The History of High Head Maine
The estate was built in 1937 by Alan Bemis, a physicist and professor at MIT. 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. 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.
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.
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.”
Bemis also had an unusual mode of transport to High Head: a float plane, which he would use to fly up from Massachusetts. (You can still see remnants of his storage system: a chain that would pull the plane up the hill to a hangar.)
Bemis died in 1991
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.
The property was sold in 2024 and the new owners launched a project of careful preservation and modernization of the property. With their care and attention to detail, High Head retains its magical charm while also offering modern comforts and conveniences.
High Head has been meticulously brought back to life by the finest craftspeople Maine has to offer — in the storied heart of wooden boatbuilding country. Careful maritime craftsmanship permeates every corner of the property.
