Tenant's Harbor Maine
East Wind Inn
Murder and betrayal caused an upset, angry spirit.
A spirit guest rates high in sociability but low in respecting boundaries.
This is a place of good times and fellowship for spirit people.
DESCRIPTION
The East Wind Inn, including the Meeting Annex, their Wan-E-Set Restaurant and their Quarry Tavern are located in restored and renovated 1860 building. The historic mansion has quite the appeal to today’s tourists, or folks looking for an event venue for their special day: wedding, reception, holiday parties, and anniversaries. The East Wind Inn can also host classes, group retreats, or special events.
What a location to have an inn, restaurant and tavern! It has a glorious view of the harbor, great green space, and even a porch to sit on and enjoy the peaceful scenery. The East Wind Inn is “a natural choice for a small, intimate Coastal Maine wedding with its simple elegance and warm hospitality. Our spacious lawn faces an unspoiled harbor, offering ample space for an outdoor event. The on-site Wan-e-set Restaurant, Quarry Tavern and wrap-around porch offer flexible options to enhance your event.”
This 1860 main building of The East Wind Inn is described as a “large, three story, white-framed structure,” that also has an attic and large basement. The third floor has nine rooms, and the second floor has seven rooms. The first floor of the East Wind Inn has a lounge, and a restaurant that serves guests and the public interested in breakfast, lunch, and dinner. There are large windows that overlook the view to the sea front area. The large basement was turned into an apartment for the owners of the building.
The Captain’s Mansion adjacent from The East Inn, called The Meeting Annex also has guest rooms that are just as nice as the rooms found in The East Wind Inn.
All of the rooms are welcoming, and are not cluttered with a lot of stuff, but have just the right amount of furniture to meet the needs of their guests. A very clean look indeed! Views from the rooms also have a glorious view; something very pleasing and peaceful to wake up to in the morning.
“Each room, suite, or apartment in our historic buildings – the main inn and the Meeting House ; the former abode for a Sea Captain in the 19th Century.- both have a glorious view of the harbor and outlying islands. Each room is appointed with comfortable furniture and locally acquired antiques. The Inn has 19 rooms which include one apartment, suites, and deluxe rooms, all with private baths, WI-FI in each room and televisions available upon request in most rooms. Some rooms are air conditioned. ”
HISTORY
In the 1800s, Tenant’s Harbor was a shipping and ship building center which was a great match for this small fishing and boating harbor village. In 1860, a local businessman, John Fuller, saw the need for a large commercial building, so he built The East Wind Building. All the spaces in this building were well used to bring in funds.
The top floor and the second floor were wide open spaces. The top floor was rented to the Masonic Lodge in town until 1894, when they probably built their own lodge. The second floor was used to sew sails together, and later was used as a community meeting room. John Fuller himself operated a general store on the first floor, and his sons had a tin shop in the basement where they played cards with their friends after-hours.
In 1921, this commercial building was bought by Charles Rawley who saw how the purpose of this building could be changed into a grand inn, that could offer hospitality and a place to spend the night for tourists coming down to Tenants Harbor via steamer from Boston. Charles Rawley bought this commercial building and successfully renovated the inside, making rooms for guests, and common areas as well, plus a restaurant to feed the guests.
Triumphantly, Charles Rawley opened his inn, calling it The Wan-e-set Inn. He made a living catering to not only local people and tourists from Boston but other tourists who eventually discovered the charm of Tenant’s Harbor. The locals also held their social events here. What a great place for a reception, special occasion or meeting.
During 1941, this building was bought by Frank Scrutin. He managed to hang in there during WW2, and post war years but didn’t have the funds to do the major restoration of this building, so it was abandoned in 1954. It went from being a forlorn, fixer-upper opportunity in 1954 to a dilapidated woe-be-gone structure, about to be torn down by the time Tim Watts first saw it in 1974.
He noticed that this structure still had good bones and had a vision of the possibilities. The city authorities sold this property to twenty-seven year old Tim Watts, who promised to renovate it in a year’s time; according to the contract he signed with the city. This kind of agreement is common when sorry-looking properties are bought by people interested in restoration and renovation.
Sure enough, Tim Watts got to work and stabilized, restored and renovated the inn, to the relief of the city council of Tenant’s Harbor. He reopened this commercial business, calling it The East Wind Inn. A few years later, business was booming and more rooms were needed. Tim Watts solved this problem by purchasing an adjacent nineteenth-century sea captain’s mansion that had been converted into a boarding house and needed some TLC. Tim Watts restored and renovated this solid structure and was able to add it to the inn, calling it the “Meeting House Annex.”
At the age of 65, Tim Watts died in 2012. Randy Deutsch, a spending-the-summer in Tenant’s Harbor enthusiast, took up the torch and bought this property. Randy completely renovated the inn, upgrading the rooms and adding modern safety features to bring it up to city code. The renovations done still maintained the historic coastal charm of the inn. Randy enjoys being personally involved with running the inn and living in Tenant’s Harbor full time.
HISTORY OF MANIFESTATIONS
When a structure is restored and renovated, spirits who are attached to this structure may become active in this world.
Captain Benson Bailey House Museum, NE (The Captain became very active when his house was restored into a house museum).
Buffalo Bill Ranch State Park, NE (The spirit of Buffalo Bill is extremely pleased that all his original buildings and the house were restored; featuring a lot of his memorability).
Geiser Grand Hotel, OR (Spirits couldn’t wait for their favorite hotel that was in ruins to be restored!)
East Wind Inn, ME (Activity began after Tim Watts restored and renovated the old inn, turning it into his East Wind Inn.
People who enjoy events in a structure, may continue to visit as spirits, remembering their good times or even continue with other spirits in their favorite activity.
General Wayne Inn, PA (Spirits of Hessian soldiers have a blast here, as well as former spectral employees).
Wabasha Street Caves, MN (Murdered gangsters enjoy all the social events between their card games).
Biltmore Hotel, FL (Prohibition Parties still go on in the penthouse, and a couple still dances in the ballroom).
East Wind Inn, ME (A spirit of a sociable Sea Captain who liked to stay here between sailing assignments really enjoyed the inn, and apparently still does as a spirit).
(Happy groups of spirits still like to hang here, enjoying each other’s company).
(Some members of the Masonic Lodge also remember the good times they had in this special place. The view is spectacular here as well).
(John Fuller’s sons and friends like to continue to stay here in their after-life).
Betrayal in love and fidelity that ends in murder causes pain and suffering that lasts into the after life.
The Old Faithful Inn, WY (The bride was murdered by her beloved husband who turned out to be a murderous, self-centered narcissist).
The Hotel Alex Johnson, SD (A bride was shoved out the window because of greed).
The Plains Hotel, WY (A bride shot her new husband, the prostitute he was with, and herself).
East Wind Inn, ME (From Reports in the records, in the 1800s, there was a woman found stabbed in the chest and strangled, near the East Wind Building. It is thought that she could’ve been murdered secretly in the building, or in a house nearby. This female spirit murder victim who was betrayed and murdered by her beloved is way too upset to leave).
(He murdered her because he wanted to be with another woman. Her choice in a beloved was wrong. How could she be so fooled? Perhaps a family member or friend tried to warn her about him. She didn’t see the red flags).
MANIFESTATIONS
There are several presences felt & occasionally seen throughout the building; mainly on the third floor and attic, the first floor and the basement.
A Murdered Woman Grieves
Sounds of an unhappy spirit: Moans, cries, and wailings.
On the third floor, guests have heard a faint wailing at 3 o’clock in the morning. There was no wind, and it was coming from somewhere on the third floor.
Psychic-prone people say that there is a feeling of sadness there, even finding it difficult to breather due to a heaviness in these rooms.
Watch Out! She can be Angry
Several windows have also suddenly shattered with no reasonable explanation.
The owner Tim Weber, had been pushed in the attic by an unseen, hostile presence; perhaps not liking men.
A guest on the second floor was in a room, located right under rooms 12 & 14. About 4 o’clock in the morning, something rudely pushed her out of bed. She heard what was described as “a long stroke noise, and then a short one,” coming from her room’s ceiling.
The roof on either room 12 or 14 just blew off in the 1980s, while the roofing on the rest of the third floor was not touched. No natural explanation was evident. At the same time, the mattress in the roofless room was cut in half.
In rooms on the top floor, especially rooms 12 & 14, guests have felt moving cold spots, and have been awakened at night, feeling extremely cold.
Her Actions Tell
She shows the living what had happened to her as an emotional release.
When guests try to get up, they are physically held down on the bed by an unseen entity. Then they feel an uncomfortable pressure on their chest, and a lot of constriction around their throat, and are unable to scream.
Though as of 1996, guests have typically just been held down by the unseen hands. She appears to have mellowed a bit.
The Friendly Sea Captain
The Spirit of a retired Sea Captain likes the company of the living; perhaps to the point of invading personal space of the living.
The tell-tale aroma of pipe tobacco announces his presence.
In the living room on the first floor, owner Tim Watts often felt a benign presence keeping him company.
Guests who are in the parlor often feel a warm presence very near to them, perhaps a little close for comfort.
A gray apparition has been seen floating up the main staircase from the first floor, to look out the picture window at the glorious view of the ocean and harbor.
Masons, Former Guests, Employees?
Odd noises are often heard. Physical abnormalities, like doors slamming by themselves, and the dining room doors swinging like an unseen presence just went through them have also been witnessed.
Various dogs have sensed unseen presences, and reacted by growling, showing their teeth, while staring around the room at something not seen by the living, causing the dogs’ body hair to stand up straight
It is theorized that whoever they are, they have decided to stay at this East Wind Inn, because they had so much fun together in their time, in this building.
One winter, when the owner was on holiday, a friend of his was house sitting the East Wind Inn. While staying in the owner’s basement apartment, she would often hear footsteps walking around overhead in the dining room and kitchen area when she knew no one was there. When she quickly would check the area, the footsteps would stop.
A chef, while house sitting the East Wind Inn would often see, out of the corner of his eye, an apparition watching him, as the chef put away food in the pantry.
Spectral Card Players – Masons or the Fuller brothers’ Group
The most benign entities are the men (Masons or the Fuller group) that just sort of hang around the first floor and basement playing cards. Psychic Annika Hurwitt got a sense of them.just relaxing and playing cards. In between hands, they could be the ones walking around, opening doors, watching the chef to be sure he does a good job, etc.
PARANORMAL FINDINGS
Since the first renovations done by Tim Watts, the spirits described above have given many personal experiences to the living.
Psychic Research
Concerning the Living Room and the Stairs:
Psychic Annika Hurwitt, saw in the living room, an old sea captain who was smoking his pipe, enjoying the view from the windows of the ocean and the harbor. He has retired to the Inn, and is an unseen guest who just enjoys hanging around the place, not bothered by the living at all.
He is rather annoyed, though, by the disturbed presence on the third floor. As he has such a fondness for the view of the ocean, perhaps it is his form seen climbing the stairs to look out the window facing the sea.
Basement/ First Floor:
Psychic Annika Hurwitt got a sense of these spirits, just relaxing and playing cards. In between hands, they could be the ones walking around, opening doors, watching the chef to be sure he does a good job, etc.
Concerning Rooms 12 & 14:
When psychic Annika Hurwitt visited the rooms for the first time, she found it hard to breathe and was overcome with really sad feelings. After meditating in the haunted rooms, Annika Hurwitt sensed that this very angry and very hurt presence was murdered by either her much beloved boyfriend or husband, who was cheating on her. She haunts the living “to feel empowered and to get revenge,” by making them feel what she felt in her violent death; being held down against her will, being stabbed in the chest and being not able to breathe because she was strangled as well.
I couldn’t find any hard evidence caught by investigators that was shared on-line.
STILL HAUNTED?
Most Probably so. All the spirits who enjoy this inn seemed to have stayed on as non-paying guests, bringing a positive energy as they remember good times and still play cards.
The unhappy murder victim seems to have mellowed somewhat, losing some of her anger though still crying and unhappy. Hopefully some medium can help her go to the other side, or that she will decide to try to enjoy this world as best she can. (Whaley House, CA *Saint John’s Twin Cinema, OR * Hotel del Coronado, CA * Kahler Grand, MN * Scarlett O’Hara Pub, FL )
LOCATION
21 Mechanic Street
Tenant’s Harbor, Maine 04860
207-372-6366
Toll-Free: 800-241-VIEW
The East Wind Inn can be found on the waterfront of the coastal port town, Tenant’s Harbor, in Maine which is two hours northeast of Portland, nine miles off of Route 131; (Main Street). It is easy to find. Just turn off Main St. onto Mechanic St. and travel south about nine miles until nearly to the waterfront.
SOURCES INCLUDE
- Photos from East Wind Inn Web-Site
- https://penobscotmarinemuseum.org/PMM-Reader/wan-e-set-inn-tenants-harbor-maine/
- Haunted Places, The National Directory, By Dennis Willliam Hauck, Penguin Books, 2002
- Penobscot Marien Museum website, PENOBSCOT MARINE MUSEUM READER (Know County Through the Eastern Eye), “Wan-e-set Inn, Tenants Harbor, Maine”, (history of East Wind Inn),Info provided by James Skoglund, St. George Historical Society and East Wind Inn.
- THE GHOST HUNTER’S FIELD GUIDE, By Rich Newman, Llewellyn Publications, 2016.
Our Haunted Paranormal Stories are Written by Julie Carr
