COURTESY / DANFORTH INN
Blind Tiger opened earlier this month as Lark Hotels newest lodging property. Formerly the Danforth Inn, Lark picked it up at auction a year ago for $1.7 million.
Updated: February 28, 2020
Lark Hotels reboots historic Portland inn as eclectic guesthouse, Blind Tiger
Courtesy / Read McKendree
A dining table and bar at Blind Tiger features a mix of vintage décor and handcrafted items, while preserving architectural details like ornate moldings and wood floors.
Lark Hotels has completed interior renovations of the former Danforth Inn in Portland and reopened as Blind Tiger, a nine-room guesthouse with eclectic styling.
Lark, which owns a collection of boutique hotels throughout New England and beyond, bought the Danforth Inn at auction in January 2019, after the West End property, at 163 Danforth St., filed for bankruptcy reorganization.
Based in Newburyport, Mass., Lark Hotels’ Maine properties also include the Pomegranate Inn in Portland, Whitehall in Camden and the Captain Fairfield Inn in Kennebunkport. Last month, the company acquired three additional lodgings in Kennebunkport: Captain Jefferds Inn, Maine Stay Inn and Cottages, and Captain Lord Mansion.
Blind Tiger occupies a Federal-style mansion that was built in 1823 by Joseph Holt Ingraham, according to a new release. Since then, the building had various occupants and served multiple purposes as a private home, seminary, school and inn.
Its second occupants, the Thomas family, had an addition designed by noted Portland architect John Calvin Stevens. The owners had a reputation for grand parties and revelry; the building became known as “Social Corners.”
The property was in generally good shape when Lark bought it, Rob Blood, the company’s president, told Mainebiz.
Lark was founded in 2012 and now owns 29 hotels. In 2017, Blood and his partner, Megan Kennedy, founded a design company called Elder & Ash, which leads the renovations of Lark’s properties. Blind Tiger is Elder & Ash’s fifth hotel project.
Top-to-bottom
Lark Hotels operated the property as it was through the 2019 season, then closed last month to perform a top-to-bottom interior renovation, Blood said. That included new bathrooms, tile, fixtures, paint, refinishing the floors and furniture. The project preserved historic details, including a rooftop cupola and a billiards room in the basement.
“The architectural details of that building are astonishing: hand carved millwork, oak and maple floors,” said Blood. “When we pulled up the carpet in the guestrooms, we found amazing floors. They needed to be refinished, but it was like Christmas.”
Courtesy / Elder & Ash
Rob Blood, Lark Hotels president and principal at Elder & Ash.
The exterior didn’t need any work, he added.
The 45-day renovation wrapped up in time for the inn to reopen Feb. 14.
Blood said he paid $1.7 million for the property and invested about $350,000 in renovation.
The inn’s new name goes back to the Prohibition era, when the Thomas family hosted cocktail parties in the building’s basement speakeasy; a “blind tiger” was slang for an illegal spot where you could find a stiff cocktail, he said.
The design concept was to create a residential feel, rather than a hotel one, he said. According to the Elder & Ash website, the overall idea is to look at the history of a building, its past identities, current use and connection to the neighborhood.
Courtesy / Elder & Ash
Elder & Ash principal Megan Kennedy.
“We wanted to it to feel like your well-connected Portland friends’ house,” Blood said. “Each room has a different feel. The design is influenced by the idea that Maine is a maker community, where things are often repurposed rather than thrown out.”
To that end, Blood and Kennedy visited countless vintage outlets and flea markets in Portland and throughout New England to source things like furniture, décor, art and lighting.
“We found items that were previously loved and used,” he said. “We felt like that embodied the spirit of Maine.”
The design evolved organically as the pair found more items, he said.
Courtesy / Read McKendree
Elder & Ash partners Rob Blood and Megan Kennedy scoured antique stores and flea markets for vintage and handcrafted items that would give each guestroom a unique look.
“We really had fun scavenging throughout New England,” he said. “It’s fun when the story of a property evolves over time.”
Blind Tiger will be open year-round, with prices ranging from $149 during the winter to $619 in the summer. The building has public space that includes large living and bar rooms on the first floor and the billiards room. The inn’s gathering spaces are open to both locals and guests of the house.
“We want it to become a gathering place with pop-up culinary events,” he said. “We have a great dining room with two long communal tables that can seat 20 and a sun porch that can seat 12.”
Kennebunkport inns
Blood said Elder & Ash will be doing some upgrades to the three Kennebunkport inns acquired last month. The inns will remain open this coming summer. The plan calls for the Main Stay to close from November until March 2021 for upgrades, and the Captain Jefferds and Captain Lord from January 2021 through April 2021.
“Generally speaking, they’ll be respectfully updated,” he said. “The character of the Captain Lord won’t change significantly. It’s iconic. We see opportunity to update bathrooms and some furniture, expose the wood floors.”
At the Main Stay, he said, there’s opportunity to create a private enclave for the property’s individual cottages out back.
“The Captain Jefferds is one of my favorite houses in Kennebunkport, so we’re still figuring that one out,” he said. “We like to take time with our properties, to learn the space. But generally all the bathrooms in all of the buildings will get redone, the floors refinished and furniture updated.”
Blood said he keeps a pretty constant lookout for additional properties.
“We usually look for location first,” he said. “For instance, Portland is a great example of a place where we really wanted to be. We’re always keeping our eye on certain markets. And as our company has grown, we sometimes get calls before a property even goes on the market. We really love historic properties that have a story. The Danforth had such a great history of being many different things. It was really appealing to us.”
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Anonymous
February 29, 2020
They aren't "renovations," they are changes. The prior interior design, or Asian fusion style, was remarkable, awe inspiring. Now, it's ordinary, or "Maine appropriate."
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