RECENT POSTS FROM Brad Emerson

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A Temple for the Arts: Summer Society in Bar Harbor

Social History• January 14, 2013.

Summer Society needs its amusements, and Gilded Age Bar Harbor was no exception. Golf came first, as it often does. With the founding of the Kebo Vall... READ MORE

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American Splendor

House• May 25, 2012.

A new revised edition of Michael Kathrens‘s American Splendor, the Residential Architecture of Horace Trumbauer has been released by Acanthus... READ MORE

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Edith Wharton at 150

Social History• February 3, 2012.

Several things I intended to do in the last few days have slipped past me — although seemingly fully conscious and alert, I forgot to go to a lunch ... READ MORE

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Peter Pennoyer Down East

House• March 31, 2011.

For almost every decade of the last century, one of the standard arguments in design has been new vs. old. On one hand, modernists insist that new is ... READ MORE

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PICASSO & PIE DOWN EAST: The Mid-Century in Maine

Social History• March 4, 2011.

I live in a typical little coastal village in eastern Maine — although ‘typical’ depends on one’s perspective. We live amidst achi... READ MORE

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VANDERBILTS UNDER THE PINES

House• February 24, 2011.

One forever associates the Vanderbilts with Newport and the opulence they created there. However, many of the family preferred the (relatively) simp... READ MORE

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The Trouble With Footmen: Servant Problems in Old Bar Harbor

Social History• February 9, 2011.

In 1941, Chicago heiress and philanthropist Louise de Koven Bowen, the major patron of Jane Addams’s Hull House settlement, made a difficul... READ MORE

The Pinafore Sails Down East

Social History• January 25, 2011.

Prelude: Pinafore makes the Dilettante long for Cosi I should like Gilbert and Sullivan better than I do. But I don’t. I’m fairly well rou... READ MORE