Bar Harbor Historical Society — Attraction in Bar Harbor

We were visiting and noticed we could visit the new location for the Bar Harbor Historical Society. The write up of the home was great noting 35 bedrooms, over a dozen bathrooms, housed over 20 servants, and mentioned it was 13,000 sq. ft. Our family visited and while I was a bit surprised it was $20/person...even for an 8yr old. It was fine, it was a unique experience to be able to see this home. We spent some time enjoying the 6 available rooms on the first floor. Half of the house on the first floor wasn't finished so we couldn't go in, but when we asked about going upstairs we were told that we could not. I was speechless. $60 to see 6 rooms, while nice the rooms were not restored to the period of the home. They were well done and beautiful, but visiting other historical museum homes they are generally restored to the period of the home.

Needless to say this was an extremely disappointing visit. We could have gone whale watching or done something else with $60. I just can't believe they feel justified charging that to see what is available. In the end it goes to a cause that is good, but this was extremely disappointing. You would think there would be a family price, and you would think they would disclose that you can only see a small percentage of this grand space. I would not recommend this visit as of July 2019. Had I know that we could only see 6 rooms, I definitely would not have spent the money, but that was not disclosed until we asked to...

My wife and I visited here on Monday, October 7, 2024. It's the former summer "cottage" of some old big-moneyed partner of John D. Rockefeller's (last name Bowdin) that was built back during the Gilded Age (around 1900) in America. The local historical society has fixed it up quite nicely and all of the displays are top shelf. Each room provides a lot of good historical information on many different topics, and many are not just about the home itself or the Bowdin family who occupied it during the summer seasons. Much of the information on display is about the town of Bar Harbor and the nearby Acadia National Park. If you are into history, this is a must stop while you are staying in the Bar Harbor area for a vacation. It will take you about 2-3 hours if you want to see it all and read all of the information in each of the rooms' displays. It's a self guided tour, or you can do it with a local tour group or guide. I think the admission was like $10 each, which was quite reasonable. The greeter / hostess was a very nice woman who was able to answer all of our follow-on questions that were not completely explained in the display rooms. Probably not a good place to take children under age 9, or ill-mannered teenagers who aren't interested in learning anything about their ancestors...

I had high hopes for this museum since Bar Harbor has a lot of interesting history. The person you buy tickets from was very curt and rude. She acted like we shouldn't have been there for some reason and seemed hesitant to even sell us tickets. We are avid museum enthusiasts and take a great interest in local and regional history. Most of the objects in this museum were not labeled well and you don't learn hardly anything about the house even if you read everything (which we always do). It was not until the second floor that we learned when the house was built and it was not clear when it transitioned to a hotel or if it was always a hotel from the beginning. So confusing. We left knowing barely more than we came in with. Would...