In 1900, financier J. Pierpont Morgan bought 117 acres on Maine’s Mount Desert Island, including all of Sand Beach and Great Head, as a wedding gift for his daughter Louisa. Louisa married Herbert Satterlee in New York City on November 15 that year.
The transaction, however, took another decade to become official. According to the National Park Service, title issues delayed the completion of the purchase until 1910. The Satterlees eventually made the coastal property their summer estate, which they called Satterlee Field.
The family turned it into a summer estate
Construction of the Satterlee Estate began in 1911, and the family started spending summers there that same year. Louisa and Herbert had two daughters, Mabel, born in 1901, and Eleanor, born in 1905. Both grew up exploring the rocky coastline and landscape around the estate.
The family usually spent about six weeks each summer at Satterlee Field. The estate included cottages, gardens, a barn and other facilities, while landscape architect Beatrix Farrand designed its gardens to blend with the surrounding terrain.
The Satterlees also maintained a connection with what would become a much larger public landscape. Large sections of Acadia National Park already bordered their property, and the family allowed park visitors to access Sand Beach while they still owned the land.
The 1947 fire changed the family's connection to the land
The Satterlee family's summers at the estate ended after Louisa died in October 1946 and Herbert died in July 1947.
Then came the 1947 fire, one of the most destructive fires in Mount Desert Island's history. The blaze burned 17,188 acres on the island, including about 10,000 acres within Acadia National Park. It also destroyed most of the Satterlee Estate.
Eleanor returned to the property for one final summer in 1948. By then, the combination of the fire damage and Eleanor's declining health helped prompt the family's decision to give the land to the National Park Service.
Morgan's granddaughter donated about 100 acres
In 1949, Eleanor Morgan Satterlee, JP Morgan's granddaughter, donated approximately 100 acres to the United States in memory of her mother, Louisa. The donation included the area around Great Head and Sand Beach and became part of Acadia National Park.
The National Park Service says Eleanor was responsible for the donation, while its history of the fire notes that Eleanor and her sister Mabel made the decision to donate the estate, Sand Beach and Great Head.
A bronze plaque near the staircase leading down to Sand Beach commemorates the donation. It records that Eleanor donated approximately 100 acres in 1949 in memory of her mother.
The former family estate is now open to visitors
Today, visitors can explore the landscape through the Great Head Trail and visit Sand Beach, one of the best-known coastal spots in Acadia.
The National Park Service says visitors can still experience the same beach, forests, mountains and coastline that the Satterlee family once enjoyed as part of their private summer estate.
What began as a wealthy family's 117-acre wedding gift in 1900 eventually became public land. Nearly five decades later, Morgan's granddaughter helped preserve about 100 acres of that coastline for generations of Acadia visitors.
