Searsport House

Searsport House

This view of the town's only major hotel, The Searsport House, is taken from Main Street. According to the booklet "150th Anniversary Searsport, Maine 1845-1995" the hotel's history began "...as a dwelling built in 1831...sold in a few years to John Beals who opened it as an inn called Beals' Tavern. Successive owners altered and enlarged the structure" (by the 1870s, when the French Second Empire was in style, giving it four stories and a Mansard roof ) "...In 1873 the proprietor, W.H. Matthews, was able to declare proudly on his advertising card that Searsport is the place for 'persons desiring a few days or weeks quiet by the seashore, surrounded by the most magnificent scenery in the World, together with shady and level drives, [and] fine chances for sailing and fishing.' ...The Searsport House burned to the ground on October 21, 1892, destroying the home of Dr. Simonton next door and damaging nearby buildings. Rebuilt by 1895, the old hotel survived until 1943 when it was torn down." The image shows the hotel in its post-1892 fire Queen Anne Victorian phase. The photograph shows its still newly built, eye-catching porches and corner tower, decorated with turned balusters and variegated shingles. The roof is painted with a contrasting white stripe, which would have made the hotel noticeable to tourists from the Steamship Landing a few blocks away. Such an establishment would have appealed to vacationers arriving in the area by steamship or rail, but with the advent of automobile travel in the early 20th century, travelers had the means and flexibililty to explore farther afield and stay in local tourist homes and eventually tourist cabins which sprang up aplenty along Route 1 in the 1920s and later after WWII. That war and the Depression also surely contributed to the decline in the hotel's business. Several guests can be seen relaxing on chairs on the front porch. There is a garage and service station at the far left, displaying signs reading "Buick Automotive Service, and Goodrich". Two or three men are visible sitting in the open garage door on Water Street. The year range given above is an estimate from observations of the car models and the length of the skirt of the woman sitting on the inn's front porch. See also LB2007.1.110097