Kent Homes Nova Scotia

The House that Rockefeller Built: The Origins of the Bowdoin Scientific Station

Every September, as the new school year is just getting underway, Bowdoin's faculty and academic staff gather at a reception hosted by President Mills. This is one of Bowdoin's great traditions and is a nice way to kick off the new academic year. It is an opportunity for colleagues to get reacquainted and to meet new members of the faculty who are just joining the Bowdoin family. Since members of the Bowdoin faculty often pursue their scholarly work all over the globe, most conversations at this reception start off with: "So, where did your work take you this summer?"

Once in a while, I respond to such inquiries by boasting that I had spent my summer living in and working out of one of the famous Rockefeller homes. Then I'll pause for a moment to allow my companion to conjure up images of the mansions of Newport or the great summer "cottages" of Bar Harbor. I may even encourage this misconception by saying that the home is on a privately owned island with breathtaking views of the sea — all of which is true. Then my conversation partner will ask clarifying questions, such as, "Is it a really big house?" and "Is it an elegant home?" It is pretty big, by local standards. At 832 square feet, it's the second-largest building on the island and the only one with a cellar.

It's also pretty fancy by local standards: it has a wood stove for heat (which gets a lot of use, even in July) and has electricity provided by solar panels on the roof (not a lot of electricity, but enough to power a couple of lights and a laptop computer). But there is no indoor plumbing, no kitchen facilities, and no TV. The first floor has a small bedroom, an office dominated by weather instruments and a living room. The second floor has another bedroom and a storage room.

By this point in the conversation, the other person is thoroughly perplexed so I come clean by telling them that this particular house, which was built by J. Sterling Rockefeller in 1931, is part of the Bowdoin Scientific Station (BSS), the College's biological field research station. BSS is located on a group of islands in New Brunswick, Canada, called Three Islands. Three Islands is located roughly halfway between the coasts of Maine and Nova Scotia, in the outer Bay of Fundy. Bowdoin owns all of Three Islands. Kent Island is the largest of the three and was the first one to be acquired by the College.

The House that Rockefeller Built: The Origins of the Bowdoin Scie ...

Every September, as the new school year is just getting underway, Bowdoin's faculty and academic staff gather at a reception hosted by President Mills. This is one of Bowdoin's great traditions and is a nice way to kick off the new academic year. It is an opportunity for colleagues to get reacquainted and to meet new members of the faculty who are just joining the Bowdoin family. Since members of the Bowdoin faculty often pursue their scholarly work all over the globe, most conversations at this reception start off with: "So, where did your work take you this summer?"

Once in a while, I respond to such inquiries by boasting that I had spent my summer living in and working out of one of the famous Rockefeller homes. Then I'll pause for a moment to allow my companion to conjure up images of the mansions of Newport or the great summer "cottages" of Bar Harbor. I may even encourage this misconception by saying that the home is on a privately owned island with breathtaking views of the sea — all of which is true. Then my conversation partner will ask clarifying questions, such as, "Is it a really big house?" and "Is it an elegant home?" It is pretty big, by local standards. At 832 square feet, it's the second-largest building on the island and the only one with a cellar.

It's also pretty fancy by local standards: it has a wood stove for heat (which gets a lot of use, even in July) and has electricity provided by solar panels on the roof (not a lot of electricity, but enough to power a couple of lights and a laptop computer). But there is no indoor plumbing, no kitchen facilities, and no TV. The first floor has a small bedroom, an office dominated by weather instruments and a living room. The second floor has another bedroom and a storage room.

By this point in the conversation, the other person is thoroughly perplexed so I come clean by telling them that this particular house, which was built by J. Sterling Rockefeller in 1931, is part of the Bowdoin Scientific Station (BSS), the College's biological field research station. BSS is located on a group of islands in New Brunswick, Canada, called Three Islands. Three Islands is located roughly halfway between the coasts of Maine and Nova Scotia, in the outer Bay of Fundy. Bowdoin owns all of Three Islands. Kent Island is the largest of the three and was the first one to be acquired by the College.

Real property reports

Nova Scotia

The dictionary of English history

The Canadian abridgment, a digest of reported decisions of the Supreme and Exchequer Courts of Canada, and of all the courts of the Common Law provinces, including appeals to the Privy Council and also decisions from the courts of Quebec of universal application

Frommer's Nova Scotia, New Brunswick & Prince Edward Island