Historic Maine Resort and the Ghost of Hiram Ricker
640 Maine Street, Poland, ME 04274
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$$
Overnight room rates vary by season; resort offers golf, dining, and lodging packages.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Mixed — paved paths through resort grounds; historic buildings have stairs
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1794 · National Register of Historic Places · Maine State Building (1893 Chicago World's Fair) · Hiram Ricker and Sons · Poland Spring Water Origin
The Ricker family arrived in what is now Poland, Maine, in the 1790s. Jabez Ricker opened an inn on the property in 1794, and a new building, the Wentworth Ricker Inn, followed in 1797. For decades the inn served as a way station for travelers crossing the Maine interior.
In 1844, Hiram Ricker, who had suffered for years from chronic dyspepsia, began drinking only water from a spring on the family farm while supervising field work. According to family records, his symptoms resolved after roughly ten days. The Rickers began selling the water to neighbors and, by the 1870s, to a national market. Visitors traveled to Poland Spring seeking the same therapeutic claims, and the family expanded the inn into a sprawling resort.
The original Poland Spring House, completed in 1876, grew into one of the largest wooden hotels in the country before it was destroyed by fire in 1975. Other historic structures survive, including the 1893 Maine State Building, originally erected for the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago and relocated to Poland Spring after the fair, and the 1906 bottling plant, which used Carrara glass surfaces and silver piping designed for sanitary cleaning.
Hiram Ricker died in 1893. The Hiram Ricker and Sons Company continued operating the spring and the resort into the 20th century. Today the property operates as Poland Spring Resort and is part of the Poland Springs Historic District, listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The resort offers three inns, twelve cottages, an 18-hole golf course, dining, and access to the historic museums on the grounds.
Sources
The most consistent paranormal claim at Poland Spring Resort centers on Hiram Ricker himself. Staff over multiple decades have described seeing a figure resembling Ricker walking through the older buildings, particularly during early morning hours before guests are awake. Reports include the sound of his voice carrying from rooms confirmed to be empty and footsteps in the lobby when no other employees were on the floor.
A secondary recurring report involves objects moved between shifts. Housekeeping and maintenance staff have described keys, paperwork, and small fixtures relocated to unusual places, sometimes overnight, with no apparent explanation. Some accounts attribute these moves to Ricker, framing him as a benign rather than malevolent presence.
Guests have separately reported the apparition of a woman in white, phantom footsteps in upper-floor corridors, and unexplained cold spots in older rooms. The Presidential Inn — one of three lodging buildings on the property — is named in many of these accounts. The resort does not market itself primarily as a haunted destination, but the Ricker stories appear regularly in regional ghost guides and local press coverage of haunted Maine.
Notable Entities
Stay across one of the resort's three historic inns or twelve cottages on the original Ricker family property, the source of Poland Spring water. Employees have reported the apparition of founder Hiram Ricker in vacant rooms and unexplained footsteps in the lobby during early morning hours.
Tour the 1893 Maine State Building, originally constructed for the Chicago World's Columbian Exposition and relocated here, alongside the 1906 Poland Spring Bottling Museum, which preserves the original glass-and-silver bottling line built by Hiram Ricker and Sons.
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