It was built in 1878 by Agnes and Junius Booth Jr. who attached a 230 foot long, three-story hotel to their existing cottage which stood at the corner of Masconomo and Beach Streets.  

The Masconomo House had 103 rooms and could seat 300 in its ornate dining room. On the 12-acre property were detached guest houses, tennis courts, a working farm, windmill, ice house, an enormous stable and quarters for the large staff, while the hotel building was expanded over the course of its operations.

In addition to tennis, guests could enjoy bowling, billiards, boating, dancing, horseback rides, and performances from its bandstand, with easy access to beautiful Singing Beach where the hotel had a pavilion.

Facilitating a highlight of amenities, the hotel was notably owned by a theatrical family.  Junius Booth Jr, elder brother to the infamous John Wilkes Booth who assassinated President Lincoln, was a Boston theatre manager after the Civil War while Agnes was an accomplished actress. 

After Junius died in 1883, she fittingly remarried to theatre manager John B. Schoeffel.  In 1887, she hosted a "pastoral performance" of As You Like It on the hotel lawn which is credited as being the first prominent outdoor Shakespearean performance in America.

In the days when many diplomatic figures summered at Manchester-by-the-Sea, the Masconomo House nearly earned the town political fame.  In 1905, the Russian ambassador resided in town, and the hotel was considered as headquarters for the peace conference to conclude the Russo-Japanese War.  But instead of a Treaty of Manchester entering history books, the Treaty of Portsmouth ultimately proceeded at the Hotel Wentworth in New Hampshire.

As the United States entered the First World War, the Masconomo House last operated during the 1917 summer season.  By this point the hotel was owned by widower Schoeffel as Agnes died in 1910.  He subsequently died in September 1918 and, under new ownership, most of the hotel was razed in 1920 (with building materials and furnishings auctioned) leaving a section with the original Booth cottage still standing.  It remains a private home today, while the Manchester-by-the-Sea Museum displays several artifacts of the hotel (including a bathtub!) in its permanent exhibitions.  

In the twilight of summer, there are plenty of reasons to visit the Museum this month.  The Masconomo House operated from June 15 to September 15, and our open-year-round Museum has similarly been following a summer schedule.  We will be open Wednesday through Sunday until September 13, after which we will resume open hours from Wednesday through Saturday.