Blue Hill Inn is back on the market
Owners asking for nearly $2M for downtown property
Blue Hill Inn for sale in downtown Blue Hill. Photo by Steele Hays.
Sept. 15, 2026
By Steele Hays
BLUE HILL — The Blue Hill Inn, a longtime landmark and the town’s oldest continuing business, is for sale, only four years after being purchased by the current owners, Kim and Clair Maxwell.
The 11-guest-room inn at 40 Union Street is listed for a purchase price of $1,975,000.
The Maxwells purchased the inn in July 2022, moving to Blue Hill from Atlanta, Georgia, to operate it.
The real estate listing with Portside Real Estate Group of Falmouth describes the inn as “one of coastal Maine’s most distinctive historic inns.”
According to Buildings of New England, the inn was built in 1830 as a family residence by Edward Varnum Stevens, a blacksmith whose parents were among Blue Hill’s earliest settlers. During the 1850s, Stevens began housing guests in his home. He sold the house in 1857 to Haskell and Fannie Hinckley, who operated the inn for more than 50 years. In those days, it was called the Blue Hill House (rather than Inn), and under the Hinckleys it became a major stopping place for travelers and a community social center.
The inn ceased operations for several years during World War II when gasoline rationing and the war restricted vacation travel. In 1959, the hotel was sold to Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Warman, who changed the name to the Blue Hill Inn.
From 2007 to 2015, the inn was owned and operated by former State Representative Sarah Pebworth, who generated widespread news media coverage when she offered to sell the inn to the winner of an essay contest, addressing the question “Why would I love to own and operate the Blue Hill Inn?”
Entrants had to pay $150, and the contest rules required that 7,500 entries be received for a winner to be awarded. The entries fell short of that mark, and later Pebworth sold the inn to an employee, Duncan Hamilton, who later sold it to the Maxwells.
The Maxwells have not responded to The Rising Tide's request for comment before publication.
