Mount Desert Festival of Chamber

The Mt. Desert Festival of Chamber Music was started in 1963 at a time when Mt. Desert Island was culturally dormant. Not since the pre-World War I days, when Bar Harbor was vying with Newport, RI as the summer social center for the upper classes, had there been public concerts. In Northeast Harbor, the Neighborhood House, built in 1905 and which has been the home of the Mt. Desert Festival since its inception, had been the focal point of the town's social life and still bore witness to its vibrant past (Paderewski and Fritz Kreisler were among notables who were heard in the hall). Balls, concerts, clubs, and theatrical productions had flourished there. By 1963, however, the Neighborhood House was an all but forgotten dowager, a relic of a golden age.