Built as the "Union Hotel" in 1862, the Old Union Hotel is the oldest known surviving coastal resort hotel in Maine. It was converted to a private residence in the 1940's and is now the Captain's Watch Bed and Breakfast. The building occupies the highest point of land in Cundy's Harbor and dominates the skyline. It is a fine example of Greek revival architecture and the cupola is noted as a landmark on Coast Guard navigational charts. The hotel was listed on the National Register of Historic Properties in 1985.
Easement Acquired: 1986
Property Owner: Private
Easement Holder: HHLT
Easement Purpose
To protect the structural stability and appearance of the "Main Block" of the building, including the roof and cupola, particularly as viewed from the Cundy's Harbor Road and the New Meadows River.
Public Access: Customers of the B&B only
Other
1. From the National Register of Historic Places Inventory Nomination Form (July 1985)
The Union Hotel is historically significant as the oldest known surviving coastal resort hotel building in Maine. Constructed in 1862, the structure is an early manifestation of the development of coastal resort communities. As such, the Union Hotel is an important survivor of an extremely important aspect of the state's history.
The Brunswick Telegraph of June 20, 1862, featured an advertisement for the newly completed Union Hotel, which was to open on the Fourth of July: "The house has been erected during the present season, and everything about it will be new and in the best style and taste. It has a commanding position, the most elevated on the point, and affords a magnificent view of the ocean, the headlands about the mouths of the Kennebec and New Meadows Rivers, and a wide stretch also of the latter river."
The construction of hotels in Harpswell was preceded by the Mansion House on Potts Point in 1835 (burned 1868) and followed by the Seaside Hotel, also on Potts Point in 1863 (burned 1866). Cundy's Harbor had blossomed as a fishing village in the 1850s, principally through the efforts of Robert Watson from Gloucester, Mass.
Daniel Weeks Simpson, who married one of Watson's daughters, came from nearby Brunswick in 1861-62 to construct the Union Hotel. Simpson must have seen the area's potential attraction to summer "rusticators", for the area was not known for its resorts. The simplicity of the ornament on the hotel probably reflected the vernacular building traditions of the region.
Simpson's hotel failed after a year, and the property went to his relations, who were apparently his chief financial backers. The lower story of the building was used as a church and a school for a few years before the hotel was started up again. It continued in use as a hotel, undergoing periodic remodellings and various name changes, until the 1940s when the major conversion for a private residence occurred.'
2. From Sally Rand, a former owner
"UNION HOTEL, Cundys Harbor, Harpswell, Maine
History
Although Harpswell today has only a handful of accommodations for overnight guests, the hotel and boarding house business once thrived here. Summer 'rusticators' fled the heat and problems of city life, and headed for the charms of the seaside. The people of Harpswell were quick to add catering to this new trade to their life as farmers and fishermen, with the greatest growth coming from 1880 to the advent of the automobile and World War I. The Mansion House built on Pott's Point In 1835, and the Union Hotel, built in l862on a hill in Cundy's Harbor across from Watson's Store, were the first buildings to be constructed specifically as hotels. A year later the Seaside Hotel was built on Potts Point. Both the Seaside Hotel (in 1866) end the Mansion House (in 1868) burned, making the Union Hotel today the oldest standing hotel built in Harpswell.
The Union Hotel in Cundys Harbor opened its doors for the first time on the Fourth of July in 1862. Cundys Harbor had blossomed in the previous ten years into a full-fledged village, spurred by the energy and Investment of the Robert Watson family who came here from Gloucester about 1850 (See 1857 & 1871 maps). The Watson' fishing station' in Cundys Harbor was still linked with the Gloucester fishing through one of the partners, George Garland, who remained in Gloucester. By the 1870s the Harpswell fishing industry had grown so much that Wheeler's History reported 20,000 quintals (over 2 m pounds) of fish caught, dried and cured annually, including cod, hake, haddock, pollock, and cusk. About 1860, Watson's son, Sidney, joined in the fishing business as a merchant and trader in Cundys Harbor with his partners, Alfred Trufant, who married Watson's daughter, Sarah, and Erastus C. Simpson, originally from Brunswick, who was married to Minerva Trufant, a cousin of Alfred.
In 1861 -2, Daniel Weeks Simpson (first cousin of E.C.Simpson) also moved down from Brunswick to Cundys Harbor, married Watson's daughter, Mary, and bought the hilltop lot for $25 from Robert and Betsey Watson on which he built the hotel. Daniel Simpson was born in 1835 to John Spear and Catherine Skolfield Simpson of Brunswick, members of the old shipbuilding family at Simpson's Point on Maquoit Bay, and related to many of the old shipping families in Brunswick, including the Pennells, Owens, and Skolfields. Hs uncle, Israel Gross Simpson, continued the shipbuilding tradition carried on by a cousin, Eldridge Gerry Simpson at Simpson's Point, end is listed has having built four schooners, including the two-master, 'Addle Emma' in 1866, which hailed from Harpswell (Cundys Harbor) when new.
Daniel Simpson at age 25 thus came to Cundys Harbor in 1862 to become a member of a hardworking family of fishermen, merchants and traders, and try his luck at the hotel business. Advertisements and highly descriptive and complimentary articles appeared in the Brunswick Telegraph. But, the timing was bad. Despite the beauty of the house and location, and the abundance of finest local produce and good table, the Civil War economy must have been the major factor that brought the hotel in 1863 to failure. A Sheriffs sale was held at the Municipal Courtroom in Brunswick on July 6, 1863, just a year after the gallant opening on the Fourth of July, 1862. The creditors included his relations: Sidney Watson, Albert Trufant and Erastus C. Simpson ("traders & copartners in business at said Harpswell under the name & style of S.Watson & Co. as well as George Garland of Gloucester. The debt on the hotel was paid by his father-in-law, Robert Watson.
The Watsons used the hotel building as a church and a school during the next few years after the sale in 1863. The Brunswick Telegraph of June 23, 1865 reports that 'the lower story of the Union Hotel has been converted into a church, and Elder Johnson officiates there.' The East Harpswell Freewill Baptist church (1813) stood (and still stands) over two miles north of the village on the Cundy's Harbor Road at Cranberry Horn Hill, but having church available in the village, which had grown so rapidly in the past few years, would have been a great convenience. In 1867, while Reverend L.C. Burr was serving in the pulpit of the Freewill Baptist Society, members of the First Christ Church (organized In 1864 at Cundy's Harbor) raised money and provisions 'for the purpose of supporting the preaching of the gospel for such a part of the time as we can raise funds, the same to be in connection with the Church of the Free Will Baptists at their house--this action to unite the interests of the two Societies.' This interest to unite was evidently of short duration as the Chapel members at Cundy's Harbor built their own Church In 1877 (from a personal paper belonging to Sidnay Watson, 1867 - Watson Family Papers).
Daniel Simpson, his wife Mary (Watson) Simpson, and their three children Watson (age 8), Jennie (age 5), end Bessie(age I) are listed In the 1870 Harpswell census. Daniel's occupation is given as 'Fishermen' with Mary 'Keeping House'. He is called 'Captain Daniel Simpson' in a Simpson genealogy may be presumed to been in command of one of the Watson fishing schooners. In 1874, they sold the hotel at last as seen in a deed in the Cumberland County Registry: 'Mary E Simpson, wife of Daniel W. Simpson in my own right and I Robert Watson, both of Harpswell, for $800 to Stephen Whitmore of Gardiner-- - - the Hotel, stable, buildings and lot, called the Union Hotel property In Said Harpswell November18, 1874 Robert Watson, Mary E. Sirnpson, Daniel W. Simpson In presence of Stephen Purinton. Justice of the Peace and Sidney Watson". The Simpsons moved to Boothbay Harbor where Daniel went into marketing as a member of the firm "Simpson end Perkins, dealers in Groceries, Meats, Provisions and Fruit (p. 660, History of Boothbay etc. Greene, 1906). Robert Watson also moved to Boothbay Harbor around 1880, to carry on his fishing business at that location, leaving his son Sydney to carry on the Cundy's Harbor business. Daniel Simpson died April 6, 1885 at age 49 and is buried In Pine Grove Cemetery in Brunswick, near the Simpson family plot.
The hotel was operated sporadically until the 1940's, according to an article In the Lewiston Journal (July 2, 1966, author Miriam Stover Thomas - historian, Harpswell): 'In 1867 James Jewel took over and operated it as the Union Hotel until 1885. When the MacDonald Steamboat Line operated two twin screw steamers, the Pejepscot and Percy V and Cundy's, Small Point and Sebasco, the Union (Hotel) catered to the Portland trade. With fresh fish, clams, lobster, fresh vegetables, berries and milk practically at the back door, who could fail to set a good table? Capt. E. D. and Laura Percy later operated it as the Cliff House and the Percy House until 1905. The hotel remained vacant until the 1920's when a Mr. and Mrs. Ludovic Moreau of Auburn served shore dinners in it.' (Deeds show that Laura Percy bought the hotel from Warren &Whitmore in 1888, and that it was sold by heirs to the Moreaus in 1919. Mr. Jewell's name does not appear in the chain of title so if he had been a proprietor, It must have been as a lessee. The Moreaus called it the Ocean View Hotel.
By the end of World War II, local people say that the old hotel was badly deteriorated and vacant most of the time. It was purchased in 1946 by Richard Hatch of Connecticut, who proceeded to have extensive remodeling carried out for his use as a residence, his work preserving this landmark for the future. It has remained a residence since that time, with a brief stint during the l970s as a "Bed end Breakfast" establishment."