Victoria Pier - Alton Bay

[mcdude]

A BRIEF PICTURE OF THE PAST

“At one time it was just a plain dock next to a sandy beach on a pristine lake, with a few houses dotted along the clean shores of Lake Winnipesaukee. Now a bustling restaurant where tourists and sightseers can stop to quench their thirst and grab a bite to eat while sitting over Alton Bay and watching the boaters.
Yes, that’s how it all started with the construction of one small dock around 1910 on the west shore of Alton Bay. The railroad brought tourists, who got off right down the strett, into Alton Bay. Then they might stay for the night at the Lake Winnipesaukee House.

Winnipiseogee House Stereo View - 1877
After, when they woke up in the morning, they would walk down along the railroad to John Card’s Landing, “Smoker’s Retreat”, where they could rent a rowboat for the day or if they wanted, buy one made by John himself. John’s dock soon turned into a small one room building where he built the boats himself.

In the mid-1920s, George Lynch, former 1898 Alton graduate, bought the building from John Card and tore down the small shack but rebuilt a much bigger building named Victoria Pier. At this time the railroad claimed ownership of the land so George was forced to lease the land from them. George decided to make Victoria Pier into a small gift and coffee shop with a marble ice cream bar. George also added a dock for the same rowboats that John Card had built to be rented out to tourists. He also put in one gas tank and sold Socony gas to both the cars and the boats. George then decided to have the local postmaster and painter, Bob Rollins, paint the rowboats yellow and orange to match the Socony Gas logo. George also staffed the ice cream bar with a young woman named Madeline G. Adams who was hired in the late 1930s. Madeline and George served hot coffee to the tourists and Altonians who came down to the Bay to view the lake on the pier’s open porch. Then, when the railroad stopped running in 1936, the “Railroad Square” land was sold to the town.

In 1946 Allbrick Ouellette, “Al”, bought Victoria Pier from George Lynch with a dream of selling boat rides on his 36-foot runabout named “The 75 Special”. He also sold tickets for the Lake Winnipesaukee U.S. Mailboat “Tonimar”. Fares for a ride on the mailboat cost $1.50 for adults and $1.00 for children under twelve years old for a ten mile ride. During this time, Victoria Pier served meals to various people such as; Guy Lombardo, The Dorsey Brothers, Joe Penny and other musicians and bands who played at the Alton Bay Pavillion.

Allbrick was going to sell Victoria Pier to two of his employees; Madeline Adams and Eddie Nevel, but ended up selling it to Madeline alone and in the year of 1952 Madeline Adams purchased the building. Madeline kept the name and the function of the Pier as a restaurant and gift shop through the 1960s until 1979.

On May 24, 1979, Madeline Adams sold Victoria Pier to Arthur and Dorothy Cornelissen for a price of $60,000. Then Athur and Dorothy decided to close in the open porch and put windows all the way around the building. Through this time Victoria Pier changed its’ purpose several times. Starting as a gift and coffee shop, it was made into a bakery, then changed to being a small arcade, and and ending in 1984 as a Century 21 Real Estate Office. That same year on June 2, 1984, Arthur Cornelissen died.

Then on August 29, 1985 Dorothy sold the Pier to Gary J. Jenisch and Martha Carole Dwyer. Gary and Martha changed Victoria Pier back into a restaurant and kept it as such until 1989. On March 23, 1989, Martha and Gary sold the Pier to William F. Bunker as a restaurant. William left the building the same and didn’t change the function of being a seasonal restaurant until 1993.

On September 23, 1993 William Bunker sold Victoria Pier to Arnold and David Shibley who changed the name from Victoria Pier to Shibley’s at the Pier the next Spring. The Shibley’s have done some internal renovations to the Pier but the building itself still remains the same as it was in the early 1900s and it has been and is currently a restaurant.

All the way from that one person dock built by John Card himself in the early 1900s to a busy restaurant almost one hundred years later, Victoria Pier / Shibley’s at the Pier has been a part of Alton’s history. The Pier has seen many changes in Alton as it went through time but it still stands, held up by the same boards laid by George Lynch with the same dock that Allbrick Ouellette once used to sell rides on his 36 foot boat “the 75 Special”. The Pier is a window facing back in time throughout Alton’s history.”
“Winnipiseogee Heritage” - A project of the Alton U.S. History Class - 12-7-2000 - David Shibley.

A photo of the Old Mount from Victoria Pier and possibly a John Card rowboat.

Old Postcard