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Reported phenomena — as catalogued
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1900 Goose Rocks Beach inn said to be watched over by its founder, Emma Foss
930 Kings Highway, Kennebunkport, ME 04046
Research updated September 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. 1900 · John Calvin Stevens Architecture · Goose Rocks Beach Resort History · Victorian Seaside Inn
Emma Foss bought the lot on Goose Rocks Beach in 1896 and ran a small guest house on it before deciding to build something larger. She commissioned John Calvin Stevens, the Maine architect closely associated with the Shingle Style, and the resulting hotel, The New Belvidere, held its grand opening on June 16, 1900. Foss ran the inn herself for its early seasons.
The guest register carries some well-known names, including a Theodore Roosevelt signature dated July 4, 1900. The Kennebunkport Historical Society, drawing on the same register, has noted its own skepticism about that entry: Roosevelt, then a vice-presidential candidate, was campaigning publicly in Oklahoma City that day. A later signature attributed to Arthur Conan Doyle, dated August 1904, draws similar doubt from local historians. The register is a real period artifact; the celebrity signatures in it are best read as unverified.
The inn changed names repeatedly after Foss's era: Allens-by-the-Sea from 1922, Tides Inn by 1957, and Tides-Inn-by-the-Sea from 1965. A later owner, Marie Cameron Henriksen, who ran the property in the 1970s, is among those who documented the building's ghost stories about Foss. In 2011 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 1900 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.
See current room rates and availability at Tides Beach Club.
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