Few places in Maine are more memorable—or more often photographed—than the jutting granite cliffs, tall pine forests, and sea-worn boulders of Acadia National Park. Otter Creek, located outside the bustle of downtown Bar Harbor and abutting the park, is a tiny community where land is precious and lots are hard-won. So when builder Nate True got wind of a client seeking to build there on Mount Desert Island (MDI), his first thought was, “I wonder if it’s that land. The land everyone knows about.” Of course it was.

The lot in question was, as True puts it, “a tricky one.” He explained, “The seller had rules and regulations, and in the past, people had put deposits on that land and lost them.” When Ken and Susan Johnson said they were looking to buy it, True gave them one piece of advice: “Get the best real estate lawyers you can.” 

It helped that Ken was able to build a relationship with the previous owner. “She had a goal of living up here, and she wasn’t able to achieve it,” he says. “Early on, we hooked up with Nate to see if it was even buildable. We don’t know how to build a house, and we don’t know the ordinances, but we love the park.” Avid hikers and nature lovers, the couple was hoping to spend their retirement together in Maine. They had lived in New Hampshire and vacationed frequently in Massachusetts (they owned homes in Cape Cod and the Berkshires), but none of those spots had the appeal of Acadia. “When you’re looking for a place to retire, the first thing you’re afraid of is boredom, and Maine is just so complex,” says Ken. “We also considered moving to Boston—that was our number two choice. But we wanted to have a busy life, and we wanted people to come and join us.” 

After buying the land in 2018, the couple set to work with MDI-based Black Crow Builders and LARK Studio to create a modern farmhouse with room for their children and their partners, members of their large extended family (Susan has eight siblings), and, perhaps most important, their grandkids. Although they have only one grandbaby so far, Ken and Susan have fond recollections of their family camp in the Berkshires, and they wanted to make sure future generations could enjoy their Mount Desert Island retreat. That meant they needed something that would withstand the harsh weather, respect the surrounding landscape, and provide privacy and shelter to visitors of all ages. “I came into it not knowing what I was doing or what exactly we wanted,” Susan admits. “Pretty quickly, we came around to a modern farmhouse style, though this isn’t exactly that.” The other goal was “to bring the outside in,” she adds. “We took a lot of inspiration from Acadia.” 

This process started from the ground up. First came the stones. The distinctive granite bedrock of New England inspired a number of features, from the rustic yet elegant stonework to the bedrooms’ soft and neutral color palettes. “When we were sketching early on in the project, shaking ideas out, we thought, what kind of special fun things could we do here? One of the things this site has is a lot of nice pink granite swaths, and that stone itself is so neat and special,” says landscape designer Mike Rogers of LARK Studio. “One of the questions was, how do we embrace that in the landscape? What’s our interaction with it?” As Rogers examined the site, he found himself inspired by a particular piece of rock. “I thought of a bridge that would allow you to go back and forth easily over that immense granite slope, and then I thought of the elevated view.” He sketched a bridge connecting the bunkhouse/garage to the main house, held up by only one middle post so as not to impede the view underneath. “A sky bridge sounds crazy, like something that you might expect between a parking garage and a hospital,” he admits. “We had to keep it clean and simple, so that it wouldn’t look too bulky.” 

At first, Ken says, he was “dead set against” the sky bridge “until LARK showed us the design drawn out.” Now he calls it “magic.” It’s a feature that defines the exterior, giving the stark lines a dose of whimsy while providing an essential function. The view only got better once the plantings between the cracks of the granite began to take—huckleberry, serviceberry, sweet fern, and wintergreen. While the team used primarily native plants to create a sense of cohesiveness with the nearby park, Rogers also brought in a few special touches to “celebrate the house,” including a kousa dogwood (planted by the parking area) and a few hydrangea bushes. Near the house, he put in clethra and fothergilla to attract butterflies. “The clethra smells amazing, similar to a lilac,” he says. “And the flowers last all summer long.” 

When it came to the house, True says, “none of us wanted a plasticy feel.” They did, however, want it to be easy to maintain. “We worked with materials to balance costs, aesthetics, longevity, the feel. Some of the paint we used was actually boat paint, so it’s super rugged.” In general, Ken and Susan tended to pick “the great option, instead of the okay option,” which made working with the couple especially enjoyable for the contractors. Instead of simply hanging drywall in every room, Susan opted for texture. “A lot of the interest inside comes from the walls,” she says. “We have board and batten in one room, nickle-gap in another, boards on ceilings, coffered ceilings.” She applied the same principle of neutral-toned variety to the vanities, mirrors, headboards, and lighting fixtures. “I wanted to mix the wood with a modern flair. So we might have a wood mantelpiece with old reclaimed wood and modern box-style shelving.” Exposed beams bring to mind weathered Maine farm homes, while the horizontally stacked kitchen tile gives off a more modern feel than traditional offset subway tiles. To pay tribute to their favorite hikes, Ken and Susan selected railings for the bunkhouse inspired by the ladder trails of Acadia. Their art collection is locally minded, too, with pottery by Adrian King and Kreg McCune, sculptures by Dennis Curtis, and paintings by Greg Day and Shannon King. 

The centerpiece of the whole space, everyone agrees, is that fireplace. “The masonry was Ken’s pet project,” says True. There were many mock-ups and drafts, which clicked into place following—what else?—a hike in Acadia. “Ken and Susan are passionate hikers, and they had been hiking in the park one day when they saw this natural rock formation that looked like a fireplace.” The couple sent a picture to the masons and said, “Make it look like this!” According to True, Harkins Masonry “really knocked it out of the park” with the large, seemingly dry-set stones (with hidden mortar for stability). “One of the more special elements is the milled corners. If they had done it the normal way, it would have been beautiful, but the way the stones look like they wrap around the corner really sets it above.” 

For Ken and Susan, the entire design-build process felt like a dream collaboration. Over the months, they came to trust True and his craftspeople. They got what they wanted and more, from the metal roof to the covered porch. “Our children love to come up here,” says Susan. “My son just got engaged here because he loves it so much.” They also recently used the Otter Creek home to host a family reunion. “We just sat around and said, ‘This is what we built it for.’” And all this, Ken adds, “started with the land.”