City: Kennebunk, ME

Category: Accommodations

Telephone: (207) 985-4250 or (877) 521-87

Address: 108 Summer St.

Description: Don’t go thinking this big old colonial is where Ralph Waldo Emerson came up with his transcendental ideas—this house, Kennebunk’s oldest, was built by his great-uncle, who made his fortune in the local shipbuilding trade. (Of course, little Ralphie was a visitor in summers.) Subsequently owned by other shipbuilders (they liked it because the Kennebunk River is out back), it went up in 1753, when Kennebunk was a thriving shipbuilding port. The inn’s history is still written in the architecture and details—there are heavy hand-hewn beams overhead as you enter, there’s the big working fireplace from the 1770s, which is still used to take the chill off at breakfast, and there are wide pine planks on the floors of some guest rooms. The rooms are cozy in a decidedly old-fashioned way, but they do have private baths, and there is a living area for guests with books, cable TV, and games. Most rooms don’t have TV..