Poland Spring House

Dexter D. W. Abbott’s 1850s mineral spring and hotel venture on Mount Zircon may have been inspired by the more long-lasting efforts of the Ricker family of Poland, Maine, to whom Abbott was closely related. Hiram Ricker’s Poland Spring House, begun in 1876, was built to supplement that family’s rustic but charming “Mansion House,” erected in the 1790s.