Do you remember the Langsford House in Cape Porpoise? Were you there when the two upper stories of the yellow hotel building were demolished in March of 1964?

Ferdinando Huff first ran an inn on that lot in 1682. The town was twice abandoned during King William’s War and Queen Ann’s War. Thomas Huff returned to Cape Porpoise for the second time in 1715 and garrisoned his property against attack. Cape Porpoise settlers sought refuge there during the French and Indian Wars. Some made it.

In October 1723 two men named FitzHenry and Bartow left Thomas Huff’s garrison to go to Vaughn’s Island to gather firewood. They were surprised on the island by three indigenous warriors. Their bodies were later recovered from the Vaughn’s Island creek that is still known as FitzHenry’s Ditch.

By the time Gloucester fisherman, Henry Lewis Langsford started managing a summer 5-guest boarding house at Clement Huff’s c.1750 Homestead during the Civil War, Clement’s father Thomas Huff’s Garrison was no longer standing. Its ruins were still visible near the homestead when Charles Bradbury wrote his 1837 History of Kennebunk Port.

In 1884, Henry Lewis Langsford’s wife, Christena bought the homestead from the estate of the late Clement Huff. The Langsfords had already been managing the small summer boarding house there off and on for years. They added an attractive 3-story structure with a wraparound veranda seen in the third photograph in time for the opening of the 1888 watering season. Their children George and Eva made improvements and managed the Langsford House from 1891-1920. Marshall Ryder of Lawrence Mass was in charge of the management of the hotel from 1920-1943.

George H. Wood, who, as a boy scout had visited his scoutmaster Ryder’s hotel and worked there as chef for 20 years, purchased it in 1943. The Langsford House accommodated 160 guests when it closed at the end of the 1963 season. The Woods and Real Estate developer, Jon Milligan devised a plan to renovate the hotel, outbuildings, and barn into cottages and add several vacant lots to be sold. See the artist rendering of the development plan.