Annual ceremonies at the American Legion and Blue Star Memorial honor those who served while keeping generations of local stories alive.
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The Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by Window Panes Home and Garden.
BAR HARBOR—Veterans Day in Bar Harbor was marked not only by wreaths, prayers, and moments of silence, but also by shared stories, familiar faces, and the quiet connections that keep the memories of those who served alive.
In a room filled with photographs, artifacts, and the memories of generations of service members, an empty chair offered a quiet reminder of those who could no longer be present as Bar Harbor gathered to honor its veterans, November 11.
Bits of the veterans’ stories are on the walls of George Edwin Kirk Post 25 of the American Legion on Cottage Street.
Sepia-toned photos of men poised in uniforms look back at you as you walk by. Buttons, artifacts, memories are carefully displayed. Civil War muskets, helmets, World War One machine guns.
Each exhibit illustrates not just American involvement in wars and conflicts, but the involvement of locals.
By the far wall on a room to the right as you enter is a table set for one.
There’s a meaning in that, a poignant meaning.
There is a meaning in pretty much everything in the unassuming building right in the middle of Bar Harbor. That meaning is in the empty chair that is just before the veterans giving the Veterans Day ceremony, November 11, to a small crowd. That meaning is there as the Legion commander, Jeff Hanscom, shakes Tim Searchfield’s hand and then starts asking him questions about living on a Bar Harbor street. That meaning comes from the care that the people here take in making sure others are remembered, that their service is honored, that their voices are still heard.
George Edwin Kirk, the post’s namesake died in a French field hospital, striken with pneumonia on November 20, 1918, according to a 1919 copy of the Bangor Daily News. Captain Kirk had been in the war a year before his death and was remembered and honored for “his devotion to duty during the severe fighting of the summer of 1918.” Lieutenant Allessandro Fabbri was part of the post’s executive committee when it was organized that year.
Eleven of the 270 boys sent to World War I did not return to Bar Harbor, according to the Bangor Commercial.
Every year on November 11 at 11 a.m., a wreath is laid at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery.
“The ceremony is intended to honor and thank all who served in the United States Armed Forces,” according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
In Bar Harbor, both the George Edwin Kirk Post and the Bar Harbor Garden Club held annual ceremonies at 1100 hours, 11 a.m.
Poems were read. The Pledge of Allegiance was recited. There were moments of silence where hats were taken off heads, and there were moments of prayer.
But there were also moments, after and before the ceremonies, of storytelling, of somehow meeting people that hadn’t been met before. There were hugs to give, food to share, and dogs to marvel over.
In the United States, 5.9% of the adult population is veterans, 15.7 million people. Approximately 28% of those veterans have served since 9/11. Roughly 0.3% served in World War II. Approximately 1.7 million are women.
Just over 30% of veterans were over 75 as of 2025 while 8.4% of veterans had not yet turned 35.
Communities used to center around American Legion posts. They were third spaces where drum and bugle corps practices, parties were celebrated, dances and lectures were held.
Over near the head of Mount Desert Island, the Bar Harbor Club held its ceremony. The United State flag and a flag recognizing POW-MIA soldiers flanked speakers. Cars drove by. Some slowed down.
In the past veteran Jim Linnane has said that Veterans Day is celebrated at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month because that’s when the armistice ending World War I took effect. Armistice Day became Veterans Day to honor the veterans of all conflicts and to thank them and their families for their service and their sacrifice.
During World War I and World War II, families that had a member serving would hang a banner with a blue star to indicate that. When World War II came to an end, New Jersey garden clubs and the New Jersey state highway commission began a living memorial, planting on highways to honor returning troops. That was adopted by Maine’s Federation of Garden Clubs in 1946, Linnane said.
“The BHGC’s Blue Star Memorial Marker was originally erected in 1972 as a tribute and an expression of thanks, respect and remembrance, to all men and women who had served, were serving, or would serve in the armed forces of the United States,” according to a BHGC press release.
BHGC’s Blue Star Memorial Marker was initially near the former Sonogee nursing home and moved to the head of the island location in 2005. The BHGC has planted dogwoods at the site. Member Jan McIntyre planted native Maine lupines.
“Garden clubs nationwide believe in a living memorial, preferring to help beautify and preserve the country these men and women had fought for, rather than build stone monuments in their honor. Since World War I, a Blue Star Banner displayed in the window of a home told others that a family member was serving in the Armed Forces. Based on this legacy, the Blue Star Memorial Program began in 1944 with the planting of Dogwood trees as a living memorial to Veterans of World War II,” the club wrote.
LINKS TO LEARN MORE
Disclaimer: We have several close family members who have served or are serving in the military.
Photos: Shaun Farrar and Carrie Jones.
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