The
Emery Path -- Another Historic Gem in Acadia NP
Among the architecturally interesting
and historic hikes in Acadia National Park are those in its Sieur de Monts section.
Here there are seven memorial paths, each established in the early 1900s by a
spouse or relative to honor a loved one. The Emery Path is one of them. It is
accessed just behind the Sieur de Monts spring house and is discernible by its
ascending stone steps and nearby trail post. A half mile in length, the Emery
Path passes the Homans Path on its north side. It continues to the junction of
the Schiff Path up to the Dorr Mountain summit and the Kurt Diederich Climb path
down to the junction of the Kane, Jesup and Beachcroft (Smith) Paths at The
Tarn. Taking the Kurt Diederich Climb down provides a nice 1 1/4-mile loop back
to the hike's start at the spring house via the Jesup Path.
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| The Turrets |
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| The Turrets entrance hallway |
John Josiah Emery, for whom
the path is named, was born in Ohio in 1837 of parents who had emigrated from
England in the 1830s. He became wealthy from real estate and inheritance.*1 He and his two brothers had significant
investments in the development of Cincinnati's commercial and residential real
estate market. In 1892 he married Minnesota-born Lela Alexander (1864-1953) and
in 1895 they built their Bar Harbor summer cottage, The Turrets, on four waterfront acres off Eden Street.*2
The granite, fortress-like mansion was
designed by Bruce Price, the NY architect of the Le Chateau Frontenac hotel in Quebec, Canada.*3 In 1896, after retiring from his Cincinnati
businesses, the Emery family moved to Manhattan. John continued his involvement
in Bar Harbor, where he was a member of the Bar Harbor Village Improvement
Association's Roads and Paths committee under chairman Herbert Jaques and with
notable co-members Waldron Bates, George Dorr and Beatrix Farrand.*4
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| The Turrets today |
His wife Lela provided the
funds to build the Emery Path, which was completed in 1916 as a memorial to him.
It is an amazing adventure over granite steps and staircases across the lower
east side of Dorr Mountain.
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| Penobscot Marine Museum photo*5 |
These old and current photographs (above) show an intricate granite staircase built inside a cliffside gap on the Emery Path.
It is here
where this prominent photograph was taken of George Dorr, a founder of Acadia
NP and its first superintendent.
Hikers should keep an eye out
for two granite benches nearby that were installed for rest and scenic views of
the Great Meadow, Champlain Mountain and Frenchman Bay.
*Footnotes:
1 Emery's father had established
a candle manufacturing plant in Cincinnati and developed the dripless candle.
He died tragically from an accidental 5-storey fall from a catwalk in his plant
into a vat of boiling oil.2. The construction of The Turrets wasn't Emery's first time in Bar Harbor. He was there at least by 1881, when he stayed at the Rodick House hotel, and continued to visit Bar Harbor thereafter. Bar Harbor Mount Desert Herald, July 17, 1881, p.2.
3 The Turrets is now a campus administrative building of the College of the Atlantic.
4 Bar Harbor Record, July 25, 1896, p.1.
5 The Penobscot Marine Museum's photograph collection can be accessed here.
GPS coordinates:
Emery Path start - N44°
21.695' W068° 12.513'The Turrets - N44° 23.684' W068° 13.201'
