The Pomegranate Inn

An 1880s mansion in Portland's West End with hand-painted walls and eight rooms run by owner-innkeepers. The Pomegranate is the rare Portland B&B that takes its art and color program more seriously than most actual art hotels — the walls were painted by hand by a series of artists over the property's run, and the building has the layered, slightly theatrical interior life that follows from that.

It's small, it's owner-operated, and it's in the residential neighborhood that tells you most of what's worth knowing about Portland's quieter side.

The setting

The West End is the older residential section of Portland — the side of the peninsula that runs toward the Western Promenade and the Casco Bay views. Big shingled and brick mansions, narrow streets, sidewalks that buckle in winter. The inn is a few blocks off the Western Prom, a fifteen-minute walk into the Old Port, and a ten-minute walk to Congress Street's restaurant and museum row.

The wider Portland map opens out from here: the Old Port's working waterfront, the Eastern Promenade across the peninsula, the Casco Bay islands by ferry, and Cape Elizabeth's lighthouses ten minutes south by car.

The building

An 1880s Italianate mansion — clapboard and brick, deep window mouldings, a corner tower, the kind of West End house that the city's industrial-era merchants built for themselves. The interiors are the property's signature: hand-painted wall murals through the public rooms and into many of the guest rooms, custom finishes, vintage furnishings, and a layered velvet-and-brass register.

Public spaces include a small parlor with a fireplace, a breakfast room, and a side garden and patio used in warmer months.

The rooms

Eight rooms across the main house and an adjoining carriage house. Bed configurations are mostly queens and kings; bathrooms are private and have been updated. Each room has its own painted scheme — some restrained, some more theatrical — and individual character is the point. The carriage-house rooms run a bit larger and quieter. Rates start around $295 in shoulder season; foliage and summer carry higher pricing.

Food & drink

A full breakfast is included and served in the breakfast room or on the patio in season — plated, multi-course, real cooking by the innkeepers. There's no public-facing dinner program. Portland's restaurant scene is the city's best-known feature; Fore Street, Eventide, Duckfat, and Drifters Wife are all within walking distance or a five-minute Uber.

On the property

A small property; amenities are limited and that's correct for the type.

• Hand-painted murals throughout
• Full plated breakfast included
• Side garden and patio
• Walking distance to the Western Promenade and the Old Port
• Owner-operated front desk
• Open year-round

Who it's for

• Couples doing a Portland food weekend who want a real B&B rather than a downtown boutique
• Repeat Portland visitors who've stayed at the Press, the Longfellow, and the Francis and want something smaller
• Art-set travelers who notice that the walls are painted by hand
• Older children and adults rather than toddlers

Who it's not for

• Travelers who want a hotel-style amenity stack — pool, spa, fitness center
• Anyone whose interior preference is contemporary minimalist
• Families with young children — the property is adult-pitched

Nearby

The Western Promenade is three blocks away — the cliff-edge walk along the western side of the peninsula with sunset views over the Fore River. The Portland Museum of Art on Congress Street is a fifteen-minute walk and the city's anchor museum. Fore Street and Eventide in the Old Port are twenty minutes on foot or five by car. The Eastern Promenade and the Casco Bay Lines ferry terminal — for Peaks Island, Great Diamond, and Long Island — are the half-day options. Cape Elizabeth's Portland Head Light is fifteen minutes by car for the most photographed lighthouse in the country.