The Kedge, originally known as the Veazie Cottage, has been an integral part of Bar Harbor's history since the very dawn of its renown as a summer resort. Built in 1870 in the finest Second Empire style for one of Maine's wealthiest families, it is the oldest surviving summer cottage in town. In its Golden Age, when Bar Harbor was the premier vacation destination for the nation’s elite, it served as the clubhouse for the Mount Desert Reading Room, the foremost social club on the island. In its hallowed rooms drank and dined some of the leading men of the era, with names like Vanderbilt, Morgan, Astor, Harrison, Dorr and Roosevelt. The Reading Room, said Harvard Professor Barrett Wendell, cousin of Oliver Wendell Holmes, had "the best conversation in America". The club also had a connection to the Titanic, as two of its members went down on that night to remember.

Wealth and politics mixed in Old Bar Harbor. In 1895, the house, renamed The Kedge, was returned to its status as a private residence by the family of President Grant's Secretary of the Navy. Famed architect Fred Savage applied his magic touches to a revitalization of the house in 1916, and his remarkable work is notable throughout. The Kedge's fine gardens and fountain were put in in 1944. The drawing room, with Savage's multi-colored flooring intact, is particularly memorable.