One of the few remaining hotels on Mount Desert Island built before World War II is reopening in June following a major $28 million renovation that kept it closed last summer.
The Asticou, formerly known as “The Asticou Inn,” will “debut a fresh new look and feel” this summer with 82 renovated rooms: 50 of which are inside the original inn, according to a Wednesday news release. The renovation saw the addition of 15 standalone harborside cottages and 17 “spa suites” with terraces.
“We’re thrilled to bring The Asticou into a new chapter while honoring the rich history and heritage that has made it such a beloved landmark in Maine,” hotelier Tim Harrington, who bought the inn in 2023 for just under $7 million, said in a statement.
Harrington is a founding partner of Kennebunkport Resort Collection, a company that owns 10 high-end lodging properties in Kennebunkport. The Asticou, built on 25 acres overlooking Northeast Harbor in the town of Mount Desert, is the third MDI hotel he’s bought in recent years.
Harrington announced a $10 million renovation of the hotel’s existing building last year, as well as the construction of additional standalone cottages and suites for an undisclosed amount. A Wednesday press release gave the total price of the transformation as $28 million.
The inn started as a family home that boarded lodgers in 1870, Bre Cherry, a spokesperson for the hotel’s management group said. The original owners, the Savage family, were the property’s stewards for three generations and saw it through reconstruction after a 1900 fire and a suspension of operations during the Second World War, according to the hotel’s website.
The family, who also established an azalea garden on the property, sold the inn to a group of local businesspeople and summer residents in 1965.
Many of the other inns and hotels built on the island before the Second World War have not survived. Several in Bar Harbor were burned down in the Great Fire of 1947, the worst natural disaster in Maine’s history that destroyed more than 200,000 acres of southern and coastal Maine, and others have been torn down and modernized.
The Asticou still stands, and its original cottage has been preserved through Harrington’s renovation effort. The transformed property will offer a heated pool, spa, fitness center, fine dining restaurant, cabana bar and EV charging stations, among other amenities.
Opening rates for rooms start at $750 a night. Guests can also enjoy programming including guided hikes, yoga, art classes and boat charters offered through another of Harrington’s properties, The Claremont Hotel in Southwest Harbor. The hotel is a little over an hour from Bangor’s airport.
“The newly reimagined Asticou will allow guests to immerse themselves in both raw nature and refined comfort with a balance between the grandeur of a historic hotel and the intimate, cozy feel of old Maine,” Krista Stokes, the design and brand director at Atlantic Hospitality, wrote in a press release.
