Mount Battie Tower

by Guy Whiteley

Title

Mount Battie Tower

Artist

Guy Whiteley

Medium

Photograph - Photograph

Description

Mount Battie and the picturesque stone mountain tower, located in Camden. Maine, are rich in legend and history. In 1897, Columbus Bushwell, a Camden resident, built a carriage road to the top of the mountain. Today this old carriage road is part of the 25-mile hiking trail system in Camden Hills State Park. In 1898, Mr. Bushwell built a turreted house which he named Summit House, and opened to the public as a hotel.

A corporation of Camden’s wealthier summer residents, the Mt. Battie Association, purchased Summit House in 1899 and turned the building into a clubhouse and social center. During the peak of Camden’s carriage trade days at the turn of the century, Summit House was visited by many notable people, including the daughter of Theodore Roosevelt. Mr. Roosevelt himself came to Camden many years later to climb the mountain.

A forest fire in 1918 burned the mountaintop, destroying the natural beauty of the summit for many years. Summit House was undamaged by the fire, but was torn down two years later as its use declined and Camden’s carriage trade days came to an end.

In 1921, the Mt. Battie Association erected the stone tower that now stands on the exact location of Summit House. Iron pins that anchored the old building can still be seen in the rock around the tower. The 26-foot structure was designed by one of Camden’s summer residents, Parker Morse Hooper. The Hooper design is almost an exact replica of an existing tower found in Newport, Rhode Island.

The bronze plaque on the front of the tower reads:

In grateful recognition of the services of the men and women of Camden in the World War, 1914-1918.

Uploaded

October 17th, 2014

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