“Sky High” Lake Tarleton Club: What You May Not Know
Have you ever heard of the “Sky High” Lake Tarleton Club in East Piermont (some say Pike), New Hampshire?
Our good neighbors in Piermont take their local history seriously, as I learned last year when they were celebrating a favorite daughter, Adelaide Palmer, an artist famous for having designed the original logo for Fruit of the Loom. (Click here to read.) This year, the town’s Historical Society is looking back at the heyday of the Sky High Lake Tarleton Club, one of the grandest resorts of its time, with programs on Memorial Day (May 27) and the following weekend. (June 1) (Details on the programs appear at the end of the post). The history runs roughly like this:
Of course it all began, as these things often do, with a tavern, owned by Colonel Tarleton, which eventually became a stagecoach stop. In 1909, a group of businessmen from New York built a 200-room clubhouse on the property for “a lazyman’s paradise,” which the Al Jacobs family then purchased in 1937. They turned the clubhouse into (to quote Fritz Wetherbee), “a very fancy summer resort” of 5500 acres, where “glamorous” New Yorkers and others came to relax and be seen.
During its 40-year life with the Jacobs family, the Lake Tarleton Club became a symbol of our community's resilience and prosperity, featuring lakeshore cottages, 90-miles of bridle paths, facilities for golf, tennis, swimming, boating, fishing, hiking and a well-used library with more than 3,000 books. The hotel and entertainment venues could feed 500 people at a sitting, and it was not unusual to see movie stars, entertainers and politicians horseback riding, or taking trips from there to the nearby White Mountains.
What was on the menu in the club’s earliest days? Pickled lambs’ tongues, apparently, and something called “war bread.” (Recipe link below)
The Lake Tarleton Club is part of New Hampshire history, and also comes up in accounts of Jewish history. “Robert Fillion’s booklet Lake Tarleton chronicles the various owners of the property, its periods of success and decline . . . [T]he Jacobs family . . . operated it as a summer resort for ‘unrestricted clientele.’ This meant that most guests were Jewish, as they were often excluded from other resorts.”
What is left of the resort that closed in 1969? Someone snagged a piece of memorabilia on Etsy:
And of course there are stories from those who spent time at the resort.
The Historical Society has sought out and invited former employees of the old Lake Tarleton Club to the upcoming celebrations. This unique opportunity allows visitors to hear firsthand accounts of what it was like to work at the club in the 1940s, 50s, and 60s in a variety of jobs; more than a dozen people will be there to recount the employment they had in the kitchens, in the front office, the golf course, or elsewhere on the manicured acreage. Members of the Jacobs family are expected to be present at the Memorial Day celebration.
The program will begin at the Piermont Village School on Memorial Day, May 27, 2024. It will feature a memorabilia exhibit from 1 to 3:30 PM, and from 2 to 3:30 PM, there will be a roundtable discussion about the old Lake Tarleton Club moderated by Historical Society member Joyce Tompkins. The following weekend, Saturday, June 1, from 1 to 3 PM at Lake Tarleton on Route 25C, visitors will have an opportunity to self-tour the grounds of the former club property, which is now the Lake Tarleton State Park on Route 25C. There will be a self-guided tour, complete with a map.
(Photo/postcard, top, from Boston Public Library. Menu from New York Public Library. Source of quote re: Fillion booklet is here: “War bread” recipe is here. Thank you again to Bernie Marvin for the tip.)
——————————————————
Thank you! You’re reading Artful, a blog about arts and culture in the Upper Valley, and I hope you’ll subscribe (still free) and then share this post with your friends and on your social media. We’re at just over 2800 regular subscribers and would love to have you and your friends join us.
The Hopkins Center for the Arts helps support Artful and joins Artful in celebrating those who love, make and share the art in our community. Explore the 2023-2024 season at the Hop.
And in case you are wondering . . . Susan B. Apel shuttered a lifelong career as a law professor to continue an interest (since kindergarten) in writing. Her freelance business, The Next Word, includes literary and feature writing; her work has appeared in a variety of lit mags and other publications including Art New England, The Woven Tale Press, The Arts Fuse, and Persimmon Tree. She connects with her neighbors through Artful, her blog about arts and culture in the Upper Valley. She’s in love with the written word..