LB2007.1.70180

LB2007.1.70180

Summit House, Mt. Battie, Camden, Me. Aug. 08 In 1897, Columbus Buswell built a toll road to the top of Mt. Battie from the old Fay house near the bottom, paying $40 to the land owners. That gave him the exclusive use of the road for 10 years and the privilege of collecting tolls from other travelers. That same year, Buswell leased one square acre of the mountaintop from its owners, the Adam family, and he built a wooden structure he called the Summit House. In 1899, a group of summer residents formed the Mt. Battie Association and purchased not only Buswell's road and Summit House, but also another 59 acres of the mountain. Their purpose was to create a permanent park. Summit House featured an observation tower (construction date unknown) adjacent to the building. The tower which was approximately four stories in height can be seen in this image. The Association also remodeled Summit House, turning it into a summer hotel. It opened on Aug. 17, 1900. "While people almost everywhere were sweltering in the intense heat Saturday afternoon," wrote the Camden Herald, "Those who were on the summit of Mt. Battie were comfortable and cool in the refreshing breeze that Mt. Battle always furnishes... "But there were other attractions on Mt. Battie on Saturday afternoon, for the members of the Mt. Battie Association were receiving friends and they made that reception a pleasure indeed for their guests. The pretty club house just remodeled was thrown open and in the house and on the broad veranda fair, ladies devoted themselves to the pleasure of the visitors... "Considerably over a hundred enjoyed the hospitalities offered. The buckboards and public carriages were kept busy transporting the people up and down and there would have been many more had not the extreme heat deterred them." In 1918, fire swept Mt. Battie. The hotel escaped the flames, but its day had nearly come to an end. In 1920, the association voted to tear it down because it couldn't pay for itself. A year later, the World War I Memorial Tower was built in its place and from some of its foundation stones. Most of the building's original foundation remains intact and visible beneath the tower. About two years after the tower was built, the Ku Klux Clan of Camden and Rockland burned a cross on the Mt. Battie summit, outraging most of the town's residents. In 1930, another fire swept over Mt. Battie, charring a path two miles long and a mile wide. It burned for four days