Sunday Afternoon, September 2

After arriving, we walked to the welcome center – a small building to the right of the house – for orientation.

Here we learned about the life of Admiral Robert E. Peary and his family.

Rear Admiral Robert Edwin Peary Sr. (May 6, 1856 – February 20, 1920) was an American explorer and United States Navy officer who made several expeditions to the Artic in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He is best known for claiming to have reached the geographic North Pole with his expedition on April 6, 1909.

After orientation we each received hand-held devices where we could get a self tour of the property.

Before going inside, we walked over to the osprey nest where the parents were quite noisy as there were young ones in the nest.

Someone mentioned that Mark looked like Mr. Peary, so we took a picture of Mark next to the cardboard figure of the admiral. 🙂 Robert was born in Pennsylvania, but following his father’s death, he and his mother moved to Maine where he graduated from Bowdoin College. With some of his first earnings he bought Eagle Island for $200.00.

The house – a beautiful summer home for the Pearys – was built in 1904. By this time he and his wife, Josephine had two children. A daughter, Marie, and an infant son, Robert E. Peary, Jr.

I especially enjoyed the upstairs bedrooms.

This was obviously a child’s room.

I could enjoy sitting next to this window and watching the bay.

Hannah listening to the story of the living room and the three-sided fireplace.

The third side of the fireplace is on the back next to where Hannah is standing.

The mantel is mahogany with a variety of stuffed island birds displayed on it.

The steps next to Admiral Peary’s office.

This polar bear – from one of his many treks to Alaska and Greenland – had hung behind his desk, but it became fragile due to age, so it is now displayed next to the desk.

This seventeen-acre island is filled with beautiful flowers, trees, and bushes.

I will show you more of that tomorrow night.