The Lawnmere Inn, the oldest continuously operating inn in the Boothbay Harbor Region, is 106 years old in 2004.  Built in 1897 by Marston and Herbert Thompson on the eastern end of Southport Island, the Lawnmere opened in 1898 as a summer hotel. At that time the inn housed about sixty people and guests arrived by boat from the Eastern Steamship Company.  Room and board was $7.00 to $10.00 per week.  Advertisements from the period praised the "beautiful outlook on the Samoset River -- unsurpassed by any other house in town."

The Thompson family owned the inn through two world wars and finally sold it to the Chamberlins in 1946.  The inn's rooms remained Spartan, with steel beds and chamber pots.  The Chamberlin family expanded the business by opening a gas station, and an S. S. Pierce store in the lobby of the inn.  Summer residents telephoned their grocery list to the store, stock boys would fill the order and then deliver the food by way of "Woody" station wagon.  Even today, guests return to the inn who remember where the sugar and canned milk were shelved; they recall their days washing dishes in the Lawnmere kitchen and their nights filled with romance and friends.

In the mid-fifties, the inn sold again, this time to "the lady school teachers from Ohio," Janet Paul and Jean Griffin.  The name changed from Lawnmere to The Rendezvous, and the tone of the inn changed as well. Almost everyone who recalls that time period talks about the great bands that played in the dining room, the giant buffet dinners, and the party atmosphere that surrounded the inn.

In 1967 the Walter Reed family purchased the inn, took back the original name "Lawnmeer," with a slight change in spelling, and began extensive modernization and building.  The Reeds added two wings with motel-style rooms, renovated guest rooms in the historic inn building, and repositioned many of the smaller out-buildings already on the property.  The Reeds ushered in a return to the more traditional Maine summer resort hotel atmosphere with hearty home-style meals and lazy summer afternoons.

The Lawnmeer was owned by Jim and Lee Metzger from 1988 to 2003. While retaining the quiet coastal Maine ambience, the Metzgers upgraded all of the guest accommodations, adding amenities such as cable television and telephone. The dining room remained a focus for guests, with many returning year after year.

In October 2003, the inn was purchased by Scott and Corinne Larson who also own Southport's Newagen Seaside Inn. The Larsons relocated to Maine in 2001 from Atlanta in their quest for a better atmosphere in which to raise their two young daughters, Maggie and Kate. Their first year with the Lawnmere (back to the original name!) saw a renovation to the lobby and dining room, the conversion of four guest rooms into two deluxe suites and cosmetic updates to the common rooms and Main Inn guest rooms. The 2005 season saw a refurbishment of the guest rooms in the Annex buildings.