A landmark on
the business island.
For more than 135 years, Hotel Rumford has stood at the center of Maine's River Valley — the oldest business in the valley.
When paper was king.
In the 1880s, the industrialist Hugh J. Chisholm looked at the falls of the Androscoggin and saw power. The mills he built turned a village of two hundred into a thriving city — and the paper made here would one day print National Geographic, Vogue, and Sports Illustrated. Hotel Rumford opened in 1888 to house the salesmen, engineers, and dreamers the boom brought to town.
The highest falls east of Niagara.
The Androscoggin drops 177 feet through the heart of downtown — the greatest cascade in Maine east of Rangeley, and once the engine of the entire region. Today those same falls are the valley's most scenic sight, a short walk from the front lobby.
Stay near the falls
"Grand columns, arched entrances, and confident stone — downtown Rumford was built to last." The Beaux-Arts business island
The history is in the floorboards.
Under new stewardship, the hotel has been lovingly brought back — the original hardwood refinished under a dozen coats of varnish, the millwork preserved, the bar humming again. It is at once a living piece of Rumford's past and a warm, modern place to stay, eat, and celebrate.
Guests are encouraged to notice the details: the brass, the grain of the wood, the way the light comes through the tall front windows just as it did in 1888.
Come be part of the next chapter.
Book a room, pull up a stool at the tavern, or let us cater your celebration.