Tour Featured Properties

In addition to touring private gardens in Rockport and Camden, the 76th Garden Tour features the award-winning Norumbega Inn and Merryspring Nature Center celebrating 50 years of gardens, green space and trails.

The Norumbega Inn

“The Castle by the Sea” Camden’s own Norumbega Inn, was built in 1887, as a summer cottage. It retains all the grace of "The Gilded Age” while featuring an eclectic, welcoming atmosphere. 

Voted a Best Hotel in the WORLD on Travel + Leisure's 2024 IT List, new innkeepers, Will Tims and Brett Haynie said they have "infused the property with new energy, and have used the redesign as a way of respecting the past while attracting a new audience who might not have stayed with us before.” The new energy can be defined as a gracious and warm welcome for the community. The hallmark architectural accents in the public rooms are enhanced with a comfortable, contemporary approach that invites the visitor to enjoy a conversation in the living room or have something cold with a light meal on the summer porch. The Norumbega has become an engaging environment that makes everyone feel “at home.”

The Club is delighted to be included in that warm welcome for the 76th Annual Garden Tour. The exquisite, paneled public rooms with unique parquet flooring will be open for all Tour visitors.

For further historical footnotes, visit the website https://norumbegainn.com

Merryspring Nature Center

Merryspring is a unique and rare jewel in the Camden village crown, a 66-acre Nature Center. Throughout the year, visitors can enjoy beautiful display gardens, and meander through forest and meadow trails. From dawn till dusk, you can listen to the bird song and behold the varieties of wildflowers. All of this natural splendor is at your fingertips…for free. This gardener’s paradise is featured as a very special Tour destination. 

Through the vision of Mary Ellen Ross, a local horticulturist, Merryspring was born in 1974. "She envisioned creating a sanctuary where horticulture and nature could be studied firsthand.” She enlisted the horticultural community and with the help of many friends, purchased the l66 acres and formed a nonprofit, member-supported corporation, as a nature park and horticultural center, providing nature-based educational programs.  The Center is a very special stop on the Tour schedule for this year.