The Chart Room

Sunset fell at 6:50 PM.  The fog was rolling in as thick as a crypt, and by the time we pulled up to the front door of the imposing visage of the Black Point Inn looking like Manderley on the mount, it was already dark at 7:05.

The setting earlier this summer

But when we decided to go to the inn for dinner on a recent Friday night it wasn’t close to dusk yet, disregarding the logistics of dining by the sea at the tail end of summer.  If our fantasy was to dine by the sea on a perfect summer’s eve to gaze at the undulating sea, we miscalculated. Views of the ocean don’t exist at night.

Arriving earlier thnis summer

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Like the citadel on the mount, the Black Point Inn enjoys a seaside perch so elegantly and serenely in Prouts Neck that it also enjoins this point of land as both an exclusive summer colony as it was the inspiration for some of Winslow Homer’s greatest paintings.

The gracious dining porch overlooks gardens and the ocean beyond

The gracious dining porch overlooks gardens and the ocean beyond

The seasonal inn opens from May to October and has always had a restaurant, which, for the most part, has never been its best feature. But since the Prouts Neck Association members bought the inn some years ago, paying over $20 million for the building and waterfront land, the entire property and set up is pristine.  Originally the 1878 inn offered 85 rooms and was scaled back to a manageable 25.  The various iterations of its dining facilities, from its dour formal dining room to equally indeterminate luncheon fare—though the former oceanfront pool setting for lunch was very popular–has also seen big improvement.

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