From collection Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Company Collection
Hotel Pemaquid, Pemaquid Point, Maine
A view of the Pemaquid Hotel, taken at mid-century. Guests mill on the porch, rocking in rocking chairs, and sit at umbrella-shaded tables on the front lawn. The three-story frame hotel was built in 1885 to capture the increasing Maine coast tourist trade of the late-19th century. At that time, guests would arrive by train and horse and buggy from Newcastle, and later by auromobile, to spend a week or several, enjoying the fresh ocean air, the view, and peahps a hike and time spent reading and playing simple games. Many were comprised of academics, brought there in 1926 by Colby professor Dr. Herbert Carlisle Libby of Colby College. Accommodations would have been very simple, with guests expected to be spending most of their stays outside or in the hotel's living room in inclement weather. Some stayed in cottages subsequently built on the property. and During WWII, not long before this picture was made, the hotel had been taken over by the U.S. Navy for one year, due to its strategic location on Pemaquid Point. The scene shows the establishment at a time when such places were owned and run almost as a personal enterprise by a family or individual. In 1945, likely a time when the business was at a low value, the hotel was purchased by Lucy L. Allen, who would own it for 30 years. According to a history on pemaquidpoint.org, "Mr, Allen's business was managing a laundry in Damariscotta, so we can surmise that most of inn-keeping was, indeed, done by Lucy Allen. Mr. Allen was on the scene, doing odd jobs, but his name, for whaever reason, is not on the deed, and she is the sole owner. Mrs. Allen was the last owner to operate at full-fledged dining room on the premises. The Hotel had a staff of about fifteen persons, with women doubling as waitresses and chambermaids. Most were local people, but all had sleeping quarters at the hotel."
