Ca. 1895 photos of Weirs Beach cottages and buildings
 

I have been methodically going through the photos in the Oren W. Hills collection recently posted by Digital Vermont in collaboration with the Vermont Historical Society. Many of these are sadly unidentified and so I've been using all of the tools at my disposal in order to identify as many of them as I can.

I came upon an image of the Aquedoktan in the collection. It is the only image identified as being at Weirs Beach either by the photographer or the person scanning in these glass plate negatives. It helps that the name is prominently written both across the roof and on a sign hanging on the deck!

As I went through the 140 glass plate collection I would stumble across houses that just screamed vacation house, lake house, getaway cottage. I wondered if the photographer may have taken more images at Weirs Beach so I started searching Google Street views and history pages for images that would match the ones I was seeing.

I did! I found 6 images in the collection that are from Lakeside Avenue, many are identified, some are no longer with us, and a couple I'm hoping for a little help identifying. I figured this would be the right place to go. I think it will be easier to load each one as a new reply/comment so that I can put the specific information with each image. I'm hoping that isn't a cumbersome way of doing this.

As it's winter in Winnipesaukee right now, maybe this would be a good project for folks!

Lake View
 

The first building, may favorite building, and the one I'm using for my avatar, is Lake View. I'm including the link to the original image (which you can REALLY zoom in on) here: https://digitalvermont.org/items/show/4915

Sometimes it's hard to get a precise address using Google Maps Street View but I think this one is at 53 Lakeside Ave. Please correct me if I'm wrong. I include the historic image plus a screenshot from Google. This place seems to have changed quite drastically over the years. Probably no surprise for a building that is used expressly for rental purposes.

This building is now known as Romeo's Balcony

176 Lakeside
 

I believe the address for this is 176 Lakeside Ave. This building does not have a sign giving its name but that anchor shield in the upper gable is pretty distinctive. Here is the link to the original image:https://digitalvermont.org/items/show/4924

This is right next door to the Lake View (now known as Romeo's Balcony).

Here is the historic image plus the image I've pulled from Google Maps. The original glass plate negative appears to have had quite a bit of damage, luckily the image of the house itself remains intact. This one could clean up nicely in an app like PhotoShop.

Clyde Cottage
 

If you zoom in closely you can see the name of this building on a little sign over the front. It says Clyde Cottage. I believe now this building is known as Clyde House. This one seems to have changed the most and is also the most difficult to get a decent picture of on Google Maps. Here is the original link to the page: https://digitalvermont.org/items/show/4988

Aquedoktan
 

Sadly, this building is no longer with us. Though from looking at images of it online from the 1980s to when it burned down as a saloon in 2010 I'd say its historical integrity wasn't really being looked after. There are many historic images of this online, but this one is by far of superior quality: https://digitalvermont.org/items/show/4926

Story's Hotel
 

Sadly this building burned down in 1991. Originally called Story's Hotel it later became Weir's Hotel. From what I could see online this was between Clyde Cottage and Lake View (Romeo's Balcony). Here is the link to the original image: https://digitalvermont.org/items/show/4916

Here is the historic photo plus an image of the now empty lot where it used to be. Can it be that this is more useful as an empty parking lot? It seems it has been this way for over 30 years...

Cavalry Headquarters
 

This turns up as 425 Lakeside Ave. Not really sure how the numbering works here. This is the Cavalry Headquarters building and does not appear to have changed much over the years. Here is the original link to the image: https://digitalvermont.org/items/show/5020

Here is the historic image plus an image of how the building looks now from Google Maps

Unidentified Building
 

This is one I have yet to identify. It resembles the Veterans building at Weirs, looks like similar architecture and materials with building shape similarities, but it isn't quite. Here is the link to the original image: https://digitalvermont.org/items/show/4964

Can anyone identify this building?

Oakland
 

Here is a building that I cannot seem to find. It is identified as "Oakland" by the sign over the porch. This looks like in keeping with other Weirs Beach properties though granted, it could be elsewhere. Here is a link to the original image: https://digitalvermont.org/files/ori...14_Oakland.jpg

Weirs Beach?
 

I'm not convinced this is at Weirs, the style of the building, the exposure of the image, and the trees surrounding the house aren't like the others but I figured it was worth a shot. Here is the original link: https://digitalvermont.org/items/show/5048

Couple In The Woods
 

This appears to be Weirs Beach and while it is not of a building, it appears to be in-between two buildings, perhaps the location could be identified? Here is the link: https://digitalvermont.org/items/show/5049

I did alter this one a bit, I had to drop the exposure and sharpen it up a little...

Not sure of location
 

This could be any number of vacation summer places on a lake or pond. Given how many photos are taken of Weirs Beach I'm just going to include this one here in case it is and someone can identify these buildings despite it being so heavily wooded. Link: https://digitalvermont.org/items/show/5051

And that's it!
 

Those are all the photos that seem relevant. Of course I've posted all the links so if you know how to navigate you can always look at all the other photos in the collection and see for yourself. The photos were attributed to photographer Oren W. Hills though that doesn't make any sense given he was born in 1891. I believe these images were just in his collection. I actually believe these may be photos taken by Frederick Charles Eaton who lived and died in Barre, Vermont. He took commercial photos for the granite industry (and you'll see that MANY photos in the collection are of granite quarries), and so I wonder if he may have also taken some commercial/advertising photos for Weirs Beach as well. He originally came from the Boston area, being familiar with Lake Winnipesaukee makes sense. Any information that anyone has is appreciated. I'm just glad that there is a place where all these images can be put together and studied by anyone who wants to

Believe the one or two lots were dug out of the hillside to become a commercial pay parking lot, sometime maybe in 2001 or 2002, when the Laconia Planning Board voted yes on the site plan approval. One of the Planning Board members was quoted in the Laconia Citizen as saying something like "It's their property, and they can dig out the hillside to become a parking lot, if that's what they want to do!"

Those are great. Thanks for posting!

Boardwalk Bluesboy would know a lot more about these buildings he may even own a few of them.

1890s Lakeside Avenue Weirs Beach photos
 

What a wonderful collection of 1890s Lakeside Avenue Weirs Beach photos posted by Vermont Interloper! Thank you so much for bringing these to my attention. The clarity of the photos is amazing! I have posted almost all of these photos to my website, after editing them in Photoshop to eliminate any black stains and the photographer's white identification markings. On my website, I have put together a photo montage of all of the 1890s Lakeside Avenue buildings here, with links to webpages for each individual building. Now, I'm going to reply to each of the above photos with specific comments.

Yes, this is a photo of Romeo's Balcony, a vacation rental that my family owns. The correct address is 132 Lakeside Avenue. If you scroll down on the Romeo's Balcony webpage past the vacation rental info, you will see many more historical photos of the building.

This building is the Ninth and Eleventh Regiment building. It is not next door to Romeo's. It is between the Cavalry HQ and the 7th Regiment building.

Yes, this is Clyde House, at #112 Lakeside Avenue. It is now a rooming house for our foreign student employees.

This is the one photo that was not located on Lakeside Avenue. It was located on Route 3 right across from the entrance to Lakeside Avenue. The Aquedoktan Hotel had a very long and varied history, changing names many times before it burned down.

All correct. The parking lot was built in the early 1990s mainly to serve as an area for vendors during Laconia Motorcycle Week. Its use as a parking lot is actually its secondary function. Click on the link for an extensive gallery of Story's Tavern images.

Yes, this is Cavalry Headquarters. It retains the stairs directly centered in front, which the other veterans buildings no longer feature.

This is the Fourteenth Regiment building. Still standing, but greatly altered over the years.

This was, and still is, the first house on Lakeside Avenue. It is now a private home at #54 Lakeside Avenue.

This photo was taken between the Seventh Regiment and Third Regiment buildings. Here's a contemporary photo of the same area. The contemporary photo shows the Seventh Regiment building on the left, but there is nothing showing on the right, as the Third Regiment building burned down in 1924.

1890s Lakeside Avenue Weirs Beach photos
 

That's all I got on these photos. Thanks again Vermont Interloper!