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Here Come the Boarders
As soon as the 4th of July had passed, Bethel, the surrounding villages and outlying farm inns were taken over by regular summer vacationers from the city. In the Bethel area they were called the summer boarders. In the lakes region north of Bethel they were called sports or sportsmen. Of course each year saw the arrival of new faces and some of the regulars failed to show up. Many of them were professional people, writers, teachers, artists seeking a summer respite from their city routines. Some came as families and some came as friends of the regulars.
Many of the regular summer boarders took part in the social affairs of the town to the extent that they were considered almost residents. In some cases innkeepers would eventually see three generations of the same family come for their summer visit.
Accommodations for the summer people ranged from hotel sized lodgings such as the Prospect Hotel in Bethel Hill village to more modest places like the Waterspout Mountain House owned by the Chandlers. As the accompanying photographs show, the farm inns were scarcely distinguishable from any other set of farm buildings.
The period covered in this chapter is from 1886 to about 1904. Inn-keeping, particularly for summer boarders, began well before the Civil War and the new railroads played a large part in not only getting people from places like Boston, Hartford and New York City to Bethel but the railroads promoted summer passenger travel extensively through their own brochures and flyers. Although the Civil War years proved to be the downfall of many small inns by 1886 vacation population levels had returned to the pre-war level and higher. It was common in those days to say , “ I am going down to Maine for the summer”. Many travelers took regularly scheduled passenger steam ships from Boston or New York to Portland where they could then board a Grand Trunk train to Bethel. Each innkeeper provided their own livery stable in order to be able to meet arriving guests at the Bethel rail depot and transport them to the inn. On the more rustic side, vacationers enjoy quiet relaxation on the porch of the Waterspout Mountain House, property of Abial Chandler, Jr. Photo credit, Bethel, Maine, Illustrated History, by Randall Bennett |
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The Farm Boarding Houses Farm inns were not Bed and Breakfast inns. They were the homes of farm families whose houses contained more bedrooms that the family needed. The owners ran an active farm business—livestock, crops or dairying. Opening their homes to the summer boarders allowed the farmers to make a little cash. Eventually most were operated by women who had survived the men in their family. One common feature for all the farm houses taking summer boarders was a large front porch. Every old photograph of these inns shows the guests enjoying rocking or lounging in the fresh air of the inn’s porch. Accommodations were certainly not elegant by today’s standards—guests used the common outhouses just like the family did. Guests were fed breakfast, lunch and dinner (supper) in boarding house fashion. One menu applied to all. Girls were hired as dining room help and as kitchen help. When a day’s outing was planned, the innkeeper provided mountain wagons or hayracks for their guests to ride in on their trip to the day’s outing destination: fishing, mountain climbing, etc. On these trips someone hired by the proprietor would normally accompany the driver to take of the guest’s needs, lunches and equipment. Quite often this person was a young man or girl who had been hired for the summer. At the end of the 1890’s three farm inns stand out as the best example of this type of summer lodging in the Bethel area: The Locke Farm in North Bethel, Mrs. Valentine’s farm located on the Northwest Bethel road and the farm of Samuel B. Twitchell in Mayville. |
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This is the Spring Grove Farm of the A.W. Valentines on the Northwest Bethel Road—its former site is close to the Bethel Regional Airport in 2008. Mr. Valentine died unexpectedly in 1888 leaving his wife to run the farm and their additional role as a home for summer boarders. As a farm inn it enjoyed an excellent reputation. A key advantage to its location was that it was less than two miles from the Grand Trunk Railroad depot in Bethel. Photo credit: Bethel Maine, An Illustrated History by Randall Bennett. |
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Summer Boarders, Summer Guests or Tourists?
This is an attempt to briefly define summer borders, guests and tourists. Modes of transportation, different eras and the choice of diction by innkeepers all contributed to these figures of speech.
· Summer boarders rented rooms for longer periods of time than did tourists. Summer boarders were frequently in professions or occupations or had the wealth to vacation for most of the summer. They arrived by train during the period from say 1880 to the first quarter of the 20th Century. The word boarder in contrast to the word guest, originated in the jargon of innkeepers who saw their lodgings as a kind of boarding house. The definition “summer boarder” was picked up by newspaper correspondents and the public so that it became a permanent label.
· Summer guests on the other hand were really no different than boarders, they traveled and vacationed the same as boarders, it is just that in different localities the population and innkeepers chose to call their boarders - guests and the term “summer guests” was passed on by the correspondents sending in news from that town or village. For instance news from North Newry and Poplar Tavern referred to their summer visitors as “guests”.
· The term “Tourist” is a label of the automobile age. Tourists were sightseers who toured, stopping for maybe only one or two nights. As automobile travel grew many families with large homes and extra bedrooms would put up signs saying “Rooms for Tourists”. The owner would offer supper and breakfast but expected the tourist to tend to themselves and probably leave the next day. Unlike the summer boarders, the innkeeper did not provide planned outings for their guests—no trips to Grafton Notch or guided climbs up Barker Mountain. Remember from the 1870’s through the 1910’s, restaurants did not exist for the most part in the summer vacation country of western Maine and the White Mountains.
· Then there is a fourth category of vacationer—the Sport or Sportsman. One found these labels used most often in the Lakes region and in remote fishing and hunting camps. If a doctor went to a camp in the Rangeley Lakes for fishing he was a Sport. If the doctor spent his summer at the Bethel House, he was a summer boarder.
In general, as automobile use grew, the summer boarders did not welcome the sight of tourists dropping into their midst—particularly in the established summer hotels. |
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August 1899, summer boarders from the Locke Mountain House in North Bethel prepare to climb “Speckled” Mountain in Grafton Notch. |
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To read more about summer boarders, click here.
Summer Boarders
The Bethel Journals Compiled by Donald G. Bennett 333 Mayville Road Bethel, Maine 04217 |
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Guests at Poplar Tavern in North Newry, 1910. This photo is from the collection of Dorothy P. Ficken who spent her summer vacations as a teen-ager at the Poplar Tavern from 1909 to 1911. Dorothy lived in Ashmont Village, Dorchester, Mass.
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Vacationers from Poplar Tavern enjoy a picnic at Screw Auger Falls in Grafton Notch—travel by hayrack—picnic on the ledges. August 1911. Photo from the collection of Dorothy P. Ficken. |
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What the local newspapers said...
In 1886 we learn Abiel Chandler has sold a part of the Waterspout Mountain Farm to Ira Bean who will run the house for summer boarders while Chandler will look after his Alpine House in Mason Park. Next year in 1887, The Elms’ owners, Grover & Burnham, on Bethel Hill, Maine advertised that guests of the house would be conveyed to and from the depot to the house free of charge. As you will read later, it was the first large inn in Bethel village to install steam heating allowing it to remain open during the winter.
Abiel Chandler Jr. wrote that every room in his large house (Alpine House) is engaged for summer boarders. W. J. Lovejoy, Bethel House had 55 guests last Monday. He is building an addition to his house and stable. And a year later in 1888 - The boarding houses are all in order waiting for the summer visitors. The Misses Locke, four miles from the village have put on new carriages and horses, in the charge of an experienced driver, Charles DeMerritt. They (the Locke’s) accommodate about sixty guests. S. B. Twitchell (Mayville), H. R. Godwin (North Bethel) and Mrs. A. W. Valentine (Northwest Bethel) are fitting up.
In 1890 we hear again that Bethel House is well filled with summer boarders and visitors among whom area number of young men from Boston, some of whom are clerks in the store of Jordan, Marsh and Company. In West Bethel, E.P. Grover’s summer accommodations are well engaged for the season. In early September the report is that summer boarders are on their way home but most boarding houses have the rooms re-engaged for September.
More summer boarder news is printed in 1891: At North Newry: The Poplar Hotel is being painted, papered and repaired. It has begun its summer thriving business. Early guests include five from Boston. One guest, O.B. Dodge continues to be the champion fisherman of this region. In Gilead, Harry Dixie has his house full of summer boarders and more are coming. Then later in the summer, H.F. Dixie went to Bethel with six of his boarders in his new boat, the Mayflower, Thursday. He made the time in 2 hours and 10 minutes. His hired man Walter Davis met them at the bridge with a big team and drove them back to Dixie’s; all reported a good time. He and his boarders camped out Thursday night and all reported a good time. Two more reports from Bethel say we understand that Mr. Chamberlain of Mayville has a few more spare rooms for summer guests in his elegant home. The residence of Mrs. John M. Philbrook was the scene of an unusually charming church lawn party. As in times past, the presence and aid of the summer visitors added fresh inspiration; some of them having been summer residents here for so many years as to entitle them to be called “Bethelites”.
In early summer of 1892, the news has a summary of boarding house occupancy: S.B. Twitchell accommodates: 20 guests; Mrs. A.W. Valentine: 25; Deacon E.C. Chamberlain: 16; the Locke’s in North Bethel: 40; E.P. Grover in West Bethel: 30; The Alpine House, Bethel Hill: A. Chandler, 20.
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In many cases summer boarders who returned regularly each year were part of a “summer family”. This social factor highlights the difference between summer boarders and transient tourists. As late as the 1950’s there were still families of three generations returning each year to spend a summer in such “boarding houses” as Ladd’s Wayside Inn in Mayville. |