O c t o b e r 2 0 1 8 5 1 Insights courtesy photos Living Legends By olivia gunn kotsishevskaya Some of Maine’s firms pre-date the founding of the United States. How do these businesses keep their edge? the family that’s run it for 362 years. Purchased in 1756 by Trish’s great-great- great-great-great-great grandfather, Jedidi- ah Gooch, this inn has welcomed visitors to this property since 1660. At least. Trish’s family roots run so deep here, they almost seem to pre-date Kennebunk’s gulls and barnacles, though Native Ameri- cans can claim the earlier presence, since the Eastern Abenaki thrived in a village on the north side of Gooch’s Creek. Jedidiah arrived in 1637 as one of the first European immigrants to set- tle Maine as a colony under King Charles II. The fam- ily name is even in Ken- neth Roberts’s 1930 clas- sic, Arundel. Trish recalls an “eerie” feeling coming over her as she read the day. There was no privacy. Guests would just come walking through!” When the Seaside Inn torch was offered to them, neither Ken nor Trish could let go of the pang of guilt at the thought of pass- ing on it. Imagine dropping a 360-year-old piece of rare cut crystal. Negotiations saved the day. “The agreement was if we were go- ing to do it, we were not living on the prop- erty,” Ken says. “Trish wanted to have our own home for our family.” So, under that accord, Seaside Inn is still invigorated by S ome of us cringe at the thought of being handed charge of our grand- mother’s Siamese cat, let alone the family business, one that carries history, culture, and memories—not just for the family but a community. Call it fate, luck, or a burden, the owners of these treasured Maine companies seem predestined to car- ry on a family tradition. Welcome Home “My wife didn’t want to do it,” Ken Mason says of managing the Seaside Inn, a gor- geous oceanside resort on Gooch’s Beach in Kennebunk, and family heirloom if you’ve ever seen one. Trish is a ninth generation innkeeper, a role she never coveted. “She grew up on the property,” Ken says. “At the time, their house was right next to this inn. She saw her parents work all day every In 2009,Trish Mason published an extensive history on the Gooch family and the inn. The Seaside House follows the family from pre-Colonial Maine through the 21st century.