The owner of Center Lovell Inn and Restaurant is holding an essay contest with the property as the prize.

Dina Rudick/The Boston Globe via Getty Images

What's the price of a dream?

According to one innkeeper in western Maine, $125, no more than 200 words and a postage stamp will do.

More than two decades after a Maine couple gave away the Center Lovell Inn and Restaurant to the winner of an essay contest, the woman who won the quaint year-round inn with views of the White Mountains will once again offer up the 12-acre property to a hopeful, persuasive entrant in the same unorthodox way.

Via pressherald.com

Dina Rudick/The Boston Globe via Getty Images

"There's a lot of very talented people in the restaurant business who would like to have their own place but can't afford it," said Janice Sage, who took possession of the business in 1993 after dashing off a few handwritten paragraphs that would change her life. "This is a way for them to have the opportunity to try."

She hopes to receive 7,500 responses, or about $900,000, about what local real estate agents suggested as a listing price for the 210-year-old inn and two outbuildings overlooking Kezar Lake in Lovell. It is also an amount that would allow Sage to transition smoothly into retirement, her ultimate goal.

She also hopes the novel approach will ensure that the inn will land in worthy hands.

Via pressherald.com

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