For 100 years, three generations of the Colonel John Black family owned and lived at the estate they called Woodlawn. The family’s wealth came from lumber, land sales, and shipping. Built between 1824 and 1827 from an Asher Benjamin design entitled "A plan for a house intended for a country setting," Woodlawn is a large brick residence in the Federalist style with Greek Revival overtones, unique in eastern Maine. In 1928, George Nixon Black, Jr., grandson of John Black, bequeathed the estate to the Hancock County Trustees of Public Reservations, the same group responsible for the establishment of Acadia National Park. Woodlawn opened as a historic house and public park in 1929 and has since remained continually open to the community.