Housing
This section of the BDN aims to help readers understand Maine’s housing crisis, the volatile real estate market and the public policy behind them. Read more Housing coverage here.
This rugged $259,000 private island in Down East Maine sits just downriver from one of the earliest European settlements in North America.
Little Dochet Island is part of Robbinston, Maine, but sits in the St. Croix River, which the U.S. and Canada share. The island occupies about 1.2 acres and is mostly wooded with a rocky shore, but a sandy beach appears on the south side of the island at low tide.
Britani Holloway of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Northeast Real Estate owns the property with a business partner. They bought it a few years ago with plans to use the property seasonally, she said.
“I lived nearby and when it came up for sale, I thought it was a really sweet property and unusual because there aren’t many islands in the St. Croix River,” said Holloway, who’s also the listing agent for the property.
A rustic one-room cabin, built in 1900, sits on the island, but the property has no other amenities other than cell service. However, the 350-square-foot cabin has been updated with new windows, fresh paint and new siding.
“It’s a little primitive cabin that we improved a little bit to make sure it’ll last another 100 years,” Holloway said.
The property hit the market in January with an asking price of $259,000.
“We just don’t use it as much as we thought we would, so we thought it was time to put it on the market,” Holloway said. “Maybe we’ll find a new steward who will take care of it for the next couple decades.”
The private island is accessible only by boat, but sits about a mile away from a public boat launch in Robbinston. This makes the property perfect for someone looking for a private, serene getaway that’s still relatively easy to access, as it’s a five-minute boat ride from the shore, Holloway said.
The property offers views of New Brunswick across the river, as well as Saint Croix Island to the north, the site of a failed French colony that’s now an International Historic Site.
In 1604, a group of 79 French colonists landed on St. Croix Island and established a tiny settlement there. The fledgling colony was led by Pierre Dugua, Sieur de Mons, a French merchant and explorer, and cartographer Samuel Champlain, according to the National Park Service.
Like Little Dochet Island, St. Croix Island is positioned just over the U.S. and Canada border in Maine.
The French settlers built several dwellings on the island, positioned a single cannon pointing down the river and planted wheat, but the island’s soil was too sandy for it to grow, according to the National Park Service. They also traded goods like knives, cookware and glass beads with the Passamaquoddy, who supplied them with furs.
Throughout their first winter on the island, 35 of the 79 French settlers died of scurvy because they had only salted meat and bread to eat, which resulted in a vitamin C deficiency. The remains of many of the settlers are still on the island, which isn’t publicly accessible.
In the spring of 1605, the Passamaquoddy returned and helped the remaining French survive until Dugua moved the group to Port Royale in Nova Scotia.
While the colony on St. Croix Island was short-lived, it’s credited with teaching the French the merits of settling on the mainland and ultimately contributed to the long-term success of the French settling in North America.
