Aerial View of the Colony
Clubhouse in the 1930s
The Bald Peak Colony Club was founded by Thomas Plante, infamous builder of "Lucknow" or as we know it today, The Castle in the Clouds. He was ruthless in his quest to acquire all of the land between his castle and the lake which led to the
spite fence at Weelahka Hall.
He began to develop the property in 1919.
Quote:
He stood looking down from his mountain fastness upon the fine tract of land that lay between the village road (now route 109) and the lake shore. There were about 750 acres heavily wooded with pine, hemlock, maple, birch and oak which rose gradually from the lake to quite a plateau on which were the clearings of three small farms. These farms were known as the Browne, Horne and Caverly farms. At one place on the lake shore the huge pines stood back to admit of a natural sandy beach with was extremely beautiful. It came to him that he could share all this beauty with many others in no better way than to establish a residential golfing club. He pictured it as a club colony with cottages, a clubhouse and an 18-hole golf course.....the building of the clubhouse and nine cottages went forward - six on the ridge and three to the northeast of the clubhouse. There were (sic)also built a boathouse and a large dormitory garage for about 20 cars and the chauffeurs of the guests.
Those who applied for membership were carefully screened. The membership fee was $2,500. Of course this was a deterrent to many but he considered it not too high for what was offered.
The first families were; Barrows, Case, Clark, Corby, Drury, Elkins, Erickson, Evatt, Lahey, Ley, Lounsbury, Love, Low and Pettigrew.
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From
The Castle and the Club by Elizabeth Crawford Wilkin - 1964 - Melvin Village
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