About Us

Our History

Some houses simply shelter a life. This one has lived many.

The home that is now the PineCrest Inn — soon to become The Folsom Inn & Spa — was first raised in the late 1700s, and across the centuries it has worn many roles: a single-family residence, a boarding house, and, since a local couple lovingly converted it in 1993, a beloved Maine inn.

But the story that defines this place begins with fire.

In June of 1825, flames swept through the house and its outbuildings, burning nearly everything to the ground. The home belonged to Dr. Dudley Folsom — the town physician, a man Gorham could not do without. In the search for blame that followed, suspicion fell on a young servant in the household, said to have been angry at being left behind when the family traveled to greet the Marquis de Lafayette during his celebrated visit to the area. She was brought to trial for setting the fire.

She was found not guilty. And it is believed that Dr. Folsom himself spoke in her defense — that the very man who lost his home stood up for the woman accused of taking it. Whatever truly happened that night, what endures is the grace he showed her.

Then came the second act of grace. On the Fourth of July, 1825, rather than mark Independence Day with the usual festivities, the men and women of Gorham gathered and, in a single herculean day, re-framed the entire house from the ground up. The men worked dawn to dusk; the women carried out meals and laid them beneath the tall oaks across the street. Some say it was pure neighborly devotion. Others note, with a knowing smile, that half the town likely owed the good doctor for services rendered — debts often settled in 1825 with eggs, chickens, and goodwill.

However you tell it, the house rose again in a single day.

It stands today much as it was rebuilt — its veranda and great barn long gone, a dining room and innkeeper's quarters added over the years — yet its spirit is unchanged. This is a home born of fire and raised by kindness, twice over: once for a wrongly accused woman, once for a beloved neighbor.

Built of fire. Kept in grace. Here, that isn't a slogan. It's simply what happened. And the doctor's name — Folsom — is the one this Inn will soon carry again.

A sanctuary, still.