The Waldo Emerson Inn Kennebunk

General Information

A reconstructed shipbuilders manse situated next to the Kennebunk river with all the most modern facilities including working fireplaces for recreation romantic getaway. Let us pamper you with a terrific Dutch breakfast and siesta tea in the Inns historic parlor or in the shade of our big oak trees. The Inn features had a few great proprietors. The original Dutch grambrel was built by one Waldo Emerson in 1753. It's the oldest remaining cottage in Kennebunk. Waldo, well-known uncle of Ralph Waldo Emerson, the poet/essayist, made a tidy benefit building clipper ships on the river beyond the cottage. It was inherited, through marriage, by Theodore Lyman, who made a fortune building ships on the premises and added the enormous addition in 1784, as a wedding gift for his 2nd wife. Theodore sold the home in 1804, to build the now outstanding Lyman Estate and Greenhouses in Waltham, Mass. The cottage was purchased by John Bourne, father of 15 kids, one of whom was George Washington Bourne, the builder of the prestigious Wedding Cake House next door. The guesthouse is a good recollection of the past. You enter directly into the 252 year antique keeping suite, with its hand hewn oak timbers hung with dried bunchs of flowers, pewter and copper.