A row of historic summer cottages on Little Diamond Island, Maine.
My husband Michael and I are members of a wonderful nonprofit called Oceanside Conservation Trust of Casco Bay (OCT). OCT’s mission is to facilitate the preservation of open space on the islands of Casco Bay off Portland, Maine. It has been incredibly successful with many acres of land preserved on most of the bigger islands in the bay.
A major benefit of membership, which only costs $20 a year, is the annual tour of one of these islands followed by a lovely reception. This year the OCT outing was to Little Diamond Island.
Nursery News: Carolyn’s Shade Gardens is a retail nursery located in Bryn Mawr, PA, specializing in showy, colorful, and unusual plants for shade. The only plants that we ship are snowdrops and miniature hostas. For catalogues and announcements of events, please send your full name, location, and phone number (for back up use only) to carolyn@carolynsshadegardens.com. Click here to get to the home page of our website for catalogues and information about our nursery and to subscribe to our blog.
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The Casco Bay Lines ferry docking at the Little Diamond Island wharf.
Little Diamond is a short ride from the Casco Bay Lines terminal in Portland, Maine. It is the first stop on the ferry route, which continues on to Great Diamond, Long, Chebeague, and Cliff Islands. Unlike the other islands, Little Diamond is a summer community only and has no year round residents.
Most of the houses on the island were built from the 1880s to the early 1900s and are typical Maine cottage style architecture. The houses and the “casino”, a social gathering spot at the top of the ferry wharf, have been well-preserved. Little Diamond is a small island, and we walked around the whole island and toured four of the lovely historic homes in an afternoon. I want to share with you some of the photos of this lovely place, which seems lost in time:
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View of a Little Diamond beach from the ferry wharf
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Little Diamond casino at the top of the wharf
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Looking from the porch of the casino across Portland Harbor towards the city skyline shows how close Little Diamond is to Portland. Fort Gorges, built in the harbor during the Civil War, is in the foreground.
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A typically well-preserved summer cottage on Little Diamond.
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Rich architectural details and unique decorative features like this row of colorful garden rakes make these houses even more interesting.
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The Eastern Prom of Portland is in the background.
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fabulous color combination
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It was fun to see the interior of the homes.
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The last house we toured had striking antique stained glass windows.
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If you live or vacation in the Portland area, I hope you will consider joining Oceanside Conservation Trust and attending next year’s special island tour. For information on joining OCT, click here.
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I hope to feature mid-September scenes from Nantucket Island, Massachusetts, in my next post.
Carolyn
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Nursery Happenings: You can sign up to receive catalogues and emails about nursery events by sending your full name, location, and phone number to carolyn@carolynsshadegardens.com. Subscribing to my blog does not sign you up to receive this information. Please indicate if you will be shopping at the nursery or are mail order only.
Carolyn’s Shade Gardens is a local retail nursery in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, U.S., zone 6b/7a. The only plants that we mail order are snowdrops and miniature hostas and only within the US.
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CAROLYN'S SHADE GARDENS 