When "Daddy" Thayer's Hotel opened on January 14, 1850, its intended patrons were rail-borne travelers.
In 1853, train service began, and Thayer's ornate coach met this new breed of guests at the station.
When tourism boomed, the Hotel was hub to many coach lines and a vaunted landmark for visiting dignitaries.
Thayer's White Mountain Hotel pass through the Grand Hotel era, became Thayer's Hotel by 1900 and entered the automobile age.
New trends in leisure and the onset of prohibition called for ingenuity and in 1928, motion picture impresario John B. "Jack" Eames (1891-1951) acquired sole ownership of Thayer's, updated its amenities and preserved its historic charm.
The elegance of the hand carved scroll work on the front of Thayer's and the spiral staircase so impressed Henry Ford that he tried, without success, to buy them for his Dearborn Museum.
An interesting note is that General Sylvanus Thayer "The Father of West Point" was related to "Daddy" Thayer.
Their forefathers arrived in Massachusetts from England c. 1635.
Thayer's apostrophe was dropped in the 1930s.
The property was sold in 1969.
After a succession of owners, the Hotel was repurchased in 1984 by the Eames Family and renamed to Theyers Inn.
In 1985, Don and Carolyn Lambert were appointed as innkeepers,
and the partnership between the Lamberts and the Eames family has sustained the legacy of Thayers as a respected hostelry and architectural treasure.
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