Mouse Island is a mile south of Boothbay Harbor. You don't hear much about it, mostly, I suppose, because it's privately owned with no public places, but that was not always so. From my reading of all the existing early Registers, the summer party place in the 1880s was Mouse Island.The paper often complained, as in July 1883, of out-of-towners coming on drinking excursions by steamer to Mouse Island and then stopping in the Harbor plastered and disturbing the peace. In 1885 Mouse Island was again the cause of problems over the Fourth of July when too much "Mouse Island bug juice" was partaken. Such behavior was common despite the fact that Maine was dry, with the manufacture and sale of liquor illegal.

For many years, Mouse possessed some attractive amenities for teetotalers and drinkers alike. In 1868 Alexander Johnston of Wiscasset built a beautiful Gothic stone house called "Rosewood Cottage" on the island, with a number of its rooms panelled in rosewood and black walnut. He had high hopes for the island, petitioning the state in 1866 for permission to build a marine railway there — never to be. Within a few years of his erecting the stone house, the island ended up in the hands of a group of Skowhegan men who built the imposing Samoset Hotel in 1877. It fronted on a beach facing east.

The Samoset Hotel

Within the large hotel's walls was a 70-by-40-foot main room that could be used as a dining hall or a ballroom where well-known bands appeared, and there was a 20-by-40-foot parlor. At least 125 people could sleep in its 90 “sleeping rooms,” some with four beds in each. Among its offerings were bowling, billiards, a Scipio room (a variaton of billiards), tennis courts, a laundry, hiking trails, and 300 feet of promenade. Two daily mail deliveries from Boston came to the little summer post office on the island, while two steamer lines made six landings daily at the island's wharf. The hotel also had rowboats and sailboats for its patrons, with attendants if needed.

The Samoset capitalized on health benefits. Along healthful lines was a mineral spring as well as tubs for hot salt water bathing at a comfortable water temperature. The proprietors bragged of no flies, no mosquitos, and no bugs. The promise that the hotel would be run "strictly on the temperance plan" did not last, given the above 1880s references to drinking excursions.

The intent was for people to come for all summer, the goal of many of the big old hotels in their heyday, such as the Oake Grove at West Harbor. The numerous amenities were to assure its visitors that they had enough to amuse themselves, island or mainland. And that seemed fulfilled in the old days on Mouse. We have descriptive 1896 letters on hotel stationery and a 1925 letter that expressed nostalgia for "dear old Mouse."

1913 fires

Things went along just fine at the little summer hotel resort on Mouse for 36 years. But just 100 years ago, the summer of 1913 was a bad time for fires in locations around the waters of Boothbay Harbor. Cameras in private hands were still a rarity, so most photos of events were taken by professionals who happened to be present. The Menawarmet Hotel, whose 60 rooms, grounds, and wharf loomed over the east side, burned in late June. No photos survive from that fire.

In mid-August the old Manley Reed place at McKown Point burned, also without a photographer nearby. In the same August week, a fire started on Mouse in the Samoset Hotel's kitchen which eventually destroyed the hotel and Rosewood Cottage. The isolated island location meant almost nothing was done to fight it. The only response was to pack, remove belongings and furniture, and watch the devastation. A photographer was there this time, so we have about 12 different shots taken during and after the fire. The whole island was for sale following the 1913 fire.