07/16/2026
The Cliff House
Even though Bald Head Cliff House is located in the Village of Cape Neddick just south of Ogunquit, it has always had a strong symbiotic relationship with its neighbor. A dramatic setting, along with four generations of the enterprising and hard-working Weare family, helped establish this hotel complex as a world-class summer destination well ahead of any rival on the coast.
How it all came about reads like a fairy tale. Once upon a time, there were two young folks born five months apart who were lucky enough to find each other. When Theodore Weare (1833-1920) left his family homestead in Cape Neddick and went to sea with the intention of becoming a captain, Elsie Jane Perkins (1833-1919) left her Perkins homeplace on Shore Road and went with a chaperoned group of young women to work in a mill in New Hampshire. Even so, they connected in their early twenties and were married in 1857.
After the Civil War ended, Elsie Jane could see the modest success of a few area homes that took in boarders, and when she heard that the Boston & Maine Railroad was planning a spur into York Beach as well as a station, she invested all the young couple's savings in a new hotel venture atop Bald Head Cliff, a bold and breathtaking promontory rising above the crashing North Atlantic surf. The spur into York Beach became operational in the late 1870s.
In writing her family's history of the resort, Kathryn Weare describes how "Elsie Jane's brother, Captain Charles Perkins, along with ship's carpenters, built the first 'hotel' in the area, that is to say, it was characterized by long corridors with rooms on either side."
The Cliff House opened for guests in 1872. Rates during that inaugural season were $6 per person per week and included three meals a day. By the 1890s, rates had doubled to $10 - $16 per week, with special rates for maids and valets.
Their formula for success was simple, according to the family history: Theodore would continue to oversee the family farm nearby, but all products, vegetables, fruits, lamb, beef, pork, and dairy products were for the use of the hotel. Elsie ran the hotel while raising seven children.
Elsie Jane's great-granddaughter, Kathryn Weare, writes, "Although Madame Weare never advertised, the Cliff House soon became the favorite resort of many fine families. The guests came to include the Biddles and Vanderbilts of Philadelphia, the Livermores and Havemeyers of New York, and the Cabots and Lodges from Boston. Some guests arrived from as far away as England and the Continent. A few famous names, such as Edwin Booth and Arturo Toscanini, are found in the old guest registers. It was a genteel age, and guests entertained themselves with card parties, croquet, and horseshoe pitching. The Cliff House offered a peaceful nature retreat: Verdant lawns, wild roses, an enormous expanse of sky, and the ever-changing sea stretching below on three sides."
The place was relatively isolated and self-contained and not within walking distance of anywhere else. The cliffside location was beyond spectacular-- breathtaking really. From the beginning, the resort had a formality not found at many other hotels.
In 1910, Elsie Jane, then in her seventies and caring for her invalid husband, Theodore, turned to her son, Charles E. Weare (1866-1951), who took over the resort and embarked on modernizations that included indoor plumbing, electric lights, a bowling alley, and space for amateur theatricals.
By 1927, the Cliff House could accommodate 140 guests, rates were $30 - $50 per week, and the hotel continued to thrive through the Roaring Twenties and the Shaky Thirties.
Kathryn describes the dramatic arrival of World War II on the coast of Maine, when "not only was the Cliff House shuttered for the duration, it was literally drafted. The US Army Corps of Engineers took over the property, built a radar station, and kept a 24-hour-a-day vigil for N**i submarines operating in the coastal waters. German U-boats sank 152 Allied ships in the North Atlantic in January and February of 1942." During the war, the Weares were barred from access to their own property.
"When peace returned, the Cliff House faced an uncertain future," Kathryn continues, "Substantial damage and severe neglect had taken their toll on the property. Rumors flew that the Cliff House would never reopen. Charles, discouraged by the condition of the land and nearly broke after having been deprived of income during the seizure of the family business, decided to sell. He placed this ad in a 1946 edition of the Wall Street Journal: FOR SALE: 144 rooms, 90 acres, over 2500' of ocean frontage for just over $59,000." There were no takers.
Failing to sell the family business, Charles turned the property over to his son, Maurice Perkins Weare (1908-2003), an army veteran who accepted the challenge "with single-minded determination," in the words of his daughter. In 1948, he married Charlotte Ann Williams (1914-2005), the Cliff House secretary.
As their ancestors had done, Maurice and Charlotte Weare oversaw significant improvements that the times demanded. In 1960, they built the first swimming pool in the area, as seen in the aerial image, and in 1963, they added a new motel to the property, and the business began to thrive again.
In 1974, Kathryn Weare became the fourth generation of the Weare family to take the reins of this venerable summer resort. She brought with her a childhood filled with discipline and responsibility, as demanded of her while growing up in the family business. During her stewardship over the next 40 years, the Cliff House expanded to include a grand staircase connecting to a new dining room, as well as two new elevators. A principal conference room was added along with an indoor pool, a fully equipped spa, and an array of new accommodations and services. Nearly 100 people were employed.
Kathryn's ancestors would be proud of her accomplishments as the youngest and the only woman president of the organization. For 142 years of family ownership, Elsie Jane Weare's formula had stood the test of time: "clean rooms, fine food, fresh air, personal hospitality-- all in an incomparable scenic location."
In 2014, the Cliff House property was sold out of the family to a private equity firm based in Ohio.
