I'm continuing on here, adding posts about some previous trips, and this one highlights the far north coast of Maine and the Canadian province of New Brunswick, where we visited in July. The motive for the trip was to go to Campobello Island, where the Roosevelt family summered and then owned a compound for a number of years between the late 1800s and the early 1940s (the official name is the Roosevelt Campobello International Park as it's jointly administered, staffed, and funded by Canada and the U.S.). We'd been interested in Campobello for a long time, and it most definitely is worth the effort to get there. The island itself is in New Brunswick, and from Lubec, Maine visitors cross the Roosevelt International Bridge (and pass through Canadian customs) to reach it. (Note that New Brunswick is on Atlantic time, one hour ahead of Maine.)
The staff at the visitor's center is very helpful, especially with planning your visit around the tour times for Roosevelt Cottage (which may only visited on a guided tour) and Eleanor's Tea (not to be missed; the lecturers are excellent, as is the New Brunswick-made King Cole tea, Eleanor's favorite, of course). Roosevelt Cottage, with its distinctive red shingles, was the main family house. After Franklin's polio diagnosis, he was unable to come to Campobello for almost 12 years, and then only for three visits: 1933, 1936, and 1939. The house fell into a state of disrepair after family members stopped coming, and in 1952 it was sold to the Hammer brothers, Armand, Harry, and Victor. One of the remarkable things about the house is that the Hammer brothers barely changed anything, so the furnishings and small details are mostly as they were during the Roosevelts' time. In 1964, Campobello opened as a park, and there are nice walking trails, viewpoints, biking paths, etc., and the grounds around Roosevelt Cottage are really pretty.
Lubec is the easternmost town in the U.S. and was founded in 1785. The town itself is quite small (in 2020, the population was 1,237) and there is not a long list of things to see and do, but it's in a pretty geographic location and staying in or near it is sensible for visiting Campobello. We stayed at the Whiting Bay Bed and Breakfast, a really comfortable and quiet b&b less than 15 minutes from Lubec. There is just one large guest room and the bathroom is across the hall but the set-up is still quite private. The real treasure is host Brenda, who is a one-stop information source for everything in the area, and she's a painter (her canvases are displayed throughout the open living-dining area), and she is an all-around fantastic human (and the breakfasts she makes are filling and top notch). We had great conversations with Brenda, who told us that this area of Maine has been identified as a food desert; however, we ate at the few good places: Water Street Tavern, Fisherman's Wharf Restaurant and Seafood, The Public House at West Branch Farms, The Pier Waterfront, Helen's Restaurant, and we stopped in for beers and live music at the Lubec Brewing Company ("Real Beer for Real People Living Real Life"). This part of the state is referred to as 'DownEast,' defined as the eastern coastal region that covers Washington County and Hancock County, beginning in Ellsworth and stretching all the way to the Maritime Provinces. The word 'DownEast' is traced to nautical terminology referring to direction, not location. In the warmer months suitable for sailing, the prevailing winds along the coast of New England and Canada blow from the southwest, meaning ships sail downwind to go east. Congress designated the Downeast Maine National Heritage Area only in 2023, and this part of the state is, even in the middle of summer, much less crowded than Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park and other points further south. But if you're looking for the charm of Bar Harbor, Camden, or Portland, you won't find it here. What you will find is a quieter pace of life, and you won't have any trouble finding a place on any beach to put down a blanket. We drove all around the area (Lubec is at the tip of an 11-mile-long peninsula) and especially enjoyed hiking in Quoddy Head State Park, with 541 acres and a historic lighthouse. A good article to read about Lubec is 'A Town in Between' from Down East magazine (in it, the writer notes that for a few weeks every year, West Quoddy Head Light is the first place in the U.S. to see the sunrise). Also, the reference to PFAs (People From Away) is interesting but it isn't unique to Lubec or the surrounding area: years ago we were guests at a Fourth of July party in South Portland (our good friend Susan had invited us to her parents' annual gathering). We were talking to some neighbors about the congressional candidates in the upcoming election, and when comparing them, it was pointed out that one of them was "from away" - he had spent the first six months of his life in New Bedford, Massachusetts. He was therefore not likely to win. Some concepts die hard!
From Lubec, it's about an hour and forty-five minutes to drive to St. Andrews, New Brunswick, a very nice, pleasant, and lively town. We stayed at one of the very best places ever, The New Brunswick B&B. The two proprietors are exceptional hosts and have created a really appealing inn with charm and thoughtful touches. There are only three rooms (two upstairs and one on the main floor) and each is stylish and distinctive. The hot breakfast is substantial and delicious, and the inn's location is within walking distance of the St. Andrews downtown but just far enough away that it's perfectly quiet at night.
We had a great meal at Niger Reef, near the St. Andrews Blockhouse National Historic Site. The service was friendly and welcoming, the menu had lots of good choices, and we sat outside on the deck overlooking Passamaquoddy Bay. We also enjoyed meals or drinks at The Gables, St. Andrews Brewing Company, and Salty C's. We wanted to try William & Water but it was fully booked or closed during the days we were in town. Next time!
One of the distinctive features about St. Andrews (and the Lubec area) is the tides. The Bay of Fundy has the highest tides in the world, and there are approximately two high tides and two low tides in every 24 hour period in the Bay of Fundy. The time between a high tide and low tide is on average 6 hours and 13 minutes, so visitors to the Fundy coast can expect to see at least one high tide and one low tide during daylight hours. That description is from this Bay of Fundy site, which also has lots of other fascinating tide trivia.
We were surprised to learn about Saint Croix Island, an international historic site that commemorates the 1604 settlement on the Saint Croix River, which forms part of the border between the U.S. and Canada. Seventy-nine people led by Sieur de Mons and cartographer Samuel Champlain built a settlement in the summer; but in the winter, 35 people died of scurvy, making the mission a disaster. However, it marked the beginning of a continuous French presence in North America. The island is inaccessible to visitors but there are panoramic views and a trail with interpretive panels overlooking the island from the self-guided trail in Bayside, New Brunswick (10 minutes north of St. Andrews).
The two noteworthy sites to see in St. Andrews are outside of the town's center: the Kingsbrae Garden and the Oppenheimer-Prager Museum. Kingsbrae has been named 'Canadian Garden of the Year' and was included in the 'Top Five North American Gardens Worth Traveling For,' and its 27 acres of pathways and plants are a combination of formal gardens and creative modern design, as the photos below indicate...
The Oppenheimer-Prager Museum is in a former private home - Dayspring - which was the largest home in St. Andrew. Dayspring was built in 1928 for Washington, D.C. industrialist Lewis Edgerton Smoot (1876-1962), whose brother was an American Senator who co-authored the Smoot-Hawley Act. The home was later owned by Sir James Dunn and his third wife, Marcia Anastasia Christoforides. After Dunn died, Christoforides married Lord Beaverbrook, who passed away in 1964. She continued to live there until 1990 when she got into a dispute with the famous nearby Algonquin Hotel over its proposed annex, stopping all funding to the Town of St. Andrews, and she returned to England and died in 1994.
Joseph Oppenheimer (I don't believe there is any relation to Manhattan Project scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer) was born in Germany in 1876 and "his life was art." He was an impressionist painter and co-founded the Berlin Secession movement, and among the many personalities he painted were Albert Einstein, Sir Harold MacMillan, Count Otto Von Bismarck, President Kruger of South Africa, and Deborah Kerr. Eva Prager, the daughter of Oppenheimer and his wife Fanny, was also a painter, and she died in her studio shortly before her 98th birthday in 2010. Eva and her husband Richard Prager had one son, Vincent, a lawyer from Montreal, who bought Dayspring in 1995. Vincent is also the eldest grandson of Joseph Oppenheimer and he lived at Dayspring until 2011, when he donated it to The Joseph and Fanny Oppenheimer Foundation so that a museum could be opened.
The Museum is stuffed to the gills with works by Oppenheimer and Prager, and while I wasn't fond of some of them, there were others that I absolutely loved. A few that I copied-and-pasted from the Museum's website are just below:
The story of the Oppenheimer family's lives are fascinating and too detailed to share here; it's worthwhile to read all the information on the very good website. Taken in full the museum is incredible, and one wonders what will happen to it in future years. We were fortunate that Vincent was in town when we were, as he gave us a good introduction to the house, its history, and the artwork and other collections (afterwards we walked around on our own). It isn't often that a family member is around to offer such a personal commentary at a house-museum. Guests at the The New Brunswick B&B should let the proprietors know if they're interested in visiting the museum as they are friends with Vincent and can arrange a private visit (assuming Vincent is in St. Andrews).
Nearby Ministers Island is a worthy adventure but you have to plan your visit around low tide. The tide schedule is posted daily and typically there is a window of about five or six hours to get to the island and back. Covenhoven (the main house) and the three-story barn are both interesting, and there is a network of scenic trails around the island; there are lovely views from just about every spot.
Tourist info site for St. Andrews-by-the-Sea (and yes, St. Andrews is open during the winter!)
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