Behind the Inspiration

CELIA THAXTER
In the mid1800s, a young girl named Celia Laighton Thaxter was raised in isolation in a lighthouse station with only her family on the lonely, windswept Isles of Shoals six miles off the Maine/New Hampshire coast. She would grow to become the reason hundreds of guests flocked there to experience a resort  whose opening marked the dawn of the Grand Hotel Era in New England.  

As a young mother, Celia was a writer, painter and hostess at Appledore House, a seasonal seaside hotel her family opened in 1848 on Appledore Island, the largest of the nine Isles. She wrote poems and stories about island life that captivated readers across the country. In her youth, Celia cultivated a love of flora and fauna that flourished throughout her life. She planted a seaside garden on Appledore that grew into her personal refuge. Treasured by the hotel’s guests and an inspiration to the nationally renowned artists who visited the island, Celia’s garden would become the subject of one of the many books she penned.

Well over a century later, a young hospitality entrepreneur named Amanda McSharry, also a mother and lover of all things botanical, immersed herself in the details of Celia’s life and found a kindred spirit. The result is Hotel Thaxter, a 15-room, state-of-the art boutique hotel in downtown Portsmouth that, through its décor and aesthetic, tells the story of a remarkable woman who became known as the country’s Island Poet and a pioneering nature writer.