Courtesy / Mira Monte Inn
The inn’s original structure, built in 1864, features classic wallpaper and finishing on the interior.
July 12, 2019
From California to Maine, buyers take over one of Bar Harbor’s first B&Bs
Courtesy / Mira Monte Inn
A couple moved from California to purchase the Mira Monte Inn in Bar Harbor.
The buyers of the Mira Monte Inn moved from California to run what’s thought to be one of Bar Harbor’s first bed-and-breakfasts.
Bruce and Cheryl Ueno purchased the inn, located at 69 Mount Desert St., from Scott and Kathleen Burns and Steven and Ann Burns, in a transaction that closed May 2. The B&B Team's Rick Wolf represented both buyers and sellers.
Mira Monte Inn was built in 1864 as a summer cottage and is included in the National Register of Historic Places.
Greek columns
The original structure was a two-story building. A wing and an ell were added shortly afterward; the ell held servants’ working and living quarters. Today, the wing holds the dining room and kitchen and the ell holds bedrooms.
In 1890, Greek columns were added and the property was named Mira Monte, meaning “behold the mountains.”
In 1980, Marian Burns, an educator and Bar Harbor native, purchased the property and converted it into an inn. At that time, the inn had three rooms. At the time of Burns’ death in 2015, at age 88, the inn had grown into 20 rooms, according to a blog post by The B&B Team co-owner Janet Wolf.
“Marian received many community and service awards over her many years of innkeeping,” Wolf wrote. “She was in constant motion, her brain never stopped planning a new project for the inn, her community and her guests.”
Community service
As an example, Burns founded Hospitality for Habitat, which continues today and raises funds for local chapters of Habitat for Humanity while encouraging travel to Maine in the shoulder season, according to HospitalityMaine.
This year’s 16th annual Hospitality for Habitat was held from April 15 to May 23, when participating properties around the state designated a number of rooms at half the rate in exchange for a $35 check payable to Habitat for Humanity. Collectively, Hospitality for Habitat has raised more than $220,000 for Maine chapters of Habitat for Humanity.
After Burns’s death, the inn was managed by one of her sons and his wife along with other family members.
The inn was on the market for about year before selling in the mid-$2-million range, said Rick Wolf.
Mira Monte is thought to be one of Bar Harbor’s first bed-and-breakfast type of inn, he added.
The Uenos are graduates of an “aspiring innkeeper” workshop held by The B&B Team last summer in Kennebunkport.
Guided by a sign
The Uenos came to Bar Harbor from California, where Cheryl was a piano teacher and Bruce was a professional chef who taught culinary arts in the Los Angeles area. They were “empty nesting,” as Cheryl said, and decided on innkeeping as a new career.
Courtesy / Mira Monte Inn
Bruce and Cheryl Ueno find that the Mira Monte has a dedicated following of guests dating back more than 30 years.
“We had been talking about getting out of California,” she said. “It was too crowded, too smoggy, too expensive.”
They’d visited Maine many times and loved it, she said. They started checking out properties online and came across Wolf’s website. They traveled to Maine and Wolf showed them three or four options.
“We drove up here and the whole place looked right,” she said of Mira Monte. “It was a perfect fit.”
The decision was helped by a “sign” the couple received in 2015, when Cheryl was recovering from surgery related to a serious illness.
“I was lying in bed and looking out the window,” she recalled. “I felt visited by a lady. She said, ‘You can’t die. I need you.’”
When they arrived at Mira Monte, they learned about Marian Burns, who had died in 2015.
“When we heard her story, we knew that was who was calling us,” Cheryl said.
Mira Monte “wasn’t the fanciest place we looked at,” said Bruce. “But it’s one of the grand dames of Bar Harbor. It was run by the same family for many years. The guests describe it as a magical place for them.”
The couple financed the down payment by selling three properties in California.
The property today consists of three buildings, including the newest Ashe Cottage, completed in 2012. The oldest, main building was in good condition but needed some work.
“There was a lot of deferred maintenance,” Bruce said. Plans include updating the kitchen, installing new insulation, and painting.
The Uenos find they’re getting return guests whose visits to the inn date back over 30 years.
“It’s that kind of place, where people make it a tradition,” said Bruce.
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