Thank you for choosing to stay with us at the Center Lovell Inn. Acclaimed by Architectural Digest, the Inn is housed in a well maintained Georgian-era style historic farmhouse build in 1805.
Center Lovell Inn is in the lakes & mountain district of Western Maine with an unimpeded panorama of the Presidential Range of the White Mountain National Forest. The Presidential Range is a 19 mile mountain range located in the White Mountains of New Hampshire consisting of 13 mountains, 9 of which are considered ‘4,000 footers’, with the tallest and most famous mountain in the range being Mount Washington, standing at 6,288 feet, named after the first president. The second tallest mountain is Mount Adams, named after the second president. The other presidential mountains include:
- Mount Madison – named after James Madison
- Mount Adams – named after John Adams
- Mount Jefferson – named after Thomas Jefferson
- Mount Washington – named after George Washington
- Mount Monroe – named after James Monroe
- Mount Eisenhower – named after Dwight Eisenhower
- Mount Pierce – named after Franklin Pierce
Followed by mountains named after prominent public figures of the 18th and 19th centuries.
Source wiki
The Inn is located on twelve acres of mostly untouched woodlands. Adjacent to the main house is the beautifully restored Carriage House built around the same time as the Main house.
Off in the distance there is the original majestic one hundred foot long post and beam barn, built with extinct red chestnut, 3 stories high and till sound after over 200 years.
Each of these wood-framed buildings were made of locally sourced hand-hewn timbers held together with wooden pegs, then finished with pine clapboard and slate roofing.
According to “The Official Guide to American Historic Bed & Breakfast, Inn and Guesthouses,” the Inn was owned by the governor of Florida, Eckley Stearns, who transformed the house into its present Mississippi steamboat appearance by the addition of the Cape-style annex added in 1830 attached by a wraparound porch with beautiful scrolled wood brackets to “support” the projecting overhangs — accounting for much of its present-day charm.
According to Randall H. Bennett’s Oxford County Maine: A Guide to its Historic Architecture, the Inn is,
“One of the most impressive of the relatively few Mansard style structures in Oxford County, the Center Lovell Inn displays architectural elements from the Italianate and Second Empire styles, added to what had been built around 1830 as a late Federal style five-bay house. Occupied as the second home of early Lovell settler and town selectman Josiah Heald, the house came into the hands of the Stearns family by the 1880s; under their ownership the building was enlarged to its present proportions. Notable exterior features are the wrap-around first story porch, the steeply-pitched mansard roof pierced with tall, pedimented dormers framed with scroll-like side moldings, and the square cupola with its Italianate round arch windows and bracketed cornice. Still serving its century-old purpose, the Inn was the early home of Marcellus Stearns, Florida governor after the Civil War.
The small Cape (ca. 1840) lying next to and south of the main Inn was recently moved onto the property from its former site at Lovell Village. Known as the Norton House (before becoming the Inn’s “annex”), it has a four-bay façade and tall roof dormers added to match those on the adjacent structure.
North of the Inn and beyond a large barn dating to around the Civil War period. “
At Center Lovell Inn (CLI) we celebrate the heyday of Old New England hospitality of a bygone era. A time of farm fresh ingredients, hardy breakfasts and exceptional customer care.
CLI is the precursor to the ‘modern’ boutique hotels, when things were simple, intimate and classic. It takes great inspiration from the past, all the while welcoming the creature comforts of today.
Your stay will be akin to taking a special trip back in time. Rooms in the 1805 Colonial mansion and historic Carriage House are outfitted in traditional New England decor and include a pass to the town beach on Kezar Lake.