An 18-acre island retreat high above Penobscot Bay that was once the summer residence of a famous New England literary couple is on the market for nearly $1 million.
The 3-bedroom, 1 bathroom home on Isle au Haut, dubbed “Ardensea,” is a simple cedar-shingled cottage built on a meadow hillside in 1903. Writers and romantic partners Charlotte Endymion Porter and Helen Archibald Clarke lived there seasonally in the early 20th century. Their ashes were eventually scattered across the property.
Porter and Clarke were most famous for co-founding the literary magazine “Poet Lore,” considered the oldest published poetry magazine in the U.S., according to the Pennsylvania Center for the Book.
The cottage the couple lived in has been in disrepair for decades. It has been “reclaimed by nature” in some places, as listing agent Morgan Eaton puts it. Despite that, it is now back on the market for $925,000. That’s mostly because of the lot it occupies on the bay with more than 1,000 feet of shoreline.
“A bulk of the value of this property is in the land and the water frontage,” Eaton, a Stonington-based broker with The Island Agency, said. “It’s got gorgeous elevation, rugged coastline. You come up through a meadow and it just opens up to a vast, panoramic ocean view.”
The existing cottage at Ardensea has some neat features, including a fireplace and wraparound porch, but a new owner would need to make renovations to live there, Eaton said. It’s likely a buyer would tear down the structure and build a new home there instead. As the property was only listed this week, Eaton hasn’t yet been able to gauge interest either way.
“There are so many possibilities beyond [maintaining the cottage],” the broker said. “If someone really had their own cottage in mind, if they wanted to build multiple homes to accommodate family and friends, that’s possible, definitely.”
Though new construction on an island is a pricey prospect, Eaton said there are carpenters and contractors living on Isle au Haut to do that kind of work, as well as some on the mainland, despite a shortage in skilled laborers.
Isle au Haut has a year-round population of about 50 people and is trying to grow. A ferry runs between the island and Stonington several times a day to get folks to and from the island, Eaton said. It’s a 45-minute ride, and then Ardensea is a 10 minute drive from the town’s landing. That’s not for everyone, but some residents have personal boats they use for trips to the mainland so they’re not reliant on anybody else, Eaton added.
“You learn the tricks of the trade when you participate in true island living,” Eaton said. “It’s definitely a nature lover’s paradise. You can feel life slow down as you head out, it’s remarkable.”
