Islesboro (1887)

In the late 1860s Sabbath Day Harbor, also known as Ryder’s Cove, on Islesboro’s eastern shore became the site of the island’s first summer hotel. Built in 1868, this simple two-and-a-half story wood structure served as both a dwelling for its owner and a summer boarding house for a clientele drawn primarily from nearby Bangor.During the 1870s and 80s, several Bangor residents constructed modest frame Carpenter Gothic and Queen Anne style cottages at Ryder’s Cove on land acquired from the Mount Desert and Penobscot Bay Real Estate Company of Bangor. Steamboat service contributed to the growth of Ryder’s Cove as a summer resort. The Bangor line promised the city’s businessmen seeking weekend vacation homes that “a steamer will leave Bangor every Saturday afternoon for Islesboro, returning Monday morning.” In 1885 the boarding house was expanded to accommodate one hundred guests by the construction of a three story addition and became known as the Islesborough.