The Story
The story of Deer Isle Hostel begins in the south of Georgia, where Dennis came upon the Hostel in the Forest back in ‘97. That was the first hostel Dennis ever visited, a hostel that would be inspiration for his own and where he would return many winters in the coming years.
What he found was that a hostel is so much more than just a bed for travelers, but also that a hostel can be, and most often is, a place for people to gather, share and learn. Since Dennis didn’t have any desire to travel himself though he deeply appreciated the company of travelers, building his own hostel seemed to be the perfect thing to do.
In the same year, ’97, Dennis completed Savannah College of Art and Design in Georgia, and two years later moved back to Maine where he’s originally from. That’s when he started to save up money for the hostel by doing carpentry and stone work around Deer Isle.
Dennis bought the property onTennis Rd in 2003, together with Andrew Donaldson. The years before they’d lived on and off in the small preexisting cabin on a work for rent basis. The land where the hostel now stands was cleared in the following winters by axe alone.
By the fall of ’05 the cellar hole had been dug, boards and timber for the frame had been sawn and stacked around the yard. At this point Andrew found himself caught up in the swirls of life and generously handed his half of the property over to Dennis, along with the responsibility to finish what they had started.
Time wore the pioneer’s spirit and the little visible pay off and the loneliness drove Dennis to a point where he was on the verge of giving up. One morning when the hole was to deep and the timber to rough, Dennis sat down on the front porch and had just decided to scrap the whole hostel dream right there when Kimball Pattie stepped through the gate bringing news about a grant to apply for from Builders Without Borders, a natural building organization. One year later a Dennis received a $10.000 grant and the hostel work could progress.
The work with foundation started in 2006. The granite comes partly from the property, partly from a gravel pit in the village o fDeer Isle. Dennis brought it over to the hostel and split it on site with the use of hand tools. The average pace was one stone per hour, which says something about how much work that has been put into the foundation alone. The rectangular stones above ground were cut at Francis Cormiers quarry in Stonington.
Along side with the stonework Dennis cut the joinery for the timber frame during this time, once again with the use of hand tools. More than one neighbor has confessed doubts during these years, when Deer Isle Hostel was but a whole in the ground, heaps of scattered stones, piles of lumber, a solo guy and his dream.
Parallel with the hostel building, Dennis spent the summers doing paid work, both to gain skills with hand tools and natural materials and to earn the money to buy the land and build the hostel. One of the corner stones in this project is the pay as you go aspect, one explanation why the hostel has been forced to develop slowly. Significant time has been spent gathering materials from both nature and neighbors in ways that provide minimal impact, if not benefit to, the surrounding landscape. The bricks for the hostel come from chimneys Dennis got paid to tear down, an old barn got dismantled and are now to be found scattered throughout the hostel walls. The reddish wood you’ll find in the timber frame is douglas fir, a western species that was intended to be parts of a summer cottage over inCapeRosier. Years passed and the mansion never got built leaving the piles of timber untouched for Andrew and Dennis to haul back home for virtually nothing. As one of Dennis´ friends put it, “if this guy have had a shoestring budget, he’d be done by now”.
The summer of 2007 the stone foundation was finally completed. At that point the word about the new-up-and-coming hostel in Mainewas well spread to the Hostel in the Forestand during late summer/early fall MikeJoe, Ken, Mikey and Joey came toMaineto live and work with Dennis.
The 16th of September 2007 the timber frame was raised. Except for the 30 or so friends and family members that came here to help with the raising Jim Bannon shared his expertise as a professional timber framer. Jim had already devoted a lot of time to the hostel timber frame in the process of planning and cutting. Piece by piece the three stories were assembled and joined and after years of cutting and piling and collecting, the piles of stone and timber suddenly took the shape of a house.
When the Maine summer finally gave way for the fall the guys left to go back south and Dennis kept working on the building, getting the roof framed and boarded. When the winter came around and put a natural halt to further construction Dennis once again left to go down south to the Hostel in Georgia. Meanwhile Anneli packed her Swedish home together and got ready to move across the Atlantic. They’d met a year before at that very same hostel in Georgia, both of them escaping the much colder northern winter.
In March 2008 Dennis and Anneli began the hostel work again for the year. The walls were boarded and plans for floor lay out, windows, doors and rooms started to take shape. Parallel, the hostel got its own web-page, numerous posters were put up around the island and the surrounding peninsula and the word was put out there; We’re building a hostel on Deer Isle! At the same time the search for help began; a fundraising campaign was slowly put in action and the plead for furniture, household utensils and various suitable hostel equipment started to pay off.
With whatever mean the members of Deer Isle community could show their support, they did. A truck to bring home seaweed in, a printer for the paper work, greenhouse to start the garden in, a sawmill for the lumber. But also, many offered their time and skills; one of them being Ian Walker, a professional blacksmith from Stonington, who offered to voluntarily custom make all the hardware for the hostel. As winter turned into a sunny spring Ian worked in his shop, banging and bending what will be window hinges, latches and door knobs for the hostel.
When late April rolled around the lower garden was prepped up and planted and in mid May Nikki and Jeremy came all the way up from Georgiain their veggie-oil powered Jetta and immediately got down and dirty breaking the ground for what would be the Hostel garden. In less then two weeks virgin land covered with thorns and bush was tilted and dug, beds were raised and a fence put up so tomatoes, zucchinis, potatoes and cucumbers securely could be put into the ground at the beginning of June.
At the same time the trim around the roof was put up and the roof itself laid. A mushroom cultivation got started and the cedar shingles for the exterior of the building was put on there, row by row, piece by piece. A hostel is a one nail at the time kind of creation and as the summer progress more bits and pieces will unfold, be put in place and tied together.
With a full year until opening date Deer Isle Hostel has already, in many ways, fulfilled the vision that first attracted Dennis and that spurred the whole creation; to provide a place for people to gather, share and learn.
