Silver Springs Tavern and Cabins: The building pictured here in 1944 burned and was replaced with the existing building. This property once belonged to GK Howard, then Howard and Sadie Lowd who sold it to C.I. Pendelton. In the late 1940s it was owned by Henry Mead. Eventually Emil Hanson rented it and in 1971 Clinton Burke bought the business. Later Jerry and Dora English managed it. In 1976 the Schoen family took over and operated it as a popular campground until their retirement in about 2000. The building has been unused since then and the campground closed..
This photo dated 1938
This was called The Forest Inn located in Bartlett Village on the corner of Forest Ave and Rte 302.. In 1890 Frank George sold the land and probably the existing building to Clementine Lawlis. She operated it as an Inn until her death in the mid 1950's, Clementine left the property to her only survivor, Hazel Amadon, who lived near Portland Maine. Hazel sold the property in 1955 to R.G. Hazelton but it is not known how he utilized the property but he resold it to Leland Walsh in 1958. Leland Walsh was a 1st cousin to Sonny and Robert Pettengill. He was the son of their Father's Sister Ester who lived in VT. In 1967 the property was sold to Edmund and Ruth Pettengill and it remains with their descendants now (2020).
Frank George probably acquired the property between 1860 and 1885 as part of many transactions in which he purchased more than a thousand acres of land in the Bartlett area from Parker, Stillings, Rogers, Towle and Hall to name just a few.
For some period of time in the 1930's Silver Springs was called Howard's Camp. These Photos are titled "Howard's Camp" and dated 1930 on the back. It is recognizable as the later named Henry Mead's Silver Springs Campground. Today (2019) you will find it as an un-named building about a half mile east of the Harts Location Town Line. The building shown here was destroyed by fire and re-built. The once famed Sawyer's Rock is just around the corner on the left. It has been mostly blasted away to widen the road.
Glendennings Cabins were owned and operated by Ray Glendenning in the 1930's. Each of the ten cabins was just large enough for a bed and a burea. They were located just east of the Bartlett Town Ball Field. There are just two of these buildings still standing, one of which was recently repaired and resided.
The Pines is today's Bartlett Inn. This photo is from about 1915. The building dates from about 1885 and was originally the private residence of "Big Jim" Donahue who was also a familiar name in the lumbering operations at Livermore. As Livermore came to an end, by 1925 the Donahue's were catering to tourists and called their Inn The Pines. The Donahue's also operated a store in the Village (Later Mallett's). The Pines also had the only tennis courts in town. During the 1930's the Donahue's were doing so well they added more units, in the form of cottages. In the 1940's the property was purchased and operated by Claire and Paul Birnkammer who remained for thirty years when in 1970 they sold to Barbara Stone, followed by Don and Chere Meegan, followed by Mark Dindorf in 1985.
The Gateway Cottages, later The Target, then The Abenaki Motel. These have been connected to be one structure and still exist next door to the Bartlett Village Ball Park (Blackfly Field).These were operational from the 1930's to the 1990s. The main Inn building dates back to 1890 and was operated as The Gateway, by the Sweet family. The cottages were added in the 1930's. In 1961 the property was purchased by Doug Williams and Stuart & Anna Walker, all of Canadian background. In 1963 Mr. Williams became the sole owner. In 1971 he changed the name from Target to Abenaki. The three original cabins were joined with three new units being added, making a six unit motel. There were four cottages behind the main building. The main Inn burned sometime during the 2010's and the "motel" has been unused.
Picture Below is The Gateway, 1940's. In 1961 it became The Target and in 1963 was renamed The Abenaki. Description at left.
The Gateway Office Sign - not dated
It appears to be lit by a kerosene lantern..
Sky Valley Motor Court: In 1945 Alan & Libby Eliason came to Bartlett from Chestertown, Maryland, where Alan operated a professional photographic studio. Alan and Libby intended the cottage business to be a summer only endeavor so he could keep himself busy while he escaped his allergies, then known as ‘hay fever.’
In 1946, Alan and Libby purchased the property and established Sky Valley Motor Court on the former French Farm about one mile east of Bartlett Village.
A brief history of the Sky Valley property. This property was a part of the 1793 farm of Obed Hall, one of Bartlett's first pioneers. A part of it was also known as The Timothy George Farm.
In 1898 Ida Hall (a descendant of Obed) sold a part of the property to Edgar Stevens, who at that time was the proprietor of the Cave Mountain House in the Village. In 1921 Edgar Stevens’ heirs (Don and Blanche Hobbs and James and Bertha Cook) sold the property to Orin A. Cook.
Orin operated a farm and an inn known as Maple Dale Cottage. By the 1950's Maple Dale Cottage was operated by Andrew and Anna-Marie Arendt, who came to Bartlett from Germany shortly before the beginning of WW II. Andrew was a meticulous flower and vegetable gardener and the area that is now the parking lot of the Penguin Ski Club was once filled with flowers and shrubs of all varieties. The Arendts are both buried in the Catholic Cemetery just down the street, (see headstone picture below) and Maple Dale Cottage became the Penguin Ski Club in the mid 1960's.
Another 88 acre section of Obed Hall's Farm, later known as the Maybury lot, passed from a John T. Wentworth to Nathan French in 1855. That section remained in the French family until 1908 when it passed on to Lavinia Maybury by will. Lavinia sold the property to Orin Cook in 1918.
It's interesting that when the Eliasons were looking for property to buy, they almost purchased the abandoned property then known as the Stilphen Farm, today's Storybook Inn, but the superb mountain vistas from the French farm swayed the decision, even though Stilphen's was a better location. Alan said most of his business decisions were often made for the wrong reasons, but personal preferences usually ruled over business sense. Not a bad credo.
Sky Valley first consisted of nine cabins that were popular at the time. By 1955 ten modern motel units were added, along with the first swimming pool in the area. Since there were very few eating establishments in the immediate area at that time, Alan and Libby also built and operated "The Poolside Restaurant" on the property, along with a gift shop added about 1958.
Many folks in the Village worked at Sky Valley at one time or another. Lillian Sanborn made all the pastries and desserts for the restaurant, and her daughters, Evelyn and Ellen, along with the daughters of farmer Harry Rogers, (Rogers’ Crossing) and Harry's niece Betty Jackson, were among the housekeepers. Lillian’s son Henry ran what may have been the first trash collection business in Bartlett. Alan’s son, David, remembers the big old truck loading up all the trash, with separate containers for anything suitable to feed the pigs Henry kept. Donna Ward worked at Sky Valley for at least ten years, first tending to Eliason's children and later on the front desk. The "summer only idea" did not last - by 1956. With full backing from their children, Alan and Libby moved the family from Chestertown permanently to Bartlett, although the business did not open for winter guests until the early 1970's.
To supplement his income, Alan became a real estate broker first working with Wimpy Thurston, who briefly owned a store in the Village at that time. Alan was later associated with Leland Realty in the development of Tyrol Ski Slopes, and later with Country Squire Realty in North Conway along with Ellsworth Russell, who was a prominent citizen of Eaton.
Alan continued to operate the business until 1968 when it was sold to Mr. John Chase. However, by 1971 Alan was once more the owner when Chase defaulted on the mortgage. About this time Alan's son, David, was in college and helped out in the business as time permitted. In 1975 Alan retired from Sky Valley and David agreed to take over the operation full time, with a one year contract.
Forty four years later Dave and his siblings sold the property to Little Angels Service Dogs, owned by Kyler and Darlene Drew of Intervale. Dave was one of the longest serving innkeepers in the Mt. Washington Valley! Most sensible hotel/motel operators have enough sense to "move along" after ten or fifteen years...or less.
Dave is also your humble Bartlett Historical Society Web site editor. Alan returned to Maryland permanently in 2008, where he died at the same house where he was born in 1921.
1948 front sign on Route 302
These type of cottages were very popular in the 1950's and 1960's. As with all things, their popularity declined in the 1970's and many similar operations were no longer viable.
Sky Valley kept up with the times with a series of renovations until the mid 2010's when many businesses could not compete with the influx of chain hotels and condominiums in the area. In 2019 the business was sold to Little Angels Service Dogs operated by Josh Drew with his parents Darlene and Kyler.
If you grew up in Bartlett from the mid 1950's through the mid 1980's you probably learned to swim at the Sky Valley Pool with Red Cross Swimming Instructors.
Sky Valley operated for about 70 years from the late 1940's until 2019.
November 2019: The old restaurant building above (on the left) and all the little cabins were demolished to make way for a new campground being constructed by Dick Goff. (The cabin on the left remains as of April 2021).
Coles Cabins and Coles Restaurant were operated by Henry and Sadie Cole beginning about 1935. It is said that Sadie had quite a temper and one needed to be alert for fry pans flying around. Lewis Mead purchased the cabins and restaurant in 1955 and the bigger house in the background is where Lewis and Sandra Mead live. Lewis died in 2008. You can see the gas pumps that, in 1935, were in the driveway of the main house. The pumps were later moved eastward to the front of the cabin office. The cabins and restaurant building later became A Better Life Cabins although they never used the restaurant building. Their office was in a smallish building in front of the cabins, which doubled as a convenience store. In the 1960's Winston Marcoux operated the store for a year or two. As of this writing (2020) the restaurant and cabins have been demolished to make way for a new campground being built by Dick Goff of West Side Road in Bartlett. Pictured below are the Cole's in 1924 on a berry picking expedition.
The Dunrovin Inn was originally the private Residence of GK Howard and before he opened the Howard Hotel he had taken in travellers at this location. Eventually he sold the building to Elizabeth and John OConnell. They operated it as an Inn until 1945. The postcard below, with a postmark of 1948, states the owners as George and Hazel Bennett of Jackson. The building now serves as the Brettl-hupfers ski club. Click on the image for a large size, and click on the postcard back side to read the message dated August 1948. Photo postcard courtesy Michael Bannon.
John Whyte's Villager Motel is located about a mile east of the Village. It was built in the 1960's. Mr Whyte operated it for a number of years before selling to Mr. & Mrs Zerveskes. They added about 15 more units on the right side of this picture. The Zerveskes lasted about 15 years before retiring to Florida in the 1990's. There have been a few other owners in the meantime and it is still operational today (2019).
Editors note: My memory is a bit foggy on these details. Please send any corrections to me using the contact form. Thank you,
CRAWFORD NOTCH POSTCARD DATED 1913 on the back side. Probable location is about a half mile west of where Silver Springs Campground was located. We are looking east and Sawyers Rock is around the bend on the right side. This card scanned from the collection of Michael Bannon.
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