Some buildings have a soul. You sense it as soon as you walk inside. Wentworth by the Sea in New Castle is one of those places. It’s a storied grand hotel, one of the few remaining, and the only one on the New Hampshire seacoast. It has had not one, but several heydays over the last 150 years. “If these walls could talk,” was my first thought as I walked into the lobby, but as I learned, its walls are too new.

“It wasn’t a renovation. It was a rebuild,” recalls Carolyn Patton, one of the dining room managers when the hotel reopened in 2003 after two decades of neglect. “This place was completely gutted. On the main floor, you could see from one end to the other. It was just the studs.”

It would have been demolished were it not for a local nonprofit, Friends of the Wentworth, whose mission was to find a buyer to restore the property and run it as a prestigious hotel again. It took six years. In 1999, Ocean Properties Hotels Resorts and Affiliates based in Portsmouth took over what was left, basically the crumbling main wing on four acres. The rest of the hotel and its other 250-plus acres had been sold off in bits and pieces by a half-dozen previous owners to fund renovations that never happened. Ocean Properties invested over $30 million into saving the Wentworth. Today, the reincarnated hotel is part of Ocean Properties’ luxury group called the Opal Collection.

“You feel like you’re walking into a beautiful hotel that has a history,” says Carolyn, who now works for the Opal Collection. “When we first opened, guests would marvel at the old chandeliers, and I’d have to say, ‘They’re actually brand new.’” According to Carolyn, besides a hand-painted dome in the dining room, the only other elements of the earlier hotel that exist today are its fireplace and mantle between the dining room and restaurant, the glass panels at the entrance to the restaurant, and a staircase in the grand ballroom that goes up to a room on the second floor.

Glory Days

Wentworth by the Sea may be a new hotel in an old shell, yet it oozes history. The original hotel opened in 1874. It looked like a box with a tower, which attracted its first guests mainly for the expansive views of the ocean and Piscataqua River. Back then, vacationers wanted to relax, look at the scenery, and rock on the porch. They weren’t looking for activities in their time off.

Only two years after opening, a recession rocked the United States, caused by overspeculation in the railroad industry and the country’s return to the rigid gold standard that restricted the money supply. The Wentworth went bankrupt.

In 1879, Frank Jones, one of the wealthiest and most influential industrialists in New Hampshire, bought the hotel, expanding it from 82 rooms to more than 300 rooms. With Jones’s name behind it, the hotel quickly became one of the most prestigious places to summer in the Northeast. Today’s Wentworth has 162 rooms.

“Rooms back then were tiny, and every room did not have a bathroom,”explains Carolyn. “People didn’t spend a lot of time in their rooms, mostly just sleeping and getting ready. Hotels weren’t year-round. They were only open two months of the year, July and August.”

Unlike the Wentworth’s earliest patrons, during the Jones era, Wentworth’s upscale guests, who spent the summer at the hotel, wanted entertainment and the latest creature comforts. Jones hired a 20-piece orchestra, expanded the gardens, and added wings, an enormous dining room, golf course, ice house, tennis courts, and stables. He built a breakwater, giving the hotel a safe harbor that allowed boating as another hotel activity. He had a steam ferry and a miniature steamer for kids. There were concerts, dances, even a house song. It was summer camp for wealthy city dwellers.

Jones also added the most modern amenities of that era, such as steam-powered elevators, electric lights, and flush toilets. The hotel boasted a rich interior that included expensive black walnut furniture, carved wood paneling, and hand-painted ceiling frescoes. The only fresco that survives today is the one Carolyn referred to, in the dining room; though during the Jones era, that part of the hotel was the gentlemen’s social lounge.

Jones died in 1902, but the trustees of his estate continued to run Wentworth by the Sea, extending its season from June to September to attract a new trend in the hospitality business: conferences. In 1905, the hotel hosted perhaps the most important conference in its history, the peace talks between Japanese and Russian diplomats.

“Japan and Russia were fighting over China and Korea,” explains Carolyn. “It was not looking good, so President Teddy Roosevelt decided to step in. His idea was to find a place that was neutral, so not Washington, DC, and not invite the heads of state, but negotiators. Teddy was looking for a place that would welcome both sides, create an atmosphere for them to get to know each other, and then negotiate the peace.”

The official discussions were at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, which President Roosevelt knew from his stint as the Secretary of the Navy. Most days, the delegates would cross the water in steam-powered launches. Twenty-eight days after they arrived, they signed the Portsmouth Treaty at the shipyard, but it was unofficially negotiated at Wentworth by the Sea. President Roosevelt received the Nobel Peace Prize for his vision, and the hotel received priceless worldwide publicity.

The Rest of the 20th Century

Wentworth by the Sea flourished during the Roaring ’20s with more updates, most notably “The Ship.” The Ship was not a floating vessel, though it looked like one. It was a large white building above an immense saltwater pool. Wentworth did not have a beach, which was a disadvantage compared to other resorts on the coast, and the ocean water was cold! The Ship’s 50-yard-long pool was ocean-fed by the daily tides, but shallow so it stayed warmer. Olympic swimming champion Helen Wainwright taught swimming, and sharpshooter Annie Oakley gave shooting lessons. The Ship was also a hub of evening entertainment with a casino, concerts, and a movie theater.

During World War II, Wentworth by the Sea closed for the summers of 1943 and 1944 as a precaution in case German U-boats tried to attack the shipyard across the bay. None did. Then the hotel flourished again during the 1950s and 1960s. By then, James and Margaret Smith owned the hotel and were consummate hosts at costume parties, sports events, and other resort activities. Prince Charles, Duke Ellington, Edward Kennedy, and Richard Nixon were among the hotel’s many famous guests. Though the movie Dirty Dancing was about a resort in the Catskills, it perfectly portrayed the Smith era at the Wentworth, too.

The Smiths retired and sold the hotel in 1980, just as New Hampshire’s grand hotels began to wane in popularity. People no longer summered at one resort. They were more mobile, thanks to the interstate system and airline travel. They took shorter vacations, and not necessarily in one place. The next owners of the Wentworth planned to close the hotel for two years to modernize it, but it never happened. So did the next several owners, until Ocean Properties bought it.

A Modern-Day Look Around

Today, many luxury hotels offer great views, gourmet food, classy décor, and exceptional customer service, and some have a rich history. But Wentworth by the Sea has one more quality—a calming effect on its guests. In the 1870s, that’s what attracted its first customers. It also set the tone for peace between the Russians and Japanese. Even as attitudes changed to “the more activities, the better,” that underlying sense of tranquility and rejuvenation always remained. I felt it as soon as the friendly doorman greeted me.

After checking in, I found my room partway down a long hallway with an old-fashioned red floral rug and leafy, shaded sconces. However, my room was up to date, a suite with a sitting room, a bedroom, and two bathrooms. The bathrooms were like bookends for the suite, tastefully appointed but oddly long and narrow. “What’s with the galley bathrooms?” I thought. Then, I remembered Carolyn’s comparison of hotel rooms 100 years ago versus today. My room was in the original main section. Architects had obviously carved out the bathrooms from opposite ends of two existing hotel rooms, which were then combined to make a suite.

With an hour to kill before dinner, I wandered down to the waterfront. As I crossed the road in front of the main entrance to the hotel, a white archway framed by blooming rosebushes caught my eye. The words “To The Ship” were etched on the archway, but The Ship had been replaced with apartment-style rooms overlooking the marina. It now had a small, heated, freshwater swimming pool for guests in that building. Other guests could swim or lounge by a much larger modern pool.

The paved path below the archway spilled into a manicured lawn where white Adirondack-style chairs beckoned guests to sit for a while and play cornhole or croquet. I couldn’t remember the last time I had seen a real wooden croquet set, another nod to an earlier era. The mallets rested casually against one of the chairs, ready for a spontaneous game. “Croquet is something that one might play at a grand hotel,” I mused.

A few steps later, I gazed at dozens of yachts and fishing boats moored in neat rows along the marina’s docks. The boats, grassy estuaries, and churning current from the outgoing tide made it feel like I was a million miles away from Hanover.

I turned and walked back up the hill to the hotel, but toward a different side of its enormous wrap-around deck. There I discovered the Truth, one of the boats that had transported the Russian and Japanese diplomats back and forth to the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard. It was on display behind a row of deck chairs. I imagined its important passengers enjoying the refreshing sea air each time they made the short trip across the water.

From there, I made my way to the dining room, where it was impossible to miss the neoclassical dome with happy cherubs holding a leafy garland. The dome was an obvious reminder of Wentworth by the Sea’s opulent past. Dinner guests sat in armchairs that encouraged one to unwind over a nice glass of wine and a gourmet meal. My appetite was pleasantly sated after enjoying pecan-encrusted halibut over succulent fingerling potatoes. I couldn’t resist ordering a maple carrot cake for dessert.

I traveled to Wentworth by the Sea out of curiosity, but it surprised me how much pleasure my short two-night stay gave me. Today’s owners might say that very little of the old Wentworth remains, but there’s enough, and it’s not just the nostalgic reminders scattered around the property. The building itself still whispers to guests to relish its special place on the seashore. After all, it’s a building with a soul.

Wentworth by the Sea

588 Wentworth Road

New Castle, NH

(603) 422-7322

opalcollection.com/wentworth/