Maine Memory Network

Crowds of vacationers are shown on the beach in front of the Fiske House resort in Old Orchard Beach. R. Cutler Libby took the photo July 21, 1907.

Ocean Avenue in Kennebunkport, looking east.

In the center of this image is the Ocean Bluff Hotel, a large white building with two cupolas. It burned at the turn of the last century.

Now on the site is the Colony Hotel. The boathouse in the foreground on the right is still standing. Note the early dirt roads and wooden fences.

The Dirigo Hotel located in Southwest Harbor was photographed in 1893. It burned on September 3, 1960.

The Kingfield House, also known as the Hotel Winter, was built by John Winter II in 1886 on the site of the Franklin House, which had burned in 1880.

The Kingfield House was an imposing structure on Main Street, here viewed from the south. Guest rooms occupied the upper part of the hotel. The lower concourse housed small shops . A sign for the "W.B. Small Meat Market" is visible on the street side.

The lower level housed the stables for travelers staying at the hotel. When the Stanley Brothers of Kingfield brought their first steam motor carriages to town in 1899/1900, the vehicles were kept in the hotel's stable.

The Herbert replaced the Kingfield House in 1918.

The resort Hotel Alberta at Old Orchard Beach was built in 1898 on the lower portion of Old Orchard Street.

Selden W. Holt owned it until it burned on August 15, 1907.

A young woman in one of the hotels who knocked over an oil lamp while she was curling her hair started the fire. The fire quickly spread and destroyed 17 hotels, 20 stores and 60 cottages.

The Hotel Alberta was never rebuilt.

The Shore Acres Hotel was located near Lamoine Beach. It was built as a farm house in 1795 by Louis Deslsle and became the Deslsle Hotel in the late 19th century.

The name was changed to the Shore Acres Hotel in 1892 at the request of James Hearne, who wrote the play Shore Acres in Lamoine.

It was one of at least three large resort hotels in the area. The others were the Gault Hotel, located where the Lamoine State Park is now, and the LeMoyne Inn, which was west of where Shore Acres now stands.

In the 1880s, developers and others attempted to promote Lamoine as a summer resort, hoping to raise property values and provide seasonal employment to the residents, but they were unsuccessful, as were efforts to bring the railroad to Lamoine.

The Bay Point Hotel, owned by Francis Cobb II, opened on July 4th, 1889.

In 1902, the Ricker family, owners and operators of the Poland Spring Hotel, bought the property and embellished the L-shaped building with turrets, porches, and gingerbread decoration.

Hiram Ricker renamed the hotel "The Samoset," after the Pemaquid chief who was among the first people to greet Europeans.

In 1911 the Maine Central Railroad acquired the hotel. The hotel closed in 1969 and burned completely on October 13, 1972.

A new Samoset was built in 1978.

The Mt. Kineo hotel on Kineo, Moosehead Lake.

Maine Central Railroad purchased the resort hotel in 1912. The Hiram Ricker Hotel Company, which owned the Poland Spring resort, operated the hotel.

Steamboat heading for the swing bridge at Chutes River with the Inn in the background.

The Bay of Naples Inn opened in 1899. It was a prosperous hotel during the early years of the 20th century. The Inn was torn down in 1967.

The 100-room turn of the twentieth century inn, located on Main Street in Fryeburg, was a popular summer tourist accommodation for visitors to the Mount Washington Valley.

It was destroyed by fire in 1906.

The Hotel Sorrento was built by the Frenchman's Bay and the Mt. Desert Land and Water Company as part of their plan to develop the Town of Sorrento as a summer colony. It was built in 1889 and burned on June 27, 1906.

The Summit Springs Hotel in Poland was built in 1904. It was torn down in 1959.

A photograph of Rockledge Hotel at Popham Beach with Silver Lake in the foreground, shows Bates Cottage, A.H. Shaw Cottage and Fernald Cottage, ca. 1890. A windmill is in the foreground.

Postcard shows the Great Northern Hotel in Millinocket.

Great Northern Paper Company built the Great Northern Hotel for use by upper management, their families and other important guests and business contacts of the company.

Cyclists relax in front of the Checkley Hotel, Prout's Neck Road, Scarborough.

The Vaughan House was a well-regarded hotel in Caribou. It burned and was rebuilt multiple times. This picture was taken about 1890.

Peaks Island House on Peaks Island, ca. 1905.

The first Peaks Island House, a relatively small hotel, was replaced in 1904 by this four-story building. It burned in 1934.

With the annex, seen to the left, the hotel could accommodate 600.

The hotel to the left is the Union House, which burned in 1936.

The Kimball House, main hotel at Northeast Harbor, was built in the 1830s by Daniel Kimball.

The four-story hotel with the octagonal tower was built in 1886-1887. It had 70 chambers, several large parlors and a music room.

Mooselookmeguntic Lake House at Mooselookmeguntic Lake. The lake was a popular destination, with trains delivering summer visitors to the vicinity. Several resort hotels were located in the area.