Winnipesaukee Forum - View Single Post - Chronicle is at the Castle in the Clouds.

Rattlesnake Gal · 09-29-2010, 08:29 AM

From the McDude Gallery

Weelahka Hall in the Ossipee Mountains housed many of the workers who constructed Thomas Plant's "Lucknow" estate or Castle in the Clouds. When construction was completed, Plant relentlessly attempted to buy all of the land between the castle and the lake. When the owners of Weelahka refused Plant had his workmen build a 'spite wall' between Weelahka and the lake obstructing their view and convincing them to sell the property.
I was unsure of my source for the above info so I wrote to dcr of photopost who I know does a lot of work at the Castle. Here is what he had to say, "The spite fence was one of the least pleasant tactics Tom Plant employed as he built his 6300 acre estate in the Ossipee Mt area. He owned from the high ridge of the Ossipees all the way down to the shores of Winnipesaukee ( close to 5 mi from mountaintop to lake, with more than a mile of lake front property on which he eventually built the Bald Peak Colony Club). One newspaper story called that a bigger estate than some owned by the lords and ladies of England - the paper christened Plant the Earl of Ossipee.

His confrontation leading to the spite fence was with the Lee family, whose ancestors were the first settlers up high on the mountainside meadow. The Lees had been there since a little before the 1790's, so you might expect that they had some attachment to the land. Plant offered them a price, but they countered with a price of their own which Plant wouldn't initially meet - and thus the fray was joined. Eventually Plant had to concede to their price, in spite of the spite fence. The Lees and the mountainside farming community that grew up around them, of which they were the acknowledged patriarchs, had a rich and interesting history of its own, with people like Whittier, Lucy Larcom and Robert Frost spending summers there in the late 1800's - not to mention the interesting exploits of some of the mountain people themselves.
The Lees had very good relations with the previous land baron, B F Shaw, the developer of Ossipee Mountain Park and the creator of Weelahka Hall, and made part of their living providing the hotel he built with fresh farm produce. By the time of the spite fence, however, Shaw was dead and the family had sold the business. Plant owned Weelakha Hall during the spite fence controversy, and he used it to house some of the around 1000 workers he had on the property for the couple of years it took to build the "castle" (he never called it that) and the system of carriage roads, stables, gate houses, etc that were part of his grand design. After the construction was complete, he razed the Hall and every other old building in the immediate vicinity so that he could build himself a private 9-hole golf course.

From the Rattlesnake Gal Gallery

Following is the relevant paragraph from the small history of the Lee Settlement passed on to me by DCR:

Eventually, Mr. Plant acquired all the property around the Park (Ossipee Park, which he bought in 1911) except the Lee homestead, which included 150 acres. The Lees were not interested in selling at his offered price as they had been offered $500 more by a relative. Mr. Plant was so disgruntled by his being unable to purchase this last hold on the mountain community that he put up a 20 ft spite fence several hundred feet in length which blocked the view of the lake from the Lee's home.Buildings (part of the Weelahka Hall complex of Ossipee Park) within sight were splashed with black paint (and painted with "hideous figures" of several kinds). This, and other things (other things could have included a death in the family - I don't know about that), finally made the Lees sell, at their price, the property they had owned since 1748. They moved to Moultonboro Falls on the Sheridan Road November 1, 1913. The house they moved to is where Martha Oliver now lives. William Henry Horne ( who had an interesting business relationship with Robert Frost in the summer of 1895 at Ossipee Park - Frost, a very young man then, spent the summer there in Horne's dipalidated house; Horne tended to live with the Lees more than at home) led the cow from the mountain home to the new home at the falls (over 6 mi.). He was 80 years old, having been born January 18, 1833. - Comments in parenthesis are DCR's.

Thank you DCR for all of your informative posts!

The Mountain People of Moultonboro can be read at the Moultonboro public library, where there is a lot of information about the Lee community and the significant outgrowths that developed from it, namely Ossipee Park and the Plant estate. It can also be purchased at the Moultonboro General Store (an interesting place to visit in itself for history buffs), which is right across the street from the library.

For those of you who do not frequent Winnipesaukee.com's PhotoPost Gallery,
DCR is a prolific poster that shares so many pictures that includes history and information from his extensive travels in the Lakes Region.

09-29-2010, 08:29 AM	#17
Rattlesnake Gal Senior Member Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: Central NH Posts: 5,252 Blog Entries: 1 Thanks: 1,451 Thanked 1,349 Times in 475 Posts	Some Interesting History From the McDude Gallery Weelahka Hall in the Ossipee Mountains housed many of the workers who constructed Thomas Plant's "Lucknow" estate or Castle in the Clouds. When construction was completed, Plant relentlessly attempted to buy all of the land between the castle and the lake. When the owners of Weelahka refused Plant had his workmen build a 'spite wall' between Weelahka and the lake obstructing their view and convincing them to sell the property. I was unsure of my source for the above info so I wrote to dcr of photopost who I know does a lot of work at the Castle. Here is what he had to say, "The spite fence was one of the least pleasant tactics Tom Plant employed as he built his 6300 acre estate in the Ossipee Mt area. He owned from the high ridge of the Ossipees all the way down to the shores of Winnipesaukee ( close to 5 mi from mountaintop to lake, with more than a mile of lake front property on which he eventually built the Bald Peak Colony Club). One newspaper story called that a bigger estate than some owned by the lords and ladies of England - the paper christened Plant the Earl of Ossipee. His confrontation leading to the spite fence was with the Lee family, whose ancestors were the first settlers up high on the mountainside meadow. The Lees had been there since a little before the 1790's, so you might expect that they had some attachment to the land. Plant offered them a price, but they countered with a price of their own which Plant wouldn't initially meet - and thus the fray was joined. Eventually Plant had to concede to their price, in spite of the spite fence. The Lees and the mountainside farming community that grew up around them, of which they were the acknowledged patriarchs, had a rich and interesting history of its own, with people like Whittier, Lucy Larcom and Robert Frost spending summers there in the late 1800's - not to mention the interesting exploits of some of the mountain people themselves. The Lees had very good relations with the previous land baron, B F Shaw, the developer of Ossipee Mountain Park and the creator of Weelahka Hall, and made part of their living providing the hotel he built with fresh farm produce. By the time of the spite fence, however, Shaw was dead and the family had sold the business. Plant owned Weelakha Hall during the spite fence controversy, and he used it to house some of the around 1000 workers he had on the property for the couple of years it took to build the "castle" (he never called it that) and the system of carriage roads, stables, gate houses, etc that were part of his grand design. After the construction was complete, he razed the Hall and every other old building in the immediate vicinity so that he could build himself a private 9-hole golf course. From the Rattlesnake Gal Gallery Following is the relevant paragraph from the small history of the Lee Settlement passed on to me by DCR: Eventually, Mr. Plant acquired all the property around the Park (Ossipee Park, which he bought in 1911) except the Lee homestead, which included 150 acres. The Lees were not interested in selling at his offered price as they had been offered $500 more by a relative. Mr. Plant was so disgruntled by his being unable to purchase this last hold on the mountain community that he put up a 20 ft spite fence several hundred feet in length which blocked the view of the lake from the Lee's home.Buildings (part of the Weelahka Hall complex of Ossipee Park) within sight were splashed with black paint (and painted with "hideous figures" of several kinds). This, and other things (other things could have included a death in the family - I don't know about that), finally made the Lees sell, at their price, the property they had owned since 1748. They moved to Moultonboro Falls on the Sheridan Road November 1, 1913. The house they moved to is where Martha Oliver now lives. William Henry Horne ( who had an interesting business relationship with Robert Frost in the summer of 1895 at Ossipee Park - Frost, a very young man then, spent the summer there in Horne's dipalidated house; Horne tended to live with the Lees more than at home) led the cow from the mountain home to the new home at the falls (over 6 mi.). He was 80 years old, having been born January 18, 1833. - Comments in parenthesis are DCR's. Thank you DCR for all of your informative posts! The Mountain People of Moultonboro can be read at the Moultonboro public library, where there is a lot of information about the Lee community and the significant outgrowths that developed from it, namely Ossipee Park and the Plant estate. It can also be purchased at the Moultonboro General Store (an interesting place to visit in itself for history buffs), which is right across the street from the library. For those of you who do not frequent Winnipesaukee.com's PhotoPost Gallery, DCR is a prolific poster that shares so many pictures that includes history and information from his extensive travels in the Lakes Region.