One of Maine’s oldest restaurants, Warren’s Lobster House in Kittery, may be closing its doors for good to make way for waterfront condominiums and a marina.
Warren’s Lobster House and its iconic sign have welcomed visitors to Maine for more than eight decades. Owner Scott Cunningham has entered into a purchase and sale agreement with a local developer.
Green and Company Real Estate wants to build eight condominiums on the dock where Warren’s now stands and a 20-slip marina.
Cunningham said the original owner, Warren “Pete” Wurn, opened a six-stool lobster stand in 1940, selling lobsters for $0.25 a pound. It later grew into a 350-seat restaurant.
“The history is phenomenal,” Cunningham said. “We have folks that have been coming, I think we’re on six, seven generations in some families.”
Now, the Cunningham family is ready to sell.
“I’m 81. My wife is also the same age,” Cunningham said. “My son and my daughter run the place day to day now. They want to have a life as well. And as you know, in the restaurant business, having an outside life can be very difficult.”
“It’s going to be very, very hard for us to walk away without a tear shed here or there,” Cunningham said. “It’s also going to be very hard for the loyal folks that have kept us going all these years.”
“Well, it’s too bad,” Kittery resident Brad Clark said. “Obviously, we have an abundance of lobster places, but it’s a well-known place in town.”
“It was my stomping ground growing up. I was best friends with the owner’s daughter,” Cindy Boyd, who grew up near the Lobster House, said. “We would play under the Memorial Bridge and walk into Warren’s like we owned the place.”
Boyd hopes the iconic sign stays no matter what.
“What I’m concerned with is what’s going to take its place,” Boyd said. “What it’s going to look like, and does it change the character of Kittery?”
The Kittery Planning Board will hold its first review of the condo proposal this Thursday. The sale is contingent on the developer getting zoning approval from the town.
