The Wentworth opened in tiny and picturesque New Castle, N.H., in 1874 with much fanfare. It quickly became a favorite destination for socialites, film stars and New England society.
Delegates who negotiated an end to the Russo-Japanese War in 1905 — a feat that won President Theodore Roosevelt the Nobel Prize — stayed there, as did President Chester A. Arthur.
Most recently, from the 1940s through the 1970s, the hotel was managed by James and Margaret Smith, who kept the place alive with year-round conferences, clambakes, and elaborate private parties.
When the Smiths sold in 1980, the hotel began a period in which it was passed from owner to owner, with each owner trying to come up with the funds to restore and reopen it.
That era come to an end in 1999 when a Portsmouth company of hotel owners, Ocean Properties, brought the hotel and began the lengthy process of restoration and rehabilition. Today The Wentworth features 161 guest rooms and suites, all with water views.