Notice how this building has worn two identities: a men's clubhouse raised in 1887, then a welcoming inn only since 1950. Right here the hospitality you see—accommodations in the main building, the Oceanfront Lodge and The Newport—has grown from an older, very particular purpose. The property began life as the Mount Desert Reading Room, built in 1887 by the men-only Oasis Club, founded in 1874, as its clubhouse to promote literary and social culture.
William Ralph Emerson designed this building with that purpose in mind. Stroll its public rooms in your imagination: the Reading Room that gave the house its earliest name, the Terrace Grille that opens only in high season, and the Oasis Lounge tucked off the Reading Room. A spa and seasonal rhythms are part of its pattern too; note that the inn closes from December to late March.
You can picture 1902, when a steel pier was built at the Shore Path to bring visitors in from Frenchman Bay, and 1910, when President William Howard Taft received a grand reception here. Picture ladies finally admitted in 1921, and picture the Maine Central Railroad taking ownership in 1922, just as membership itself was fading into memory.