Bed& Breakfast The Waldo Emerson Inn

A restored shipbuilders manse located next to the Kennebunk river with all the latest amenities including working fireplaces for a relaxing romantic getaway. Let us pamper you with a terrific Dutch breakfast and afternoon tea in the Inns historic parlor or in the shade of our large oak trees. The Inn has had several famous owners. The original Dutch grambrel was constructed by one Waldo Emerson in 1753. It is the oldest remaining house in Kennebunk. Waldo, great uncle of Ralph Waldo Emerson, the poet/essayist, made a tidy profit building clipper ships on the river behind the house. It was inherited, through marriage, by Theodore Lyman, who made a fortune building ships on the site and added the enormous addition in 1784, as a wedding gift for his second wife. Theodore sold the home in 1804, to build the now famous Lyman Estate and Greenhouses in Waltham, Mass. The house was purchased by John Bourne, father of 15 children, one of whom was George Washington Bourne, the builder of the famous Wedding Cake House next door. The inn is a wonderful recollection of the past. You enter directly into the 252 year old keeping room, with its hand hewn oak timbers hung with dried flowers,pewter and copper.