Landscape Information
Believed to be one of the oldest homes on Mount Desert Island, Little Orchard’s farmhouse occupies a high site at the crest of a hill overlooking a meadow, a tidal cove, and the open ocean. In the early 1900s the farmhouse was used as a summer tearoom, with guests served in a walled garden between the farmhouse and road. The garden’s three walls, made of cut stones with a cap of rough stone, were low enough to allow views of the cove. In the 1930s Baltimore banker and civic activist David Luke Hopkins purchased the property and increased the height of its garden wall to create a secluded front yard. Inside the walled garden today are several mature apple trees and a lawn panel bordered by flowerbeds. Mature apple trees also remain on a west-facing side yard, enclosed by a simple, rough-hewn wooden fence. The trees, lichen-covered walled garden, and carved wooden gate are the property’s most prominent historic features, along with the narrow, winding roads of the surrounding neighborhood and views of the cove.
