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The Knowles Company Then...
Even after marrying Jerome Henry Knowles, a young Northeast Harbor attorney, Belle worked and saw her real estate business flourish. It was quite a feat for a married lady in 1903 to be both wife and career woman. She and Jerome had a son, Jerome Knowles, Jr., who in 1933 joined his mother in the business. Nine years later Jerome, Jr.'s wife, Evelyn, came on board as a real estate broker. In 1949 the business incorporated as The Knowles Company. It expanded to include statewide appraisal services in 1950.
Active in real estate long into her life, at the age of 70 Belle traveled to New Orleans to attend Tulane University, where she received a Member of Appraisal Institute degree. She was the first person in Maine and the third woman in the United States to receive such a distinction. |
It was the summer of 1898. The newspapers were filled with accounts of Teddy Roosevelt and the Rough Riders' charge up San Juan Hill. A new breakfast food called Corn Flakes had been introduced by William Kellogg, and summer residents of Northeast Harbor were enjoying the novelty of sending picture post cards, newly authorized by the United States Post Office.
The summer of 1898 was an eventful summer for Belle Smallidge, too. As Northeast Harbor's town librarian, she met a vacationing couple in the market for a summer rental. She offered to assist them, and before she knew it, she was working full time finding rental properties for other visitors to Northeast Harbor. Thus was launched Mount Desert Island's oldest and most successful real estate firm.
The family tradition continued when Jerome Jr. and Evelyn's daughter Kathryn began working summers in the real estate office doing photography for her father's appraisals. Kathryn's husband, Bob Suminsby, joined The Knowles Company in 1958 as a broker. In 1972, Bob and Kathy purchased The Knowles Company from Kathy's parents and subsequently opened a branch in Southwest Harbor. Within fifteen years, they had opened a third branch in Ellsworth, and their son, Jerome, had joined the business.|
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