By Emma Bouthillette 

Staff Writer

Innkeeper Trish Mason sat in room 109 at the main lodge of the Seaside Inn on Beach Avenue in Kennebunkport Friday, enjoying the cool breeze of the ocean and the relaxed atmosphere of fall and the guests drawn by the season. 

“The fall people are definitely a way more relaxed crowd,” Mason said. 

Mason never planned on becoming an innkeeper, despite growing up next door to the Seaside Inn her parents owned. She said her parents encouraged her to follow her passions, one of which included studying animal science in college. After Mason received her degree from the University of New Hampshire, she managed a horse farm in Rhode Island, until her husband Ken was transferred to Jonesport, then she started a job as a veterinary technician. 

It was not until her parents called her in 1997 to ask if she would want to be the 12^th generation to take over the family business when they retired that she considered the opportunity. 

“Yes, there was a lot of pressure and responsibility because I’m the 12^th generation, but that is not the main reason I came back,” Mason said. “I had a great childhood growing up here, and I have nothing but good memories.”

Her parents scheduled retirement for Jan. 1, 2000, and spent two years training their daughter before she took over.

“It wasn’t an easy decision,” Mason said. “We had to consider that you work 24 hours a day, seven days a week as an owner and operator. But it is a fantastic place to be and work, and it’s a great job, something my husband and I can do together.”

While they work together often, Mason said her husband has been the primary businessman while she works part-time at the inn and full-time as a mother of Jack, 8, and Ellie, 4, as well as caring for the family’s three horses. Mason said though she isn’t always physically working at the inn, she has kept her hand in the business by researching the history of the property and her family.

After three centuries of ownership, many members of her family have come before Mason to run the business. The earliest documented date of the business in the 1660s, leading Mason to believe the inn is one of, if not the, oldest inn in the country, and Family Business Magazine named the inn the fifth oldest family-run business in the country. 

Mason’s interest in the history of her family’s business spurred a seven-year project that included many trips to the Wells Historical Society and archives in Massachusetts to trace her genealogy back to John Gooch. Mason said Gooch probably came to New England in 1637 on a grant from King Charles II, settled Cape Neddick and then moved north along the Maine coast. 

From what she could deduce from her research, Mason said the inn was established as an “ordinary” where people who were traveling along the coast could stay before being ferried across the mouth of the Kennebunk River. 

“I’m not a history person at all, but now I have my family’s history alongside with a timeline of country history. It’s a great story. It is important to know how the community has changed. We know how it was settled, but not the struggles they went through,” Mason said. 

After completing her research, Mason began writing down the story of her family’s history and the inn. While she said she is not a writer, the story has turned into a book-length piece that she is trying to have published. She said she hopes a Maine publisher will want to print the book to reach a broader audience rather than self-publishing for inn guests.

“The oldest building here is from 1725,” Mason said. “So things didn’t last very long, but stories did.”

The stories that Mason and her family continue to create include changes they have made to the inn since she took over the business. One major change has been keeping the main inn — built in 1978 — open year-round.

Mason said the business stays busy for the majority of the year, but during the slow months between January and March, they complete small renovations, such as updating light fixtures, changing wallpaper and refurbishing bathrooms.  Her husband has also updated electronics to offer modern technologies such as wireless Internet and radio clocks to dock iPods.

“The purpose of the main inn is to be the more modern accommodation,” Mason said. “We try to not make it look antique, just classic.”

While the main inn has 22 rooms for rent, it also offers 10 cottages. Mason said the cottages are older and more private than the community setting of the inn and there is often a “no vacancy” sign hanging from June through October and during Prelude, Kennebunkport’s Christmas celebration. 

Even with other resorts and hotels surrounding them, Mason said she does not harbor the “us versus them” mentality. Mason said she doesn’t hesitate to direct business elsewhere. At the same time, she said other businesses direct visitors toward the Seaside Inn and the majority of guests return for another stay. 

“One thing my parents taught me is this hotel is part of a community,” Mason said. “It is a tourist area that needs a thriving community, and we are different than a lot of other places.”

Mason said she hopes to maintain diversity to keep guests attracted to the inn for years to come, and maybe one day her son — who is already drawing pictures of himself as the innkeeper — can be “generation lucky number 13.”