HauntBound archive · catalog record
Reported phenomena — as catalogued
+ 1 further entry on record
1899 Goose Rocks Beach inn said to be watched over by its founder, Emma Foss
930 Kings Highway, Kennebunkport, ME 04046
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$$$
Seasonal beachfront hotel; 21 guest rooms. Room rates vary by season.
Access
Limited Access
Three-story Victorian inn on Goose Rocks Beach with stairs between floors
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1899 · John Calvin Stevens Architecture · Goose Rocks Beach Resort History · Victorian Seaside Inn
Emma Foss had the inn built in 1899 near Goose Rocks Beach in Kennebunkport, originally named the Tides Inn By-The-Sea. The yellow, Victorian-style building was designed by John Calvin Stevens, the Maine architect closely associated with the Shingle Style. Foss ran the inn herself, and accounts of the period name guests such as Theodore Roosevelt and Arthur Conan Doyle.
The inn changed hands over the following century. A later owner, Marie Cameron Henriksen, is among those who documented the building's ghost stories about Foss. In the 2010s the property was redeveloped as the Tides Beach Club, a 21-room hotel with interiors designed by Jonathan Adler. It bills itself as the only full-service waterfront hotel on Goose Rocks Beach.
The building remains a three-story wooden Victorian fronting the beach, and the long association with its founder is part of how the property is marketed and remembered in regional press.
Sources
The Tides Beach Club's ghost story is built almost entirely around Emma Foss, the woman who had the inn built in 1899 and ran it during its early decades. The recurring account holds that Foss never really left the building she created.
Room 25 was Foss's own room, and it draws the most reports. Guests who have stayed there describe feeling a presence, catching sight of a figure, and in the most-repeated version of the story, being gently tucked into bed during the night. Foss is also said to appear in Room 29 and to be seen rocking in a chair on the front porch overlooking the beach.
The folklore casts Foss as protective and opinionated rather than menacing. Former owners have said she makes her feelings known about changes to the building, and guests report whispers behind them, furniture moved during the night, and lights appearing in the attic where there are no lights. A former owner, Marie Cameron Henriksen, is among those who said she encountered Foss in Room 25.
Notable Entities
Book one of the inn's 21 guest rooms on Goose Rocks Beach. Folklore attaches Room 25 to founder Emma Foss, where guests have reported feeling a presence and, in some accounts, being tucked into bed. Room 29 and the front porch are also named in the lore.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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