Sabino Voices

Photo courtesy of Marylyn McKinnon Tomajan

As is true of much of Sabino, this parcel of land was once part of the Charles F. Bates farm. In the summer of 1897, Bates sold it to Charles M. Snow, a postal worker in Bath. He retained a 200’ right of way on the east side of the property from the “town road” to the water, probably so he could harvest rockweed from the shore. Snow built a summer camp for his family sometime before February 1911.

In 1916, a year after Snow died, his widow and children sold the camp to Everett G. Lemont also of Bath, who expanded it to a large summer cottage. Although Everett and his wife, Pearl, had no children, their numerous nieces and nephews and their families enjoyed the cottage for more than forty years. Everett’s aunt, Emma Lemont, and her husband, the Revered John H. Cox, a Baptist minister from Massachusetts, who owned the Oakledge summer hotel in East Harpswell, often traveled by steamer to Sabino to visit the Lemont’s.

Cox descendants were frequent visitors to the Lemont cottage and in 1959 their granddaughter Mary and her husband Malcolm MacKinnon of Norwood, Massachusetts, purchased the cottage from Everett Lemont’s widow. 

Sixteen years later, Marylyn MacKinnon bought the cottage from her parents and continued to spend summers in Sabino with her extended family. In 2005 Marylyn, now Tomajan, made the difficult decision to demolish the beloved cottage and build a year-round home on its footprint. Construction on the present-day house, built very much in the style of the old one, was completed in 2006.

The property which is known to us as Seal Cove was part of the Samuel Flanders estate until 1884 when it was purchased by Samuel F. Bates. Augusta Melville Mayhew Hyde Duncan (1839-1925) bought the lot on what was then called Diamond Cove (now known as the Town Landing) from Samuel Bates in 1893.

Augusta was a widow with one son when she married Horatio Duncan, a widower with three children, in 1878. Their child, Georgia, was born in 1881. In 1898, Augusta and Horatio, who lived in Bath, built the Shingle Style Victorian summer cottage and called it Fair Oaks. It became a landmark in the Sabino neighborhood.

In August 1902, Horatio and others organized the "New Meadows Carnival" for the summer people. An evening boat procession began near Fair Oaks, went round the bay in front of Sabino to Gurnet in Harpswell and back to Fair Oaks, a voyage of 1.5 miles. Local pilot and year-round resident Alpheus "Mel" Holbrook led the way, followed by 10 steam launches towing dozens of smaller craft decorated with Japanese lanterns. West Bath Mayor Edward Hyde's launch carried a 10-piece band. Augusta and her daughters, Grace and Georgia, welcomed the voyagers back with a reception at Fair Oaks. The evening ended after midnight with fireworks, including "sky rockets and roman candles" sent up from Bragdon's Ledge.

The Duncans and their extended family vacationed at Fair Oaks every summer with sailing, canoeing, and picnicking. In her elder years, Grace often recalled the many adventures she and her siblings enjoyed there.

Georgia Duncan married Frank Seavey at Fair Oaks in August 1911 in a classic Victorian ceremony. She wore an embroidered baptiste gown and carried a bouquet of white sweet peas. Pink sweet peas filled the living room, dining room and the room where wedding gifts were displayed. In 1925, Georgia inherited Fair Oaks from her mother. She sold it to her half-brother Arthur Bailey Duncan, who sold it out of the family in 1927.

Short-term owners followed until 1950 when Emma and Joe Liebes bought the property. They had fled Frankfurt, Germany, with their daughter Margo soon after the Nazi-led Kristallnacht attacks in November 1938. Safe in New York City, Joe started a furniture company. Joe and Emma renamed the cottage Seal Cove and vacationed there many summers.

After their deaths, Margo Liebes Harris Hammerschlag (1923-1998) inherited the cottage and used the barn as her summer sculpture studio. One of her works, "Girl with Pet," was displayed in the garden and later donated to the Children's Room of the Patten Free Library in Bath. Her close friend, Lotte Lenya, cabaret singer and widow of leading stage composer Kurt Weill, visited Margo at Seal Cover several times.

Current owners, Brad and Christine Smith purchased the property from Margo in July 1986

Photos below, left to right: Fair Oaks; Fair Oaks from the water; Girl with Pet, and the New Meadows River from the Town Landing.

[House and property information included by permission of current owners.]