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Brenda Seekins' Historical Collection |
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Those of you who know Brenda Seekins or have read the most recent GMLA newsletter (Oct 2005) know that she's currently working on a book piecing together some of the recent history of the Great Moose Lake area. If you have any old, historical photographs of the lake area that you'd be willing to share and possibly have published, please contact her by clicking here.
Below, please find a few of her photographs which are part of her historical collection along with some background information on each. |
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Allow me to introduce Antonia Savage Sawyer, opera singer extra-ordinaire about 1900! She was a summer regular on Great Moose Lake about that time period. The second photo is a picture of her "Camp Illahee", a property that later came to be known as Stronghold. It seems Antonia entertained with Sunday afternoon soirees during her stays,offering her singing and tales of her international travels as a singer and also later as the first woman manager of several prominent opera stars of the time. She was a native of Waterville. |
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The picture of the Commodore Club is among the earliest available.
It was
probably taken before 1900. The club itself was completed in 1888.
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The photo of the motor launch is on loan from the Trauths of Castle
Harmony. The photo was taken in the Upper Pond off the Commodore Club shore
as you can see Bernard's Point and the Narrows in the background. The
members, and families, of the Wild Goose Club at Castle Harmony and the
Commodore Club, mostly second generation Wild Goose Club members, used
the
launch to travel around the lake and between the two lodges. |
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The lighthouse stood at the entrance to Main Stream on the upper
side
until 1911 when it blew over in a storm. The base of the structure was
a
ladies changing room for the members and guests of Castle Harmony who
would
walk a boardwalk and path to the small beach at the outlet. It's not
the
beach many of us visit today, but an earlier beach when the water level
was
lower. After the lighthouse blew down, it was replaced by a taller metal
structure in 1912. The framework of the later lighthouse still stands
today
hidden back from the shoreline by heavy tree growth. The lighthouses
marked
the way for club members traveling up the lake to Castle Harmony after
a
long train ride from Massachusetts. |
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The early picture of Castle Harmony was an early 1900s postcard
from a
family collection we have. The postcard incorrectly identifies the
location
as Hartland, which it is not. The castle is indeed in Harmony. It was called that because "mansions" on lakes or lochs in Scotland are called
Castles,
and one of the club's early members was Archibald Linn a resident & mill owner in Hartland, but native of Scotland. The members also called the
small
cove where the Castle sits "The Bay of Galashiels" after a favorite spot in Linn's native country. |
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There is a long and colorful history to the Castle and the Commodore Club. We are indebted to Lorna Trauth and her son, Bill,for preserving so much of the history, and photos, of this great time period on the lake. Lorna and her husband Bill opened the Wild Goose for Boys at the Castle in 1956. She continued operating the camp with her son after her husband's death, and it continued for a history of more than 40 years, Because of their generosity, I will be able to use several old photos of the two clubs in my next book along with tidbits from its history. |
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