Kim Swan

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Kim Swan is the owner of the Swan Agency, Sotheby's International Realty, and is on the board of the Bar Harbor Historical Society and a long standing front of the magazine. So thanks so much.

Kim Swan:

You're welcome. Thanks for having me.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

I've really been interested in all the different types of work you've been doing up in the Bar harbor area because you could just focus on your business selling houses, but you also, you have a finger in the INS industry. You're doing work with film. I mean, it's like I can't turn around and not have your name be there up in Bar Harbor. Why all of this different stuff? What keeps you so interested in so many different things?

Kim Swan:

I think it's a combination of being a Gemini and wanting to do a lot of things at once. But I was thinking about it a few weeks ago and I actually said to somebody differently than most people in the real estate business. For most it's a second career or, you know, something they've done and then moved into full time. I didn't have a choice. Real estate was the family business. So when I was leaving for my freshman year in college, my father said, hey, take some real estate classes and you won't have to waitress during summers. So I ended up selling houses during summers. And then it just became I was going to go back and go to law school, but it was lucrative and a lot of the local attorneys would say, Kim, you're making more money than we are, because it was a good time. So I didn't choose real estate, it chose me. So I think when I got to the point where I could start making choices, I was able to start doing some things that I was passionate about. Like the filmmaking is the newest, probably the newest thing, but the ends and design and, and just finding, it's easy up there to find ways to marry them all into each other.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, let's talk about the film. You just told me that you're now working on a second film. But, but you're referring to this first film which is called the fire of 47.

Kim Swan:

Yes. So the fire 47, which was really a statewide thing, happened. It decimated Bar harbor and it changed Bar Harbor. Up until that time, Bar harbor was very much a wealthy community. Most of the people had jobs working for the cottagers, as they were known. And it had started through the Depression and everything. It had started to not as attractive, but people still had their big houses and everything. A lot of very notable families were there. And so when the fire came through, it ruined so many, I mean, over 67 of the huge mansions, over 100 of the, you know, year round people's houses. So it changed Bar Harbor. That's when we went, as somebody said, from being a summer community to being a tourist community. That's when the hotels started being built. That's when the motel started being built. So it was fascinating. And this was the 70th anniversary and in order to get people who had been through it 70 years ago, we need to start getting those people to record their experiences. So we set out a casting call and said, if you knew this, come down and talk to us. And the director, Peter Loke, who had approached the Bar Harbor Historical Society to make this film and as a board member I said produce. And then when the Historical Society would save the money on the producer, he just started interviewing people and put together this amazing film.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Did you know all of the people that were involved in the storytelling aspect of this?

Kim Swan:

We. Yes, they were all local. So most of them would have been, you know, in their teens, but never really knew their stories. You know how you always hear, oh, he doesn't talk about the war, he doesn't talk about. Some of these people had never talked about the fire. So some of Their kids and grandkids had never heard these stories. And it was amazing. I mean, we just opened the doors to the Historical Society and these people just started coming in and the stories they were telling. When I saw the first trailer, I was, and I'm not exaggerating, I was in tears because this one guy talks about how he says something along the lines of, after the fire, they let us back in, he said. And we went back to the house and he said, and it was gone. And he said, and I, I think I knew it was going to be gone, but I didn't really realize everything was going to be gone. And there were some very sad stories and some very happy stories, but so compelling. And then everybody came on board. Steve Zern Kilton, who's the voice of Law and Order, he's the sailharbor guy. And we asked him, I mean, we hadn't even finished the sentence and said, hey, Steve, would you narrate this film? It was, yes, totally, as a donation. And so we had some fun with it. The people, you know, loved being part of it with Steve and everything. And at the beginning of the film, it's just a black screen. And we had five major sponsors that gave us $5,000 each. And then Maine Magazine, thank you. Came on as our media sponsor. And so at the beginning there's just a black screen with the logos and that booming Steve Zurn Kilton Law and Order saying, without the support of these people, this wouldn't have happened. Kind of like a Downton Abbey beginning. And then at the end in Maine, the magazine, and it just was, everybody was just like, wow, this is the real deal. You know, you've got the Law and Order guy on it. So everybody just, we didn't, we didn't have to ask twice. We said, can you help do this? Yes, can you help do this? When we called down here to Maine Mag, you know, this I think would be a really cool thing for you guys to be involved in. And would you be the media? I didn't even finish the sentence and it was, yes, we're in. So it's better a great thing for the whole state.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Your family is a long standing Bar harbor family. How were you impacted by the fire?

Kim Swan:

We actually didn't move to Bar harbor till I was four. And so I'm not allowed to say I'm from Bar harbor because my ex husband was born in Bar harbor. And he always would remind me, somebody would say, are you from Bar Harbor? And sometimes it's easy to say yes, but if he's anywhere near me, I have to say, no, I was four. So we don't have any memories. You know, that was in the late 60s, end of 60s. So we had just always heard about it. And there's still ruins. You know, as kids, you would go and explore the ruins and everything of these old cottages. And I've had listings in real estate. I have one right now that they never took down the gates and everything that didn't burn. So it's just. It's always. It's in the fabric of your life. If you grew up in Bar harbor, because it's all around.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Did it mean something to you that there were fires happening in other parts of the country and really have been for quite some time as you were working on this movie.

Kim Swan:

That's so interesting that you mention that because that was the time that the California fire and everything was happening. And I would watch these things and think, oh, my gosh, you know, that looks so horrible. Where sometimes with the 47 fire, it's almost like it was a movie or it was an event, it wasn't real. And then the combination of reading the news and then also working on editing these interviews where people had these memories that were so clear. Yeah, it was extra impactful, I think. And I remember talking to a few people about that and saying, wow, or 70 years from now and is there going to be somebody looking back on these fires? It gives you pause.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And it's also a good reminder that, I mean, obviously fire is something that's so big that you can have all the most modern accessibility to things like water and firefighting equipment, and it can still really devastate just miles and miles and acres and acres of land and property and people's lives.

Kim Swan:

Yeah, yeah. And it's, it's. And of course, back then they didn't have as much, but it's interesting because the story that Steve Zurnkilton narrated, the story that the director chose to use, was the written memories of the fire chief. And I had always heard growing up that he always had a lot of guilt. And so it was. That's the voice we heard telling this story. And how. I mean, they had put the fire out once and had no idea it was underground, which maybe today they would have known with all those little heat sensor things and everything. So when. When it started up again, you know, they didn't know what was coming. And then, then it goes back to how it started. And there's so many, I call them urban myths. Even though Bar harbor isn't very Urban, but, you know, how did it start? And we never answered that question because there's too many. I mean, there are people that think it was arson. There are people that think it was a cigarette from some cranberry bog workers. There are people who think. Think it was. It started near an old dump that thought the sun came in just right on broken glass and started it. So it's to hear it through that. His eyes. And then the destruction. I mean, just horrible destruction, and then how it affected everything going forward.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So tell me, tell me how Bar harbor did rebuild from losing so much.

Kim Swan:

It was most of. Most of the wealthy people left. And now when you look at Mount Desert island, the major cottages are in Northeast harbor now. They're not in Bar harbor anymore. Bar harbor is really the tourist center for Acadia and everything. But I think going forward, like one really interesting thing, I just sold a property a few weeks ago called Reef Point, and it's right on the shore path in Bar Harbor. So there's not a lot of house. They're very, very special properties. But Reef Point, at the time of the fire, when the fire didn't take those houses, was owned by Beatrix Farrand, who's a very, very famous landscape architect, we would call her now, but she insisted on being called landscape gardener. Had a beautiful house right on the shore path, and she wanted to donate it to the town of Bar harbor to be a horticultural center. And town of Bar harbor couldn't accept it. The town of Bar harbor was broke. We had this hor. Horrible fire. So much of the tax base was gone. And so it was just a horrible situation because this mansion was breathtakingly beautiful. She's now, everybody's making documentaries about her now. They're starting to understand how important she was. When the town wouldn't accept her house because they couldn't because of the fire, she got upset and she had it bulldozed, knocked it down. And she had so many gardens, azalea gardens and all these other perennials that she had nurtured through the years of doing, all going all over the world, doing most of the Rockefeller work and everything, that at the last second, before this raising was done, Mr. Rockefeller, Mr. Savage and the architect, his name's going away from me. But they all said, can we at least come take all these plants? So azalea, gargantu and everything that were on this estate became the Azalea Gardens and part of Thuya, Northeast Harbor. They saved all these things. And it was directly because of the fire that Bar harbor didn't have the money to take this house and maintain it. And then you had other houses that would start being ripped down even. Even well into the 60s and early 70s, and everything was because of the fire.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Tell me what you learned about. With regard to the psychology of making it through a fire. If you're talking to people who are children and teenagers, this is very traumatic for them.

Kim Swan:

Yeah, it was traumatic. Some people in the film, you almost feel like. And not necessarily in a bad way, they grew up through the fire. There's one man that talks about. I think he was 17, and they went outside, and there was the fire chief, I think, was outside his house, and they said, what are you doing? And he said, sign this paper to these kids. And he said, you're now members of the fire department. Get going. And what they were in charge of doing is finding these paths to bring sandwiches and stuff to the men fighting the fire and to lead people through these boy Scout paths that they knew. And so there was a huge source of pride with some people. And then there's, you know, there was a lot of humor in it. And when you see the Criterion Theater, which is a big theater, you know, 700 plus seats, when that whole theater erupts in laughter because of a documentary about a sad time, you know, you've done something right. There's a man that tells a story about his father being out fighting the fire and realizing he had to evacuate his family. And so he told everybody, you know, we have to evacuate. So he ran in the house and said to this young boy at the time, where's your mother? And he said, she's upstairs getting dressed. And he said, where the hell she thinks she's going to a party? And the whole theater erupted, because though there were very sad stories, there were also these stories of, like, community coming together and everybody getting together. And that was the theme at the end. The director used a quote, a lady that said, islanders come together, you know. And even though I think that's a main, wide theme, I think Mainers always come together for that story. It was islanders, you know, come together. And so I think. I don't think, you know, on a documentary film like this, it leads you. I don't think the director knew, and we certainly didn't know where it was gonna go. And he followed it to this, like, beautiful place.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And this film has actually led you into another project?

Kim Swan:

Yes, and another film. Another film. We're so excited. A neighbor of mine who just had her 90th birthday said to me, after the success of the Fyre film because we sold out the opening. We had red carpets, we had, I mean, we literally had a red carpet that all the stars won, that the photographer for Maine magazine was there. And Faces Main had every single one of them. And some of these, they're all in their 80s. And so she said to me one day, you know, the next thing big thing here is happening is the 50th anniversary of Mount Desert Island High School is this year, 2018. So we got thinking about that and thought, wow, we did a really cool thing with marking the 70th anniversary. What's this all about? And on the face of it, okay, there's a high school that was consolidated and you know, Southwest Harbor, Tremont, Bar harbor and Mount Zurich all went to separate high schools until 1968 when they came together. So that's kind of cool. But how big a story is this? It's huge. We're actually working right now. The curator of the Bar Harbor Historical Society has been talking with the curator of the Rockefeller archives. And back to the urban myths that happen. Growing up in Bar harbor, you hear this story that Mr. Rockefeller had always said he would give build the high school for the island if they would call it Rockefeller High School. That's just a well known urban myth. And if you really know the family or of the family, you know, the last thing they do is ask for things to be named after them. I mean, for Mr. Recent Rockefeller's hundredth birthday, they wanted to name a mountain after him and he declined. You know, I mean, there's so much. So you, even though everybody believes that about the Rockefellers, it's not true. And so now we have found by going back through the archives, he was very involved in giving the land and buying the land, but very quietly. So now we're finding this. We're going to be able to address things that for the last 60 years people have thought and how the high school started being talked about right after the fire because people had lost tax bases and can we keep these schools going? And again, it relates to all of Maine because there was so much resistance to this in some places and so much advocacy in other places. You had everything on Mount Desert island always goes back to basketball. And you had guys who were like superstar basketball players that couldn't wait to consolidate and have kind of an all star team that they could play on. But then you had other guys that might have been fourth or fifth man on their basketball team that knew as soon as they consolidated they wouldn't play anymore. So it's fascinating to hear these stories and it's. I think it's going to be as interesting. And I mean, the audience for the fire 47 was huge, but there's going to be kids now. The director just filmed at one of the championship basketball games, so he's going to tie everybody in now. So there's going to be 50 or really 70 years of people. And just again, letting the documentary find its own path and follow it has been amazing.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Is it interesting to you that you've built your life around place and moving a place from one person to another or one company to another, and now your life is really focusing on place and the story of place in a. In like, kind of a different way?

Kim Swan:

I hadn't thought about that, but you always have very good insights into stuff like that. That's really interesting. I hadn't. I hadn't thought about it like that. But, you know, it's. It's been a struggle because I love being in Portland. I still have businesses in Portland and everything, but I really. And I blame the Yorkies. You can't travel a lot with two little Yorkies. But because of that, the last few years, I've become so much more focused on Bar harbor and working with the Historical Society. So, yeah, it's interesting. And it's also interesting when people come to Bar harbor and buy a house. And a lot of what I do would be second homes or businesses. They get absorbed so fast. You know, Bar harbor is a town where, oh, you've been here five years. If you want to, it will be like you've been here 20 years. Because everybody kind of embraces this amazing history and this complicated history and all the different things going on. I mean, you can't. It's when people come from out of town that I realize you can be busy every night of the year in the winter in Bar Harbor. I didn't know that. You know, you see it through their eyes. And so, yeah, I think it is a sense of place and a sense of appreciating what you have and wanting to share it in any different way you can with other people, whether it's through helping them purchase a property or understanding what's happening and really embracing the history and taking the Historical Society. The Historical Society was a quiet little organization until we did a designer show house on a historical property with Maine Home + Design. And it was the first time that anybody had ever done a fundraiser for the Bar Harbor Historical Society. That. And they will all tell you this, that one experience has catapulted the Bar Harbor Historical Society. And it's now one of the really talked about and I think admired organizations for kind of retooling the effort and saying, okay, first we're going to make it so you can enjoy this historical house. And a lot of people don't get in to go into those homes. And now we're doing these films, and it's all under the Historical Society umbrella. And it's not just for local people. We have a board member that was talking about the mission statement. We have to make these new people, you know, learn about what they. What's the history of this? And in my mind, it was always, I'm preserving history for the people whose history it was. And that really gets you thinking, like, it's everybody's history. Nobody owns the history. If you want it to be your history, it's yours. And how do you make it so that everybody has access to it?

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

I guess as you're talking, I was thinking about a conversation I recently had with Abigail Carol, who is an oyster farmer, and she told me that her oysters generally live on the bottom of the ocean floor. And they started this new thing where they put them on trays next to the ones on the bottom of the ocean floor, and not only did they look different, but they tasted different, and they had a different consistency to them. And it. I just thought, wow, what a great metaphor for us as humans and where we live and how we are shaped as much by the places we live in as we believe we shape those places. So now you're talking about Bar harbor and you're talking about people coming in, and I wonder if it's not a little bit like oysters that, you know, they start to take on the character of the place that they're in, even

Kim Swan:

kind of unwittingly, I think. Absolutely. Yeah. I think that you can see people who are. And it's interesting because sometimes you will negotiate on a big sale and somebody will be in New York or wherever they are, and they'll be really tough. And, you know, you get through that and you think, oh, wow, he was kind of aggressive and everything, but, you know, which I admire, so I don't look at that as a bad thing. But then you kind of think they're going to come to Bar harbor and what's it going to be like? And then it's not there. So it's exactly what you're saying, that aggression and that thing that maybe fits somewhere else, and that you use that mode of communication, I guess. Then you come to Bar harbor, and that same person would never, never even raise their voice, you know, never even just get adapted, I guess, so fast. Much like the oysters, you know, they're gonna live different ways, you know, considering what they're surrounded by. So I think everybody calms down, and we have Acadia National Park. You know, it's like, my gosh, that's my backyard. What everybody, you know, wants to be, all of us in Maine, no matter where we are, everybody wants to get up there at some point. And, you know, for us, it's just where Ava and Izzy go for a walk every afternoon. So we count our blessings all the time.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

You've already talked about a lot of things that you've worked on and are working on. What's the single biggest thing that you're most excited for right now?

Kim Swan:

I think the biggest thing is going to happen in the fall, actually, and I'm planning for it now. I'm really, really lucky to be acquiring a major lodging facility in the fall, and it's something that I have had wanted forever. Everybody always says, why do you. Why are you in the. In business in Portland and Rockland and all these places up Bar Harbor? And I always said, I want to be Kim, the real estate broker in Bar Harbor. You know, I don't want to be this other person. And I always used to say, you know, there are maybe one or two places in Bar Harbor I'd like to have. And so the opportunities come up and at the end of the year, so I think working on that design and renovation and rebranding and ideas, hands down, I'm. I almost have to, like, calm down because I'm so excited about it. And it's gonna, you know, it will launch in 2019, and it's gonna be. It's just gonna be amazing. And it's gonna be. I'm so lucky to have worked all over Maine in the lodging business. So it's going to be something that Maine doesn't have Bar harbor doesn't have yet, so. Because I also don't want to compete with friends. You know, everybody in the business, they're almost as friends. So I never wanted to have something that would compete. So we're gonna create something completely, completely different.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

I can't wait to see it.

Kim Swan:

You will be there on opening day, I hope.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

I absolutely will. How can people watch your movie The Fire of 47?

Kim Swan:

The Fire 47 is now out on DVD, and they can order that by going on BarHarborHistorical.org we are working right now and I don't think it's up yet, but we're working on getting it on to itunes so that people can stream it. It's about 39 minutes. It doesn't take a lot of time, but the DVDs just fun to have. Brand Company did this amazing movie poster. I mean we had it all. We had the movie posters and the red carpet and everything and so the movie poster is the COVID of the dvd and probably that's the easiest right now. We're gonna do more showings throughout the state. We've already done a lot in libraries and different theaters and everything. But pretty soon online

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

I've been speaking with Kim Swan, who is the owner of the Swan Agency, Sotheby's International Realty, and is on the board of the Bar Harbor Historical Society and has done so many other things. And I really appreciate everything that you're doing. This has been a fascinating conversation. I will be there and see what you're going to be coming up with for your next big thing this fall.

Kim Swan:

I can't wait. I can't wait. Thanks for having me. Lisa.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Thanks for coming in. Dr. Zach Mazzoni do created Dayspring Integrative Wellness in Bath, Maine with the belief that true health comes from building healthy relationships with your community, with your doctor and with yourself. As a board certified family and integrative medicine physician, Dr. Mazzone and the whole staff at DaySpring are committed to supporting your wellness journey by providing integrative family medical care, osteopathic medicine, manipulation, herbal and lifestyle consultations, counseling and wave therapy. DaySpring offers an innovative membership based model of healthcare that gives you time together with Dr. Pizzoni to build a personalized wellness plan based on your health goals. Daily access for acute appointments is available and you can even schedule a secure video conference call in the privacy of your own home. I know Dr. Zach and his family and I believe strongly in that personalized whole person approach to health that he provides. This is why I am encouraging you to find out more for yourself by visiting dayspringintegrativewellness.com or by calling them directly at 207-751-4775. Dayspring Wellness the way It Should Be