Located on Maranacook Lake, in the towns of Readfield and Winthrop, Tallwood has a hundred-year history of gracious lakeside living with views and access to one of Maine's finest water bodies.

Once home to The Tallwoods Inn, a popular resort in the early 1930's, Tallwood has offered solace to business weary families from throughout New England. Its original small community of heirloom cottages has now become the center of a subdivision of year round lake side homes.

The history of Tallwood Peninsula permeates its woods and shoreline. During most of the 1800s Tallwood was pastureland for the town poor farm, which was situated by the mailboxes near where the current Tallwood Drive changes to a dirt road. The original Tallwood Farm was located across from those mailboxes. This farm was run for two generations by the Townsend family whose descendants still live in Readfield and summer on the Point in the log cabin next door to us. In recent years, a new Tallwood Farm has been lovingly recreated on the original site.

In 1893 Mr. David Craig, a Boston theater socialite, built the three story Sir Charles Hotel on Tallwood Peninsula on the western shore about 250 yards from the point. Bostonians would ride the train to Winthrop, disembark at the station, and be ferried up the lake to the hotel, where they would enjoy summer theater and the cooler air of Maine.

In the late 1890s the hotel was bought by Mrs. Margaret Butler, also a Bostonian associated with the theater. For a short time it was called the Mohican Inn before its name finally changed to Tallwood Inn. Over the years 17 cottages and camps were built on the peninsula, so guests could either stay in the main Inn (which slept 75 persons) or in a rented cottage. Even when vacationing in a cottage they often took their meals at the Inn’s dining room, which seated 200and boasted a magnificent fieldstone fireplace.

After eating dinner they could relax on the wide verandah in one of the many rocking chairs overlooking the mesmerizing Maranacook Lake sunsets. Evening entertainment could be found in the dance pavilion or the theater, which eventually converted to movies instead of live theater.

After a long day of fishing, swimming, boating, playing tennis, batting a baseball on the Tallwood sportsfield, or taking in a golf game at the Augusta Country Club, guests often would simply stroll the carriage paths meandering around the many majestic tall pines, some which were even wired with lamps to help light the paths.

In addition to bringing theater friends to Tallwood, Mrs. Butler also brought her fascination with spiritual matters to Maine. She would lead séances at Tallwood (at our summer cottage at the Point!), often with the help of Mr. Whittier, a nearby carpenter who built the Tallwood Inn.

In 1917 Tallwood Inn and Resort, with the exception of the lodge home at the Point, passed to the ownership of Mr. Samuel Patterson, a gregarious southern gentleman. He broadened the geographical range the guests traveled from and kept them returning to Tallwood by socializing and befriending guests and staff. Mr. Patterson even married a much younger staff waitress after divorcing his first wife. Sam was well known around Readfield and Winthrop for his “hosting with the mosting” attitude and jesting personality.

Sadly though, the Great Depression took its toll on the finances of Tallwood. Many of the wealthy guests, who traveled from Boston, New York, and a variety of southern states, lost their financial foundations and were unable to afford a vacation in Maine. In addition, the increasing ease of road travel hurt the railroad passenger business on which Tallwood relied. Tragically, Tallwood closed in the late 1930s and ultimately was repossessed by the bank. Fortunately, Benjamin Bloomfield, a Texas businessman who owned a steamship company based in Houston and who had been along time guest at Tallwood, then bought it. He let Sam summer on Tallwood Peninsula until his elderly years.

Eventually the Inn and many of the cottages had to be torn down. Currently, seven are still standing. Meanwhile the lodge home at the Point (built in 1894 and expanded and remodeled during 1911-12) was named “Gran Liden Lodge” (grand heaven) by the Swedish-American family who purchased it from Mrs. Butler. It then passed to two more owners before being purchased by Michael J. Fiori.

Over the years Benjamin and other Bloomfield family members continued to summer on the Peninsula. Benjamin died in 1972, and the last family member to summer here passed in 1994. Most of the peninsula, with the exception of five cottages that were gradually sold off, remained in a trust owned by the Bloomfield heirs. In addition to purchasing the home at the end of the Point, the Gran Liden Lodge, Michael J. Fiori also acquired the 85-acre peninsula and 4 of the remaining cottages from the trust. It is his desire to be a good caretaker of this wonderful property and to preserve and share its rich history. I hope you enjoy Tallwood as many before you have!

Accessible and yet away from it all, Tallwood On Maranacook Lake is
only 15 minutes (14 miles) from Interstate 95, Augusta, Maine, exit 109.