Things to do |
Blue Hill is a true center for the arts and crafts, with concentrations in music, pottery, and wooden boat building.
The venerable Manhattan-based Blue Hill Troupe, an extraordinarily professional, though amateur, Gilbert & Sullivan opera company was founded here. Amazingly, Blue Hill has also nurtured Caribbean-style steel drum bands for decades. It is home to Flash-in-the-Pans, a 35 member community-based steel band dedicated to fund raising and education that has spawned bands in all the local schools, as well as a few professional groups.
Visit the Kneisel Hall Campus (known as the Cradle of Chamber Music Teaching in
America
). The annual, century-old, 7-week Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival takes place in early August. Kneisel Chamber Music School provides summer concerts in wooded setting. On that theme, Bagaduce Lending Library (374-5454) holds one of the largest collections of sheet music in the world.
Visit the charming shops in Blue Hill, and enjoy the antiques collections. Blue Hill Peninsula Arts, Lodging, and Business is a delightful and useful guide to the Blue Hill peninsula. While you're at it, stop at the Leese House with spectacular views out to
Blue
Hill
Bay
or climb
Blue
Hill
Mountain
. Blue Hill is home to some world-class galleries and pottery studios including: Rowantrees (374-5535), Rackliffe's (374-2297) &
Bell
's (374-5882).
Haystack
Mountain
School
of Arts is also here.
The town is also partial to museums. Parson Fisher House (374-2339), home of Renaissance man and inventor Jonathan Fisher (known as the Thomas Jefferson of
Maine
) and Holt House (326-8250) home of Blue Hills Historical Society are both worth a tour.
The popular WoodenBoat magazine, headquartered in Brooklin, Maine, deserves a lot of the credit for the rejuvenation of interest in the building and restoration of wooden boats which developed about 25 years ago, following the publication of the magazine's first issue. The WoodenBoat School, an offspring of the magazine, has also contributed to the rebirth of interest in classic wooden craft. |
Advance reading |
Jonathan Fisher, Maine Parson, 1768-1847- Mary Ellen Chase, Published by Jonathan Fisher Memorial, Inc.;
A Lantern in the Wind - The Life of Mary Ellen Chase - Elienne Squire, Fithian Press, Santa Barbara 1995
A Kid's Book on Boatbuilding, by Will Ansel
Amazing Book of Paper Boats, edited by Gillian Sowell and Colin Dickerman |