he ie at sund n r app s dge. he t d k is in the regr und hile e nd a ruise ship departs rtland ar r. s u m m e r g u i d e 2 0 1 7 9 1 caP mona When John Muir described an “infinite storm of beauty,” he must have had a Maine island in mind. In particular, House Island deserves that distinction. h uSe iSLand m aCreage 1 L ooking for front-row tickets to the show? The northeastern half of House Island, with nearly 4,000 feet of shorefront and sparkling views of Portland’s skyline, tops the summer market. Like a beckoning finger, the enclave’s new long pier draws you in from Casco Bay. This is the part of House Island once known as the ‘Ellis Island of the North,’ where hopeful immi- grants from Europe and the Mediterranean were processed from 1907 to 1937. Three years ago, when Vincent “Cap” Mona bought this vast parcel, the ghostly imprint of the Immigration Center was still here, despite generations of neglect and the presence of a strangling invasive plant, Black Swallow wort, that was “killing everything in sight.” Lovely in its ruins, the old Doctor’s Cottage still watched