[Don Levy]

My brother sent me this url so I thought I'd join up. I'm Don Levy and my folks, Dick and Millie owned the Inn for some years. I have mixed memories of the Inn, different than most as my family owned it from the late '60s to the early '80s. It started when my parents bought the cottage abutting to the south to the Inn. Right after it seemed ralatives loved us and came to see us every weekend. Jokingly it was mentioned that we'd need to rent parking spaced at the Inn and maybe even get a deal for rooms. The next weekend as we sat for breakfast my father walked in and smiling (never a good thing) dropped a huge keyring in the middle of the table and said something like you got what you asked for. Yep, it was the keys to the Inn. Turned out the town had done some rezoning and rezoned the property to prohibit it operating as a hotel but, grandfathered the Inn provided it operated each year. The owner had decided not to open so gave dad a decent deal.

It was in very poor condition. Age and neglect was showing. The back addition was in especially poor condition as was the bowling alley and dance building. The movie theater had so much mold it was all but dangerous to ven venture in. We spent long hours trying to bring it back to where it was at least habitable for that summer. Later, we spent much of the time plumbing, new electic and winterizing it. Not the happiest time for a high school kid wanting to be with friends.

None of us had any idea how to run the Inn and we made some mistakes as we learned. Happily, there was Ina who had been with the Inn from the time she was a child cleaning rooms and making beds. She was in her late '60s to early '70s when she was with us but never slowed down. We also had the Tate family. He was a teacher who during the summer ran the movie theater while his wife ran the concessions. I learned from him how to run the machines and from prior training could keep the ancient amps running. That was interesting. They had 2 daughters. I seem to remember their names being Polly and Mary Jane.

The first year we had a manager/chef and his wife run manage the restaruant and during the week, the Inn but found they were running a back door operation that cost us dearly. Later we employed an ex-military man, Syd and his wife Arlene and they lived at the Inn all year round.

The folks eventually decided the Inn was enough so sold the cottage to the Wilcox family who had been living there as tenets for a couple of years. They had a daughter, Pam and 2 boys, one was Billy but, I can not remember the other's name.

My father owned a store in Portsmouth so during the season we worked in it and then in late after noon jumped into the car and drove to the Inn in time for the movies. Frank and I alternated so some times I had the early show and some days he had it. No free time for the most part during the summer except for the nights when Frank had the late show.

My brother, Kim stayed at the Inn all summer and did things like getting the casino stable enough for the bowling ally to work and to hold parties and dances on the upper floor. There was stream running under the building and it had become unsafe for someyears.

During our ownership, we sealed my sister's grab at a hubby with a 100 lobster dinner, my brother and I had our Bar Mitzvah and my sister got married there. It was a favorite place for smaller weddings.

After graduating from high school, I did not spend much time there, traveling to Israel to work on a kibbutz, New York and finally undergrad school and owning several stores in western MA. I was not around when the folks decided to sell but, I remember they sold it to a family from Massachusetts who had been going to the Inn. They were the owners when it burnt down. I still remember getting the call from the family telling me of the event, it was like hearing of a family member dying. I had wanted to take the family there but never got around to it and then, finding out a part of my childhood had been lost forever.

Sadly, when the family sold the Inn they did not keep any of the memorabilia they had collected over the years related to the Inn that was quite extensive. They did not even keep an old post card.