Lodging in the Upper Village

The Upper Bartlett Lodging section began its journey in the center of Bartlett Village and previous pages covered the lodging establishments westward to Silver Springs Tavern, then eastwards as far as Coles Cabins (now A Better Life Cabins).

This section begins at Sweet's Farm and works it's way down to the Attitash area.

In my haste, some of the establishments in this area including Obed Hall's farm, Sky Valley, and The Maple Dale, were covered on the previous two pages in this lodging section.

Sweet's Farm Inn was located where the present day Skidaddlers Ski Club is now. It was owned and operated by George and Annie Sweet, who also operated the Gateway, about a mile west of Sweet's Farm, from 1890 until 1930. In 1918 George died of the flu and his Irish widow Annie continued to run the place with the help of her new husband, Luther Fernald. The Inn had 8 bedrooms in the main building and another 12 in the annex across the street. It also had an 8 car garage.

One source says the Inn burned to the ground in 1938, but I remember an operating Inn being on that site well into the 1950's and Annie's daughter, Mary, lived in the annex for many years during the 1950's and 60's. I remember her because she drove a car with "LOVEY" on the license plate. As a young teenager I use to mow her grass occaisionally.

I thought I had a picture of the old Inn, but cannot seem to locate it now. Perhaps someone can fill in the blank space between 1938 and 1958 ?

About a half mile further east was Hellen Hayes Elmcrest Inn which operated until the early 1940's. It was later occupied by Carroll and Ellen (Sanborn) Hayes in the late 1950's. Just up the street on the right Dot Stewart operated a small restaurant for a few years in the early 60's. It later became "Big Jim's Foot-Long Hot Dog Stand". That building is now a part of the Villager Motel.

In the 1800 - 1960 era nearly all the lands between The Elmcrest and Attitash were open farmlands. In fact, up to about 1960 there were few trees in either direction between Elmcrest and the Upper Village and all the way east to Roger's Crossing. This area had at least five good sized barns, all gone now.

Just past Attitash on the left was the Smith Hurst and later the Bell Hurst, and up to the early seventies it was the home of the Scarecrow Restaurant, which is now located in Intervale. For a time in the 1960's the building operated a Sauna and Health club, but apparently that concept was not ready for prime-time back then since it only lasted a year or two. If you search through the Eastern Slope Signal newspapers in the index of this web site you will find a picture of several boys frollicking in the snow after heating up in the steam room.

The building burned in the 1980's and was replaced with the apartment building that is there today.

The property was once owned by the Laughlin Family whose son died while climbing the ledges on Mt Stanton behind the house. Mrs Laughlin was watching from the back porch when he took his fatal plunge.

In this1938 postcard the establishment is identified as Smith-Hurst, owned by Mr and Mrs J Smith. Click the card to read the message.

Much earlier William White's Tavern was in this general location, probably another half-mile further east. William White's Farm in 1814 consisted of about 65 acres in the vicinity of todays Fields of Attitash. William White was also a sucsessor to Obed Hall in his Bartlett Village Establishment. I have been unable to find any information about his establishment located at his farm, if in fact there ever was one.

Click on any picture for a higher resolution version.