From collection Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Company Collection
Tarratine House, Hancock Pt. Me. 89.
Tarratine House, Hancock Pt. Me. The Tarratine House was a popular hotel at Hancock Point, about two miles from the Maine Central Railroad station and ferry wharves at McNeil Point. It housed the "overflow" visitors to summer residents as well as folks whose vacation destination was Hancock. It was also the place where social functions were held when they were too large for one of the "cottages." When summer people started coming to Hancock Point in the 1870s-steamers stopped there at that time-- Samuel Newell McFarland started taking borders into his home. He renovated and enlarged it, and in time it became the Tarratine House. (Tarratine was once a name of the Penobscot Abenaki Indians). He owned it until 1884. By the time this photo was taken in the early 1900s, subsequent owners had made many additions. According to the 1907 New England Vacation Resorts listings published by Boston & Maine Railroad, rates were $2 a day and $10.00 to $14.00 a week. The hotel closed in the 1930s. Newell McFarland, descendant of the original settlers, also led development efforts to buy up land from other descendants and laid out the grid for a new summer colony at Hancock Point. They even removed remains from family cemeteries to a new location at Hancock Corner. The colony was built, with many of the original "cottagers" from Bangor and Ellsworth.
