Hero’s Legacy

Old soldiers never die; it's up to us to keep their dreams from fading away.

BY COLIN W. SARGENT

$4.75M

Toast To A Ghost

The best house for a séance in Bar Harbor may well be “Aloha,” commissioned in 1887 by Mrs. Abigail Austin Stevens in honor of her very recently deceased husband, Major General Robert Brown Potter (1829-1887)

of the Union Army

You know the song. “Aloha” means “good morning,” but it also means “good night.” It might as well have been called “Lani” (“heaven”).

Potter was no paper soldier. When the Civil War began he was a New York attorney, but he led his men through nightmare campaigns including Antietam, Fredericksburg, the Battles of the Wilderness and Spotsylvania, Vicksburg, and the Petersburg. By the end he was leading the 2nd Division, IX Corps, in the Siege of Vicksburg and the Siege of Petersburg. During an attack on the Confederate Works in the Battle of Fort Stedman he was so severely wounded that he never really recovered, though he pulled in a brilliant fortune during a three-year post-war stint as receiver of the Atlantic and Great Western Railroad. For a while he lived in England before returning to the U.S. ough he died in Newport, Rhode Island, and never got to live in the nished project, the sweet breezes of Bar Harbor must have seemed like a dream to him. e entertaining spaces in this Landvest listing are salute-worthy, and the incredible porches dazzle with water views. Westbridge, as it’s now called, is set on 1.48 acres with Bar Island and Frenchman Bay looking in through the windows. If you’re craving a place with nine bedrooms and a formal library that resonates across centuries, you’ve found it here, just “a block from the vibrant village of Bar Harbor, with its many engaging shops and restaurants.” A showstopper: is there even a box on a disclosure sheet for “real fruit orchard”? n

His widow tapped Robert’s kid brother, the noted architect William Appleton Potter (who designed half of Princeton University), to create this capacious summer mansion right on the water in downtown Bar Harbor, in one of the most bikeable parts of town. When your address is 1 Bridge Street, you’re not close to everything— everything is close to you.

$4.75M, 8,260 square feet. Taxes are $19,076.