Robert S. Gardiner, St. Andrews Land Company
Robert S. Gardiner had been a summer guest in St. Andrews since the 1870s, and was probably part of that early wave which swept northward from Bar Harbour after 1875 or so and broke on the shores of Passamaquoddy Bay. Mr. Gardiner is generally identified with the St. Andrews Land Company, of which he was President for a time, not perhaps because he was the chief mover--Frank Cram was arguably just as important--but perhaps more because he was a handsome, charismatic, sociable and talented individual. Also, he was in the Town rather longer than Cram, who left in 1890 after the CPR took over the assets of the New Brunwick Railway, though he remained a summer guest and retained formal ties with the Land Company. In 1893 Mr. Gardiner built an unpretentious little cottage alongside the Algonquin Hotel called Hillside. This was later purchased by Robert Gill and much enlarged. It is still there, though not visible from the Hotel, as the area is now much wooded. Gardiner was a traveller as well. Like so many of the time, in a world where the CPR and its ocean-going steamers had opened up the Orient to the West, he was much enamored of Japan, and not only had stirring adventures there, but wrote a book on the subject called "Japan As We Saw It." Mr. Gardiner died young; he was only 57. His daughter, Mrs. Payne, continued to summer in St. Andrews for many years.
- Robert S. Gardiner
- Franklin Cram
- The St. Andrews Land Company
- The Algonquin Hotel
- The Summer People