Sieur de Monts Springs: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Acadia National Park
Killion J and Commisso M. 2021. Sieur de Monts Springs: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Acadia National Park. Cultural Landscapes Inventory Report. 650069. National Park Service. NPS Northeast Regional Office, Boston, Massachusetts / CRIS-CL Database
Sieur de Monts Spring is a National Park Service (NPS) developed area in Acadia National Park, located in Hancock County, Maine. Acadia was the first national park established east of the Mississippi River and today encompasses over 50,000 acres across Mount Desert Island, the Schoodic Peninsula, and other smaller islands. Situated on the east side of the island and nestled in a picturesque gorge formed by Dorr Mountain and Huguenot Head, the 41-acre site is defined by a broad wetland area to the north and east, called the Great Meadow; a dammed wetland that is now a small man-made lake to the south, named the Tarn; and the steep wooded slopes of Dorr Mountain to the west. The site is mostly covered with spruce, maple, hemlock, and birch trees except for a glade, or clearing, of grass that highlights an Italian Renaissance Revival-style canopy structure built over a natural spring that flows into a nearby stone-lined open water pool. These picturesque features were built in 1909 by George Bucknam Dorr, prior to the park’s establishment and before Dorr became its first superintendent. Next to the spring pool is the spring building [now called the Nature Center], built in 1949 in the NPS Rustic Design style to replace an earlier Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) building destroyed in the Great Fire of 1947. Other facilities include a parking lot and loop road built by the CCC in 1939, and a tool shed and restroom built by the NPS in 1948 and 1949. Well-crafted hiking trails built in the 1910s and 1920s originate at or traverse the property, and connect to scenic destinations in the surrounding meadows and rugged mountains. The site also includes the intimate Abbe Museum built in 1928 (not owned by the park), the colorful Wild Gardens of Acadia displays of native plants installed in 1961, and several historic stone monuments with inscribed letters and memorial plaques.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Killion, Jeffrey; Commisso, Michael
- Date of Issue
- 2021
- Publisher
- National Park Service
- Units
- ACAD , NER
- Keywords
- Architecture, Boiling Spring, Botanical Gardens, Carriage Roads, Conservation, Conservation of Natural Resources, Creating Social Institutions and Movements, Cultural Landscape Type: Historic Designed Landscape, Developing the American Economy, Dormitory (Bunkhouse), Entertainment – Recreation, Expressing Cultural Values, Formation Of The Conservation Movement 1870-1908, General Recreation, Hiking Trail, Landscape Architecture, Monument (Marker, Museum (Exhibition Hall), NPS Class II Connector Road, NPS Class III Special Purpose Road, Outdoor Recreation, Parking Area, Plaque), Political and Military Affairs 1865-1939, Protection Of Natural And Cultural Resources, Recreation, Renaissance Revival (1830-1920), Rustic Architecture, Scenic Preservation, Shaping the Political Landscape, Sieur de Monts Spring, The Great Depression And Conservation, The Great Depression And The New Deal 1929-1941, Touring Roads and Parkways, Transforming the Environment, Transportation by Land and Air, View
- Subjects
- CRIS-CL: 650069: Sieur de Monts Spring