The Great Cranberry Island Historical Society

The Great Cranberry Island Historical Society (GCIHS) collects, preserves and studies the history and genealogy of Great Cranberry and its neighboring islands, and presents diverse cultural and educational programs.  The GCIHS promotes a strong sense of community through its museum, archives, cafe, and lively arts center in the Cranberry House.   The grounds also include a public trail to the shore, three gardens, and Sammy Sanford’s Cabin. Every day during the summer, a free shuttle carries visitors from the town dock down the length of the island and back.

https://gcihs.org

The History Trust

The Great Cranberry Island Historical Society is proud to be a member of the History Trust, a consortium of institutions that have joined together to steward historical archives of the Mount Desert Island region.  The History Trust is a regional alliance of independent groups that supports  collections management and engages the public with our shared histories.  The History Trust online archives is made up of individual members' collections. 

Learn more about where our history is housed here.

Learn more about The History Trust here.

History of the Cranberry House

In August, 1993, Great Cranberry Island summer resident Susan Ward hosted a gathering of interested islanders to discuss the formation of a historical society for the Island. Concerned about preserving the stories of Great Cranberry Island, those present agreed this would be a welcome addition. For its first seven years the historical society had no home and focused on collecting photographs, conducting oral histories, and publishing occasional papers, such as interview transcripts and cemetery inscriptions.

When the Longfellow School closed due to lack of students in 2000, historical society members saw an opportunity in the former classrooms. Following renovations, exhibition spaces opened in August of 2000. With room for exhibits and storage, the historical society began to acquire artifacts and archival materials relating to the history of Great Cranberry, and its relationship to the surrounding islands.

Built in 1904 by Alonzo Bryant and later enlarged to include space for the Great Cranberry Island Library, the Longfellow School (shown at right) was a fitting headquarters for Great Cranberry Island Historical Society.
Aware that the Longfellow School would eventually be reopened as a school, the historical society decided that a more permanent solution was necessary. In 2004 board member Bruce Komusin donated two acres of land to the historical society, and plans were developed for a new museum.

Rather than build from scratch, the historical society identified an existing large two-story building (shown at right in the photo) that was then used for storage, but had an interesting history. Annie Spurling operated it as the Mountain View Inn by during the early 1900s. Guests were served in a restaurant upstairs, where they enjoyed views toward the ocean, while the food was cooked on the ground floor and sent up in a dumbwaiter. The Spurlings also lived in the building during the summer months, when their own island house was rented to summer guests.
After the Mountain View Inn closed, Wesley Bracy, Sr. used the building as a workshop, repairing and painting lobster buoys, and for storage. Realizing it had potential, the historical society began to raise funds to buy the building and move it to their property near the church and Ladies Aid Building.

In November 2004 the Mountain View Inn was moved onto a new foundation and, following extensive renovations, opened as the Cranberry House and Preble-Marr Historical Museum on June 15, 2008. The ground floor of the building is a museum exhibitions and a café, with seating on a new deck. Upstairs was retrofitted for use as an arts center, and for public events, lectures, and movies. An extension, completed in 2021, added more exhibit space, needed work space, and climate-controlled archival storage.