Kennebunkport Resort Collection history

Seacrest—our resort’s Main House overlooking the Atlantic on Ocean Avenue—was built as a summer “cottage” in 1895 by a prominent Ohio family.

Retaining the inn’s gracious character while infusing it with contemporary flair, renovations and décor are guided by Kennebunkport’s colorful history as a shipbuilding and fishing village, as well as the 1899 home’s original Federal-style architecture.

The mansion’s view would soon include the home built on Walkers Point in 1902 by George Herbert Walker: grandfather of President George H.W. Bush.

In 1961, the Hackenbergs sell the inn – now with 10 guest rooms in the main building, 26 in the annex, 3 dining rooms, a kitchen, a lounge, and offices — to town tax collector Thelma Burrows and her husband, Joseph, who remove the offending take-out booth and open the inn for year-round business.

Ted and Marie Shields take over the inn in 1976, renovating the annex — the newly christened Riverhouse.

So many architecturally alluring mansions were built on our point of land, the Cape Arundel Summer Colony Historic District earned National Register of Historic Places status in 1984.

2001-present: New Century, New Traditions Debra Lennon, a 20-year veteran of the hospitality industry, and husband Thomas Nill, a construction manager and master carpenter, purchase the inn, redecorating the guest rooms and public areas.

Uniting these two gracious estates—and renovating them for today’s discriminating traveler, while preserving their historic character—has been a labor of love for the Kennebunkport Resort Collection since 2014.