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Not many of us are still around who remember when there were no automobiles or electricity, and people had to travel by train. In the mid-1800s when the railroad had arrived in Sunapee, so did the entrepreneurs, anxious to cash in on the hundreds of people who wanted to summer away from the heat of Boston and New York. Many rooming houses appeared, along with large hotels. Vacationers got off the train at Lake Station in Newbury, and steamboats took them to their hotels. Some of the boats towed barges filled with trunks and luggage for a summer-long stay. |
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The location of the Granliden Hotel, on the west end of Gardner Bay, was formerly known as the Scott Farm, and was purchased by sisters Carrie and Annie Covell, probably around the 1890s. According to an account dated September 9, 1821, by Mildred Bartlett, the site was famous for being in the path of a violent tornado that demolished the house and barns of Harvey Huntoon, located on the site. |
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Granliden was originally built as a small inn around 1890, along with several cottages. In 1905, the new Granliden Hotel, designed by Bassett Jones, a New York architect, was said to have built in one year. The announcement in the 1905 Argus newspaper extolled Granliden's virtues at its opening, noting it had "electricity". The 1906 brochure from the hotel enticed vacationers with the best cuisine on the Lake, concerts, and dance bands during the week, where, according to old-timers, many romances flourished. |
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