Summer at Asticou
Order of Supplies from Morse Co. for A.C. Savage & Sons, Northeast Harbor, 1898
Mount Desert Island Historical Society
A.C. Savage and family, Northeast Harbor, ca. 1910
Mount Desert Island Historical Society
Summer at Asticou brought a house and lodging swap for most of the Savage family. Unlike many of Mount Desert’s families who farmed, fished, built boats, or participated in some of all of the year around occupations, the Savages constructed buildings for themselves and others in the off season. Most of their construction was then used as lodging for summer guests who came to the island from urban areas of the Northeast for long term stays from mid-June through Labor Day. Most of the A.C. Savage (1832-1911) relatives took in guests and provided meals while they consolidated their immediate families into a few of the houses clustered further back from the harbor view on Asticou Way. Or, the children moved out of their bedrooms for the summer to bunk in with aunts and uncles while the parents hosted guests in their homes. Most of the Savage lodgings were accompanied by the “American plan” of three meals, many served at the nearby Asticou Inn. The small village transitioned from a place where most of the residents were Savages into a residential community of middle age, wealthy retired summer visitors. Many of these "guests" stayed for a month or more and brought along their ladies’ maids, butlers, and chauffeurs who stayed close by in the lesser quarters at the Inn or in smaller accommodations in the adjacent town of Northeast Harbor.
Garden Party at the Asticou Inn, Northeast Harbor, ca. 1935
Mount Desert Island Historical Society
The summer community bustled with leisure activities such as carriage rides, day hikes, evening lectures, small gatherings for tea and family celebrations, calling on friends, and the weekly dance or social at the Inn. It was a very vibrant scene and young Charles, together with his vivacious mother and later his outgoing wife Katharine Larchar Savage (1905- 2001), was at the center of the scene – orchestrating the day-to-day activities of the large staff necessary to service this affluent transient community while graciously welcoming the summer guests to a very personal and caring place – just as his parents and grandparents had done before him.