The 9 Best Things to do in South Berwick, Maine (ME)

Self-guided nature trails and guided historical home and garden tours are offered at this 250-acre memorial park in southern Maine.

Writer Sarah Orne Jewett, author of THE COUNTRY OF THE POINTED FIRS, spent much of her life in this stately Georgian residence, owned by her family since 1819. Jewett drew on the house for inspiration for her novel DEEPHAVEN and often wrote at the desk in the upper hall overlooking the active town center.Jewett and her older sister Mary inherited the house in 1887. Decorating the house for their own use, the sisters expressed both a pride in their family's past and their own independent, sophisticated tastes. The result is an eclectic blend of eighteenth-century architecture, antiques, and old wallpapers with furnishings showing the influence of the Arts and Crafts movement.

Shipping merchant Jonathan Hamilton built this striking Georgian mansion c. 1785. Its picturesque situation on a bluff overlooking the Salmon Falls River made it an ideal location for Hamilton’s shipping business and, more than a hundred years later, for the summer retreat of Emily Tyson and her stepdaughter Elise.Today, Hamilton House reflects the occupancy of the Tysons in the early twentieth century and is recognized as one of the region's quintessential Colonial Revival-style country estates. The house features two whimsical murals commissioned by the women as well as antique furnishings and handcrafted decorative arts they collected. The elaborate perennial garden, with its charming garden cottage, provides visitors with a place to stroll and picnic overlooking the river. Please visit nearby Jackson House, Governor John Langdon House, Rundlet-May House, Sarah Orne Jewett House, and the Sayward-Wheeler House.