Capstone as it looked on 4 September 2007

La Rochelle, 127 West Street, Bar Harbor, was designed by Andrews, Jaques & Rantoul of Boston and built in 1902 for George Sullivan Bowdoin. The carpenter and painter was A. E. Lawrence; the mason, George Wescott; and the superintendent of construction, Edward B. Mears. A local newspaper reported: “The most beautiful and elaborate of the cottages that were begun this spring [1902] is that now being built by Mr. George S. Bowdoin of New York on West street, just east of Eden street. The cottage is being built of brick, and is only the second cottage of that material to be erected in this vicinity. It will probably be given the conventional name of cottage, but in reality it comes near being a mansion. The approximate cost of the building is $100,000, but before it is completed the cost will probably far exceed that.” (Bar Harbor Record, 16 July 1902, p. 1, col. 3)

George Sullivan Bowdoin was a great-grandson of Alexander Hamilton, the first U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, and was a partner with J. P. Morgan & Co. until his reirement in 1899. He married Julia Irving Grinnell, a great-niece of Washington Irving, and they had three children: Fanny Hamilton Bowdoin, Edith Grinnell Bowdoin, and Temple Bowdoin.

Bowdoin owned La Rochelle until his death on 16 December 1913, after which the property passed in 1914 to joint ownership by his widow and his surviving daughter, Edith G. Bowdoin (510:12–16).

Owners of La Rochelle:
   1902: built for George Sullivan Bowdoin
   1914 August 4 (probate court session): inherited by Julia Grinnell Bowdoin and Edith Grinnell Bowdoin (510:12–16)
   1943 November 22: purchased by Helen N. Cough (694:552–55)
   1944 October 21: purchased by Ethel D. Colket (698:483–484)
   1966 September 7: purchased by Ruth L. Sleeper (1024:462–468)
   1966 September 12: purchased by Tristram C. Colket Jr. and Charlotte D. Colket (1021:355–359)
   1967 September 11: purchased by Tristram C. Colket Jr. (1058:535–539)
   1972 December 14: purchased by The Maine Coast Missionary Society (1158:496–499)
   2019 April 2: purchased by Bar Harbor Historical Society, Inc., the current owner (6943:712–714)

Activity at La Rochelle:
   1916: “Miss Edith G. Bowdoin’s domestics are getting La Rochelle ready for the coming of its owner.” (The Bar Harbor Times May 27; p. 5., col. 3)