North Haven, Maine

North Haven is a venerable upper class enclave, summer colony and island located in in Penobscot Bay, Maine. The island is part of Knox County and lies roughly 12 miles offshore. As of the 2000 census, the town had a total population of 381; during the summer months, the population swells into the thousands with visitors and second-home owners. Though the island is a popular destination, it provides few tourist amenities -- one inn, two grocery stores, and two gift shops -- and is instead geared toward those who have vacation homes on the island. The island is accessed by three-times daily ferry service from Rockland, Maine, provided by the Maine State Ferry Service. North Haven is unique among Maine island communities for offering a K-12 school (Maine's smallest), whereas most islands only have elementary schools and tuition their high school students to high schools on the mainland.

Summer Colony

North Haven is best known for its sizable summer community of prominent Northeasterners, mostly from Boston, New York, and Philadelphia, who have been coming to the island for nearly a century for its simple way of life. The adjacent, south side of the Fox Island Thoroughfare, which separates North Haven from Vinalhaven is often informally considered part of North Haven, since Vinalhaven's north shore is nearly a dozen miles from that community's town center.

Related Topics:
Boston - New York - Philadelphia - Vinalhaven

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Notable Inhabitants:

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• Frank Weston Benson, American Impressionist artist
• Elizabeth Bishop, American poet
• Jonathan Bush, brother of president George H.W. Bush and father of Billy Bush
• Pierre S. du Pont IV, former governor of Delaware and 1988 Republican candidate for president
• Henry N. Cobb, architect; Pei Cobb Freed & Partners
• Gardner Cox, American portraitist
• J. Christopher Flowers, principal, JC Flowers & Co., and largest shareholder of Shinsei Bank
• Bruce Gelb, former president of Clairol, former vice chairman of Bristol Myers Squibb and former U.S. Ambassador to Belgium
• Eric Hopkins, Noted artist
• Thomas Lamont, partner of J.P. Morgan
• John D. Macomber, former head of the Export-Import Bank of the United States
• Robert Montgomery, actor
• Dwight Morrow, U.S. Ambassador to Mexico and father-in-law of Charles Lindbergh
• Chellie Pingree, President and CEO of Common Cause is a full-time resident.
• Hannah Pingree, Representative of Maine's 36th district was born and raised in North Haven.
• Nicholas Platt, U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan, the Philippines, and Zambia
• Oliver Platt, actor
• The descendants of Charles Pratt, founder of Pratt Institute and principal of Charles Pratt and Company, a forerunner to Standard Oil
• Thomas J. Watson, Jr., CEO of IBM and son of its founder, Thomas J. Watson