The building was initially a nineteenth-century sail loft, part of a working boatyard. Occasional town meetings were held there as well as the village’s first Masonic gatherings. In the 1920s it was converted to an inn—the Wan-e-set—where tourists from Boston, arriving by steamer, spent long summer stays.

The Inn closed in the mid-1950s, and by the time Tim Watts first saw it, it was dilapidated. Growing up just across the harbor, he was fascinated by the grand old building and its history. At age 27, he acted on his dreams and bought the property, signing a purchase agreement that stipulated he restore the building and have it up and running as an inn in one year. He opened the East Wind Inn36 years ago, and since then has acquired the Meeting House, an old sea captain’s residence on the property.

Harts Neck, across the water from the inn, began to attract summer residents inthe 1890s, as families who had previously boarded in local homes built summer residences there. Thomas Bailey Aldrich, editor of Atlantic Monthly, was one of the prominent people who lived there in the summer.

Info provided by James Skoglund
St. George Historical Society and East Wind Inn

Catalog Number LB2010.9.117555