A View ‘Almost Too Spectacular’ | House for Sale in Brooklin, Maine
Rising like a lighthouse from a cliff on Maine’s Eggemoggin Reach, High Head in Brooklin, Maine, lives up to its name.

Sitting 50 feet up on the granite shores of Eggemoggin Reach, High Head’s “owner’s house” has windows facing due south, east, and west, yielding views of sunrises and sunsets alike.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of the Bemis FamilyAlan Bemis was a lover of Maine storytelling, so perhaps it’s no surprise that the summer house (or rather, two houses—but we’ll get to that) he built on a coastal cliff in Brooklin, Maine, is like something out of one of his tall tales.

Photo Credit : Courtesy of the Bemis Family
An MIT physicist whose research contributed to the development of radar and heat-seeking bombs during World War II, he was proud of his work, if not always how it was used. On campus he was known for being both brilliant and humorous. Bemis’s achievements let him pursue his passions: yachts, planes, and automobiles, including a 1913 Rolls Royce that once belonged to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s daughter.
Bemis fell in love with Maine in the ’20s, when a Harvard classmate brought him on a cruise. Bemis and his wife, Mary, looked at several properties, including the Brooklin house that is now home to WoodenBoat magazine and its boatbuilding school. “They didn’t buy it because it was too formal,” says John Macone, Bemis’s grandson. “They wanted something casual and fun.”
Instead they opted to build their own summer place just up the road, on a 40-acre property overlooking Eggemoggin Reach, the narrow stretch of water that separates Deer Isle from the mainland. “They told the architect they wanted something whimsical,” Macone says. The resulting design was of such scope and size that most of the workers in town were employed in its construction, and both a forge and a sawmill had to be built on-site.
High Head’s seaside cliffs offer a view that encompasses most of the reach’s 10-mile length, a vista that Bemis once described as “almost too spectacular.” And when choosing a name for his coastal escape, he demonstrated both his Yankee practicality and his droll humor. “On old coastal navigation charts,” Macone explains, “you can usually find a spot marked ‘high head,’ a prominent bluff that serves as a landmark for sailors. I guess he figured why come up with a cute name like Sun-Kissed for your summer cottage when it is already on the map as High Head?”

Photo Credit : Courtesy of the Bemis Family
A collector of Maine lore, Bemis would go to the town barbershop every week to hang around and hear the locals tell stories, which he then sought to preserve on his Droll Yankees record label. He also had an interest in early film cameras, so when High Head was constructed in the mid-1930s, he captured snippets of the process on 16mm; the footage is now preserved online as part of Northeast Historic Film’s Alan Bemis Collection.
High Head actually comprises two buildings, which the original blueprints dubbed “the owners’ house” and “the children’s house,” with the latter looking like something out of a Nordic fairy tale. “The concept was that the parents lived in one house and their five daughters lived in the other with a nanny,” Macone says. “And [the children’s house] had the big kitchen and the big dining room with a fireplace, so my grandparents would go up there and take meals with their kids, then they could just go back to their own place”—a smaller house with a master bedroom, a screened sleeping porch, a dressing room, a guest room, and a 670-square-foot party room.
“It is really bizarre,” Macone adds with a laugh. “I guess it speaks to their parenting style.”

Photo Credit : Courtesy of the Bemis Family
Bemis also had an unusual mode of transport to High Head: a float plane, which he would use to fly up from Massachusetts. “He’d pack up the wife and kids in the car, say ‘See ya later,’ then 10 hours later hop in his plane and beat them there,” Macone says. “When I was young, living in Vermont, he would come get my brother and me and fly us to Brooklin. We’d come in low across the water, headed straight for that castle. Then at the last second, he’d pull straight up. It was always just a fantasy world, this magical place that was so much fun.”

Photo Credit : Courtesy of the Bemis Family
But despite having spent so much time at High Head, Macone didn’t fully realize how unique it was until he took over its caretaking and brought contractors in to look at the property. “These are people that work all over the coast, who are used to the Bar Harbor cottages and all these beautiful places,” he says. “They come here, and they are blown away.”
After Bemis died in 1991, Macone initially dreaded the prospect of selling High Head. “It was sad to think of my kids never really knowing this place that had been my family’s touchstone. Everything else has come and gone, but this place has been a constant. Now we’ve managed to stretch it out another generation, which has been great. My oldest got married here a couple summers ago.”
During the 30 years since Bemis passed, however, the elements have taken a toll—it’s tough for any house to stand up to decades of coastal pounding—and the time has come for someone else to tend to High Head. The estate comes with a healthy to-do list, for sure, but what it really needs is new enthusiasm, Macone says.
“Hopefully, there is someone out there who has a vision, who sees this property and says, ‘What a great place to do x, y, or z,’” he says. “It deserves to become something iconic again.”
Spanning 42.5 acres with 350 feet of waterfront, High Head is listed at $3.8 million. For more information, contact Jill Knowles at the Christopher Real Estate Group, 207-248-2048, or email jillsonknowles@gmail.com.
We have been enjoying High Head for ~30 years (thanks to my sister marrying into the Bemis family). It is truly a spectacular place! If you are at peace with the sea, you will find these views so tranquil. The nature activities are abundant. as well – we find that although there are many attractions for day trips, we often chose to stay put. Many have wondered why we travel ~5 hrs to visit, until they arrive themselves and say “the pictures don’t do it justice”. We truly hope that a new owner will appreciate its history and all the joy it has brought my and many other families. To the new owners, Please enjoy this special place and its serenity. *And if you turn it into an Inn or B&B, please count us in as future guests 🙂 .
So rather than sell it to some rich person who likely won’t give two hoots about it. Why not do something creative with it for the people of Maine? So much property along the coast has been sold to rich people, they have closed it off to Mainers. The access to the ocean is relegated, to boat launches, state parks and beaches. The rich benefit all the way around and the Maine people sold out. Its a shame that they realized too late. Lake front property is the same. No one should be able to close off the coastline. There should have been a buffer put in place.
Thank goodness for the National Seashore on Cape Cod. Mainers should try something like that.
Being the great grandson of Bemis I have grown up visiting High Head. Now I will be spending the next two weeks enjoying my time there with family for the last time. My cousins have talked about making it an AirBNB or put it on the market for a movie location. I just hope it stays open for many people to enjoy.
Hello, I have a book that features this house, it’s beautiful!!! Was it turned into a rental or did it sell? Thanks so much!
I grew up summers on Deer Isle (And later on Eggemoggin Reach) and we used to sail in the Round The Island Race against “Cirrus” among other beautiful boats. It was a privilege to compete against her!
Shld be donated to the people Maine