“Yes, we do have a ghost living here,” said Marie Henrikson, former proprietor of Tides Inn. Guests sometimes say they have seen a stately-looking woman dressed in Victorian garb rocking in a certain chair in the parlor or seated in front of the piano. “We’re convinced the ghost is Mrs. Emma L. Foss,” said Henrikson, who owned Tides Inn when the hotel was featured in the Haunted New England issue of the Boston Sunday Herald on October 31, 1993.

The Tides, designed by John Calvin Stevens, was built in 1899 for Emma Foss who called it the New Belvidere Inn. Through an unfortunate series of financial setbacks, Emma was forced to sell the Inn to her desk clerk, a Mr. Joseph Allen whose son Albert Allen renamed the hotel Allen’s by the Sea.

Barbara Barwise, who lived at Goose Rocks Beach for years and was a former Director of the Kennebunkport Historical Society, remembers Marie telling her that Emma’s Room was #25, where her presence was sometimes felt. “After purchasing the Inn, Marie and her daughter Kristen reported that the fire alarm outside room #25 kept activating until they moved it. Guests reported the bed shaking and the feeling that someone was tucking them into bed at night,” said Barbara.

One guest staying in Room #29 reportedly woke to see a stern looking woman staring at him. When he jumped out of bed she disappeared. Painters working in that same room reported seeing the apparition of a middle-aged woman leaning on the doorjamb, watching them paint.

A man who once rented Room #9, came to the front desk in the morning to show Kristen his bruised legs that, he claimed, were beaten during the night. It was the first report of violence and why would gentle Emma beat up on this nice paying guest? “Might it have been because this registered guest’s name was Mr. Allen?” wondered Barbara.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!