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Kebo Valley

Night and day! Light the fireplace in the corner opposite the four-poster bed for a romantic evening, and in the morning greet the day from the bright sun-filled porch. Light reflects from the blue porch ceiling, and lace-draped French doors connect the two rooms.

dot First floor
dot Queen bed/sofa
dot Tub/shower
dot Large flat panel TV
dot DVD player
dot Fireplace
dot Private sunroom

Kebo Valley

Boston real estate developer Charles T. How purchased a vast amount of land in Bar Harbor in the 1870s, including most of the land stretching from Duck Brook to the eastern side of the Kebo Valley Club golf course.

How and some of his real estate colleagues had planned a housing development along Eagle Lake Road that was to be called Acadia Park. For reasons unknown to us, they changed their minds and did not develop Acadia Park into individual lots. In 1888, How and fellow developer DeGrasse Fox incorporated the Kebo Valley Club, located on the land of Acadia Park. The incorporation papers of the Kebo Valley Club state that its purpose was “...the promotion and culture of athletic sport and furnishing innocent amusements for the public for reasonable compensation...”.

It seems that How and Fox, as competing developers, foresaw a need for a club for the wealthy summer visitors to patronize. Initially the Kebo Valley Club offered outdoor lawn activities and a clubhouse for dinner. In 1892, Waldron Bates, Mr. How’s nephew, laid out the first nine holes of a golf course, making the Kebo Valley Club one of the first 10 golf courses in the United States.

The Kebo Valley Club was the site of magnificent dinner parties and lavish balls throughout the summer months. Past Cleftstone owners Frank and Laura Ellis hosted a dinner for President Taft at the Kebo Valley Club upon his 1910 visit to Bar Harbor.

Like many buildings of its era, the Kebo Valley Clubhouse was a victim of fire. It burned down in 1899 and was rebuilt the following year, only to burn down again in the 1947 fire.

The Kebo Valley room is the former men’s lounge, where tuxedo-clad gentlemen retired for cigars following the formal dinners in the dining room.