MONHEGAN VISIT, EDGE,
Monhegan Island’s beauty beckons off Maine coast
MONHEGAN ISLAND, Maine — Eleven miles off the coast of central Maine, lies Monhegan Island, cherished all throughout New England for its scant size and population, weather-beaten buoys and wayward stacks of lobster traps. These are landscapes
you’d expect a Wyeth or Edward Hopper to paint, and indeed they have. The place looks today largely as it did a century ago: no cars, no paved roads.
But Monhegan is not only a gorgeous destination but also a fascinating one.
The island is less than two miles long and less than a mile wide, with no airport, police, doctor or bank, but plenty of well-worn Boston Red Sox caps. Population drops to 65 or fewer in winter, when snow falls and the few remaining lobstermen set out their traps. The island is fully awake June through September, when the population increases to perhaps 250 seasonal residents, joined by scores of day-trippers and short-term visitors.
That modest tourist tide is
enough to sustain three summer-only inns, a handful of summer-only restaurants, one or two bed and breakfasts and assorted rental homes. In other words, it’s Brigadoon with shellfish and costume design by L.L. Bean.
Like summer people everywhere, these visitors hike, read, eat outside, huddle over jigsaw puzzles and dawdle by the water. But by long Monhegan tradition, many also paint. On any day, you’re bound to find a dozen or more artists with their easels and nearly as many tripod-lugging photographers. More than a dozen painters and sculptors keep island studios with regular summer visitors’ hours.
“You get this mist, this atmosphere, that intensifies the colors,” said Jack Hobbs, who had come from Massachusetts to set up his easel at water’s edge.
Even if you’ve never heard of Monhegan, there’s a good chance you’ve seen it on a museum wall. Artists have been visiting since the 1850s, including a great burst between 1895 and 1920 when Robert Henri, George Bellows, Alice A. Swett, Maud Briggs Knowlton, Edward Hopper and Rockwell Kent, among others, came to paint.
The 19th century lighthouse and keeper’s residence dominates the landscape just as they did when Hopper painted them during his four island summers, 1916 through 1919. Those buildings now house the deeply engaging Monhegan Museum of Art & History.
The village’s centerpiece is the Island Inn, where I stayed. It was built in the early 19th century, expanded in the early 20th and renovated in the early 21st by new owners who were wise enough to keep telephones and televisions out of its 32 guest rooms.
Thanks to Monhegan Associates, a nonprofit created in the 1950s by Thomas Edison’s son, Ted, about 350 of the island’s 513 acres are protected as a natural reserve. That territory, including the rugged eastern edge, is crisscrossed by nine miles of well-labeled trails, along which smoking, drone flying, camping and biking are banned.
Look closely at the big boulder next to the island’s one-room schoolhouse: It commemorates a visit by Capt. John Smith in 1614, seven years after he founded Jamestown (in what was later Virginia), the first permanent English colony in North America.
If the seas are calm on the sheltered side of the island, you might rent a kayak at Fish Beach and paddle for an hour within the confines of the harbor.
Many summer people here are quick to say how much they love being unplugged. But plenty sneak peeks at their phones, despite seriously iffy coverage. The island’s leaders, eager to make telecommuting easier, have been working on a boost in broadband that could mean big changes.
The island is dry; no alcohol is served in restaurants, though you can bring in store-bought bottles and cans. But in 2013, Monhegan Brewing Co. started making beer and serving pints on its patio on summer afternoons.
The picnic tables are surrounded by a wall of bluewire lobster traps, a hint that co-owner Matt Weber is a lobsterman. (It’s also his turn as constable this year.) Some guests bring string instruments and launch into French Canadian folk tunes. How did the island ever get along without this place? It’s unclear.
If you go: From Boston, catch a commuter flight to Rockland, Maine, or drive about 200 miles to Maine’s central coast to catch one of the three ferries that serve the island in summer. Reservations are recommended. Check websites for departure dates and times.
Monhegan Boat Line, 880 Port Clyde Road, Port Clyde, Maine; 207-372-8848. Two vessels sail from Port Clyde up to three times a day, $38 per adult round trip.
Hardy Boat Cruises, 132 State Route 32, New Harbor, Maine; 207-677-2026. Two departures daily to Monhegan from New Harbor, $38 per adult round trip.
Balmy Day Cruises, Pier 8, 42 Commercial St., Boothbay Harbor, Maine; 207- 6332284. One departure daily from Boothbay Harbor, $42 per adult round trip.