from whom the College of the Atlantic purchased it in 1973. In 1975 the building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Restoration of the Turrets was initiated by the College in 1977 with the aid of private gifts, Departments of Labor CETA funds, and additional money from the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the National Endowment for the Humanities. The building was dedicated in 1982 to the John Joseph Emery family of Hulls Cove, Maine, descendants of the Turrets' original owners in recognition of their interest in and support of the Turrets restoration project.

In 1987 and 1989 the College received matching funds from the Maine Historic Preservation Commission to complete the restoration of the Turrets to its original condition. The Turrets is the most important example of cottage architecture in Maine open to the public.