Built 1920 (1920) Opened 1920 Added to NRHP 14 April 2000 | NRHP Reference # 00000377 Area 1 ha | |
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Location 190 W. Main St., Searsport, Maine Architectural styles Greek Revival architecture, Federal architecture | ||
Watchtide by the Sea, once known as the College Club Inn, is a historic traveler accommodation at 190 West Main Street (United States Route 1) in Searsport, Maine. Based around an early 19th-century house and developed as an inn and tea room in the early 20th century, the property exemplifies the adaptive reuse of older properties for the tourist trade in Maine. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2000.
Description and history
Watchtide by the Sea is set on the southeast side of US 1, roughly midway between downtown Searsport and Moose Point State Park. The inn consists of a 1-1/2 story Cape style house, which is connected by a long single-story ell extending to its left to a converted barn. The Cape is five bays wide, with a side gable roof and end chimneys, and has a porch extending across its front and a full-width shed-roof dormer above. The ell has smaller shed-roof dormers, which was also found on the barn's southern roof. The interior of the Cape has Greek Revival styling, and is organized in a typical Federal period central hall plan, enlarged by the presence of the dormer above, and an enclosed porch to the rear.
The house was built about 1800, and was acquired in 1902 by George and Rose Pettee for use as a summer house. A number of the enlargements and alterations were made during their ownership, and the property was opened as a tea room and inn by their daughter Frances in 1917, known as the "College Club T House". Still under the Pettee's ownership, it operated under several variants of the "College Club" name through 1953. Although this practice of converting older buildings for use in the tourist trade was quite common in Maine, there are relatively few well-preserved examples, of which this is one.