Excerpt from "Captain Theodore Eldridge" by Eugenie Sotiropoulos Foss

"One of the captains active in the coastal trade was Theodore Eldridge of Wells. Capt. Eldridge lived at the corner now known as Eldridge Road Corner in a house which had been the Littlefield Tavern or Littlefield Inn, famous in the 1700s. 

In the early 1800s Capt. Eldridge was master of the brig Bolina out of Kennebunk. 

Captain Eldridge seems to be an exception to the ship's masters who remain men of the sea all their lives. In 1824, maybe tired of his life aboard ship, or else attracted to new prospects as owner of a hostelry, Theodore Eldridge undertook the building of a new tavern on the site of his home. His first step was to move his existing house diagonally across the road. It no longer stands and the history of that Littlefield house is recorded in an earlier article by Hope Shelley.

The present Eldridge Tavern went up then over the old foundation, a Federal style building, larger than the old house and beside it a barn which has long since been replaced by newer out-buildings. 

Theodore's son, Daniel, built his home across the street from his father where he lived until he inherited the tavern.

Eldridge Tavern became one of the popular inns in the heyday of stage coach and sleigh days serving as a gathering place for townspeople, as well as weary travelers and horses.

Its use as an inn ceased after Theodore and Daniel's time and it became a tenement falling into decline and abandonment. Rumors of ghosts filled the idle conversation of passers-by, and a storyteller, Annie Bates, remembered it this way from her childhood before its rejuvenation in the 2oth century. 

"...Strange and ghostly stories were told about it, and when I was a child and passed it on my way to school, I often thought of these stories. It was unpainted, deserted and empty at the time and we children would go in and look over the house, but when one of us would open the attic door, someone would shout 'ghosts!' and we would close the door and quickly scamper away downstairs and out of the doors."

In its more recent history (late 60s onward), the house served as both an antique shop as well as a summer home for the family of Lois Erskine. Suzanne Erskine Fretwell and Doug Erskine, children of Lois, are the brains behind the scoop deck that you know and love today. Jump over to the "our story" section to read more.

NOWADAYS, Current owner Emily Gallant is taking on the project of restoring the house. If you'd like a peek inside the house and to follow along on the journey, follow Captain Eldridge House on Facebook and instagram!

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