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John Innes Kane Cottage facts for kids

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John Innes Kane Cottage
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John Innes Kane Cottage is located in Maine
John Innes Kane Cottage
Location in Maine
John Innes Kane Cottage is located in the United States
John Innes Kane Cottage
Location in the United States
Location Off SE end of Hancock St., Bar Harbor, Maine
Area 3.9 acres (1.6 ha)
Built 1904 (1904)
Architect Fred L. Savage
Architectural style Tudor Revival
NRHP reference No. 92000275
Added to NRHP March 26, 1992

The John Innes Kane Cottage, also known as Breakwater and Atlantique, is a special old summer house. You can find it at 45 Hancock Street in Bar Harbor, Maine. This amazing house was built between 1903 and 1904 for John Innes Kane. He was a very rich grandson of John Jacob Astor. A local architect named Fred L. Savage designed it. The cottage is one of the few grand homes that survived a huge fire in Bar Harbor in 1947. It's a great example of Tudor Revival style architecture. This house was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1992.

The John Innes Kane Cottage: A Historic Home

The Kane Cottage sits on almost 4 acres of land. It's on a high spot looking over Frenchman Bay, close to Bar Harbor village. This large house is 2-1/2 stories tall. The first floor is made of stone. The upper floors are wood, decorated in the half-timbered Tudor Revival style. This means it looks like there are dark wooden beams on the outside walls.

What Does the Cottage Look Like?

The house has a unique L-shape with a complicated roof. The roof has many gables, which are the triangular parts of a wall under a sloping roof. The ends of these gables often have fancy decorations. These include carved boards called vergeboards and hanging ornaments called pendants. Small pointed decorations called finials sit at the very top. The edges of the roof also flare out, giving it a special look.

The side of the house facing the land has the main entrance. This entrance is under a covered porch with a gabled roof. Heavy wooden beams support this porch. The side facing the water is balanced and even. It has porches in the middle with gables on either side. A separate wing for servants extends from the northern part of the building.

Inside the Grand Home

While the outside looks like Tudor Revival, the inside has a different style. It mostly uses Colonial Revival decorations. When you enter, you step into a large "great hall." From here, you can reach other rooms using stairs and hallways. The great hall is very fancy. It has beautiful Colonial Revival woodwork, including round columns, wood panels on the walls, and decorative molding along the ceiling.

Similar, but simpler, details are also found in the bedrooms upstairs. A sitting room, called a parlor, is on the ocean side, south of the great hall. A library is right behind it. The dining room is north of the great hall. A huge fireplace hides the entrance to the butler's pantry. This pantry connects the dining room to the kitchen areas in the servant's wing. The property also has the original carriage house and a caretaker's house. These were built at the same time as the main house.

Who Lived Here? The Cottage's Story

Local architect Fred L. Savage designed the Kane Cottage. It was built in 1903-1904 for John Innes Kane. He was a rich socialite and a great-grandson of John Jacob Astor, a very famous and wealthy person. The house stayed in the Astor family until 1955. Over time, in the later part of the 20th century, the house started to show its age. Luckily, it has since been beautifully restored.

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