A Bit of History
The original colonial cape home on the Watchtide site was built in the early 1790's by a group of six colonial craftsmen -- carpenters, joiners, masons, painters -- who are said to have built nearly all the 18th century homes that remain in what is now Searsport, Maine. At the time the town was called Prospect and was part of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
In August, 1794, the property was deeded to Brigadier General Henry Knox, one of George Washington's most reliable senior officers who later became the new nation's first Secretary of War. A former bookseller, Knox married his wife, Lucy Flucker, in the early years of the Revolutionary conflict. Her parents were staunch British loyalists who disapproved of the marriage and returned to England as the Revolution progressed, never to see their daughter again.
General Knox set about acquiring additional land and one of the parcels included Sears Island, then called Brigadier Island. The island was named not for the general but for British Brigadier Samuel Waldo, Lucy Knox's grandfather, who received it in a patent from England's King George III. General Knox was not without recognition on his own, however. The 19th century fort on the Penobscot River was called Fort Knox in his honor. The second Fort Knox in Kentucky, repository of the United States gold reserves, was also named for him. General Knox was one of the earliest advocates of a well-trained standing army and is acknowledged as the founder of the United States Military Academy at West Point, NY.
After General Knox sold the Maine property, it changed hands a number of times in the nineteenth century. Among the more prominent owners were several master mariners and sea captains, understandable since many of the clipper ships that sailed the seas in the mid-1800's were built in Searsport and neighboring Belfast, Maine.
After the turn of the twentieth century the property was purchased by George and Rose Pettee of Egremont, Massachusetts as a summer home. George Pettee was an educator and at the time was teaching at Andover Academy. In 1917 his daughter, Frances, and three roommates from Wellesley College decide to open a tea house at the property. Called the College T House, it gradually evolved into the College Club Inn which for two decades was one of the most popular stopping-off places on the Maine coast. With travel seriously restricted after the beginning of World War II, the inn closed and returned to being a private home.
College Club Inn ~ C 1930
Despite several attempts over the intervening years to revive the College Club Inn, it remained a private home until 1994 when Nancy-Linn Nellis and her husband Jack Elliott, purchased the property and converted it into a bed and breakfast inn which they called Watchtide...by the Sea!, the name it still retains. They retired early in 2006, selling the property to Patricia and Frank Kulla, the current innkeepers.
The new owners have undertaken the first complete renovation of the property in nearly ten years. The guest rooms have been newly refurbished and redecorated, the lawns that look down to Penobscot Bay have been cleared and reseeded, and the extensive gardens have been replanted and refreshed. In the process, a rock garden established 60 years ago by the family of George and Rose Pettee for their parents 50th wedding anniversary has been carefully restored.
The traditions of history and hospitality continue today at Watchtide as they have for many decades past.
Bed and Breakfast Directory
1794 Watchtide™...by the Sea!
190 West Main Street
Searsport, Maine 04974
207-548-6575 ~ 800-698-6575
www.watchtide.com ~ stay@watchtide.com