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A 39-year-old mansion that is the centerpiece of a new high-end residential development overlooking downtown Bar Harbor is on the market for $8 million.
The two-story, 7,600-square-foot home at 76 Hamilton Hill Way sits on the former estate of Thirlstane, a prior mansion that was named after a castle in Scotland and then burned down in Mount Desert Island’s Great Fire of 1947. Ruins of the old mansion can still be seen on the east side of the 6-acre property.
The existing mansion, built by former owner Robert Juliano, sits in the middle of several subdivided lots that have commanding views of downtown Bar Harbor and Frenchman Bay to the east, and of the mountains of Acadia National Park to the south. Juliano, who owned and operated a salvage business in New Jersey, included an unusual collection of items in the mansion when he had it built, according to a 2018 story in the Mount Desert Islander.
“Four fireplaces, a marble staircase, large wooden beams and exotic stone work are a few of the treasures here,” reads a description of the online property listing by The Swan Agency, which calls the mansion “compelling and eccentric.”
Shown in photographs of the mansion’s interior that are posted with the online listing are a large black elephant statue at the bottom of the marble staircase, wooden parquet floors, several large marble fireplaces and columns, and a large chandelier in the mansion’s ballroom. The mansion was used as the venue for the 2023 Designer Showhouse featured by Decor Maine magazine.
For more than 30 years, the mansion stood alone at the top of Hamilton Hill, drawing attention both for its visibility from downtown Bar Harbor and for what the magazine called its “mismatched opulence” with its more rustic surroundings.
“The mansion is an extremely conspicuous landmark on Bar Harbor’s landscape,” Kim Swan of The Swan Agency told Decor Maine. “This is a quirky house. I’ve called it a carnival of eccentricities in the past.”
The mansion has six bedrooms and four bathrooms. Commercial use of the property, as a vacation rental or by other means, is not permitted in the private neighborhood, but there is enough space on the property for a second home to be built, according to the listing.
The developers of Hamilton Hill, Chris Swan and Scott Henngeler, purchased the former Thirlstane estate, which then consisted of 35 acres, from Juliano in 2018 for $3.55 million, according to the town’s property tax records. They subdivided the land into 16 lots, built a private road and extended utilities to all of the properties. A private LLC called Ross & Ross bought the mansion and surrounding six acres in 2021 for $2.9 million.
The town’s current, cumulative assessed value for the mansion and lot is $3.1 million.
