Frenchman Bay stretches out ahead of you here, halfway along Bar Harbor, Maine's mile-long Shore Path, where Grant Park opens onto the water. This little park bears the name of Harry Allen Grant Jr. (1836–1898), an attorney from Tarrytown, New York who built the second summer cottage here in 1869, after Alpheus Hardy’s the year before. Grant paid $400 for the lot and even had a tennis court laid out on the grass between what is now the parking lot and the Shore Path.
After Grant’s death, in 1912 his widow, Julia Schoonmaker Grant, sold the property to a syndicate of local men who then sold it to the Town of Bar Harbor. The Bar Harbor Village Improvement Association took the park into its care and had Grant’s house moved to another part of town. You’ll notice a reminder of deep time on the shore beside the path: Balance Rock, deposited during an ice age.
The park was renovated in 2017 with a paved area and benches where you can pause. Beyond it, the Shore Path continues past Balance Rock, tracing the water's edge toward Frenchman Bay.