The building that now houses Port Side in Bernard has 19th century beginnings. In 1891, the Murphy family built the small, sturdy structure to store their lobster traps and fishing gear near their wharf, which at that time extended another ten yards into the harbor. The Murphys lived in the house across the street.

In 1927, Charles Harding of Gott’s Island used his life savings to purchase the house, wharf, and storehouse. He lobstered from his new wharf and lived with his wife, Eva, in the former Murphy house. Charles’ brother, Clarence, inherited the property when Charles died. Though Clarence was also a lobsterman, he already owned a house, and so he rented the house across from the wharf to Nancy and Irving Silverman. The Silvermans acquired the property a decade later. They cleaned out the lobster shed and opened it as the Nancy Neale Antique Printing Museum, where they displayed their immense collection of antique wood-type.

The Silvermans created the many-colored lobster buoy wall by asking the lobstermen of Bass Harbor to place a wooden buoy - each with the lobstermen’s individual colors - on the outside shed wall to memorialize the steadfast Harding family. The Harding Wharf was dedicated in 1981. The Silvermans added the lighthouse tower in 1992. Since then, the lobster buoy wall and lighthouse tower have vied with the Somesville Bridge, across the street from Port In A Storm Bookstore, for the most photographed site on the Island. Photographs of the Harding Wharf have been incorporated into at least three jigsaw puzzles and ten calendars. Pictures of the place have graced the covers of national magazines and catalogs.