October 2,, 2024 Breakfast Meeting Notes
Our guest today was prospective member Kerry LaMontaigne.
Tony opened with his famous NH trivia, Rotary Mark of Excellence edition.
The 50/50 was won by George.
Greg won the chance to draw in the card game but got the wrong ace (of diamonds rather than spades). The game continues.
Penny Sale: Setup is 2 weeks from today on the 16th at 5pm at the High School. Sharon and Bill have more perforated sheets at their respective offices. Tony reports a donation of a picnic table from Belletetes. (It will not be available at the setup night.) The sponsorship committee has over $7900 in cash and sponsorships for the Penny Sale and Hometown Holiday Celebration (the goal is $16,000). Grand prize tickets should be available in the next few days. Ken has new banners showing sponsors to put up next Wednesday after the morning meeting; if you can help, let him know. He ideally needs 6 people and 2 pickup trucks to set up 13 banners, 10 of which will include the additional sponsorship banner. He and Jenny are ordering additional stakes and bungee cords for the setup.
Sharon has updated the foundation website and the GiveButter Link. Tony is working on a press release. He suggested having the Record Enterprise send someone here for a morning meeting to help publicize the Penny Sale.
Tony introduced today’s guest speaker. Jim Dunn is a retired Navy captain and did 28 years active duty. He is submarine qualified and surface warfare qualified. He is a resident of Waterville Valley and an active member of the Historical Society.
The nonprofit Waterville Valley Historical Trolley Tour was formed in 2018. It had to be discontinued during Covid, and was restarted in 2021. The season goes fro Memorial Day through Columbus Day and tours are held on Sundays at 10 and 2 pm. The tour lasts 60 minutes and is free but donations accepted. Tours begin at the Town Square Shuttle Stop. No reservations are required but get there early as only 20 people can fit on the trolley.
Waterville Valley covers 41, 000 acres but only 700 acres are privately owned. The rest is in the White Mountain National Forest. Only 6 of the properties are not built on.
The town has gone through 3 phases distinct phases: initial settlement, development as a summer destination, and development as a ski resort.
The area was not settled until 1819, 60 years after Campton and Thornton. The initial settlement was a series of cabins 5 miles south of town. The first settlers cleared the land starting in 1829; they planted apple trees and tried to farm. Nathaniel Greeley played a key role in developing the valley; he bought land as the farmers sold out and he built the first network of hiking trails in USA.
In 1860 Greeley built a hotel that could hold 150 guests. At its opening there was a 2 mile progression of carriages and horses coming into town. It only operated for 1 year before burning to the ground.
Major summer activities include hiking, tennis, and golf. The first tennis court opened in 1884 and the first golf course in 1898. Today there are 10 clay tennis courts and two indoor courts.
One of the earliest threats to the valley was logging of old-growth spruce. The large trees were stripped out for pulp and this threatened to alter the character of the land. The Weeks Act was passed in 1911and it authorized the creation of national forests, including the White Mountain National Forest. The White Mountain National Forest began purchasing land in 1928 to protect it from logging. Loggers created driving dams to send logs down the Mad River. Trees were cut at a sawmill to 4 foot lengths, which were then stacked in the stream. In spring when the ice melted they would use the runoff to drive the logs down the river. The last drive was in 1931 as trucks and roads had improved and it was more cost effective to move logs over land.
The second Greeley Hotel opened in 1868. It was attached to Greeley’s house and would hold 68 guests. It was bought by the Elliot family and renamed Elliott’s hotel in 1885. Guests were transported by train to Plymouth and then went by carriage or stagecoach to Waterville. Later rail service was extended to Compton. The hotel was expanded in 1900. After her husband died, Carrie Elliott built Tecumseh Lodge in 1902 as the first winterized lodge. This lodge burned in 1935. The hotel was sold in 1919 and renamed the Waterville Inn.
The “red building” was built as a private residence in 1860. The building was sold repeatedly, and in 1959 it was bought by 4 families. There have been feuds between these families ever since. The families eventually moved out and the house became so neglected that the town rerouted the road. The 3 remaining families that still own the building have refused to maintain it and also won’t give it up. They do keep paying the taxes every year.
The second cottage built was Connable Cottage. Edward Connable was a retired businessman. He later sold to Eliphalet Whittlesey, a congregational minister and professor. He was an administrative officer in the Civil War and later returned to academia and helped found Howard University.
The Buckley-Goodrich Cottage was built by Rev James Buckley, pastor of largest Methodist Congregation in the US. He famously said that “Waterville had everything except ruins” and so he set about to create some. He financed construction of a stone tower which was a ruin from the start. The tower is filled with rubble and you can’t go inside. The tower is No Name Castle.
Rey Cottage was built by Hans and Margret Rey, creators of the Curious George books. They were German jews who moved to France when Hitler came to power. After WWII started they fled to Spain, then caught a ship in Portugal which took them to Brazil. Finally they moved to Greenwich Village and Cambridge MA. They built the cottage as a summer residence in 1958. It now serves as a preschool. Those interested may want to check out the documentary “Monkey Business: Adventures of Curious George’s Creators.”
The Greeley Hill summer cottages were built behind the hotels. They are still there today. The Pond Cottage was built by Chester Pond, an owner of the Self Winding Clock Company. He developed a system for hooking up a clock (via telegraph) to the hourly time signal sent out by the master clock calibrated by the US Naval Observatory. The other two cottages are the Peloubet Cottage, built in 1872, and the Davis & Briggs Cottage. Finally, Carrie Elliott built a cottage in 1911.
Development as a ski resort began with people walking up and skiing down Snows Mountain in the 1830 behind Waterville Academy. A T Bar was added in 1941. Later a trail was put up on Mt. Tecumseh. In 1937 the CCC improved the trails but it was not until 1966 that a lift twas installed to Tecumseh. Note that in July 2019 showed Tecumseh was only 3997 feet tall so it wasn’t a “four thousand footer.” However, the Appalachian Mountain Club decided to keep it listed as a 4000 footer. In 1967 the Waterville Inn burned to the ground as a result of a kitchen fire during a crippling snowstorm. Fortunately no one was injured in the fire.
Happy dollars were shared by Tony, Greg, and Mike.
Respectfully submitted,
Lora Miller, secretary