Hancock Area

A triangular green with a Civil War monument marks the small village of Hancock on U.S. 1 and the turn for the summer colony at Hancock Point on Crabtree Neck. This reach of land isn’t named for native trees but for Capt. Agreen Crabtree, a 1760s settler from Massachusetts who was a privateer during the American Revolution, seizing goods from British ships. In the Gilded Age, trains filled with residents of cities like New York and Philadelphia connected with ferries in Hancock for the final leg of the journey to Bar Harbor (known as Eden until 1918) across Frenchman Bay for the summer season. In Hancock, you can pick up items to have a picnic at one of the preserves sprinkled about the area. Another option is Sullivan's Sumner Memorial Park, on U.S. 1 after it crosses the bridge over the Taunton River from Hancock. A tall sculpture there, like stacked blocks, is on the Maine Sculpture Trail. Throughout this area, signs along the highway point you down country roads to homestead artisan galleries in Hancock, Sullivan, and neighboring Franklin, where Taunton Bay protrudes inland.