LB2007.1.72037

LB2007.1.72037

Ruggles Park, Northport, Maine, August 2, 1924, Ruggles Park View of Central Park (left) and Ruggles Park (right) with Dutch's Inn at the top of the hill. HOTEL HISTORY The first hotel / boarding house, Wesleyan Grove House, at Wesleyan Grove, Northport was built in 1876 at a cost of $7000, including furnishings. It was a large building with a spacious veranda commanding fine views of the harbor. Subsequently dormers were added to the upper floor and increased sleeping accommodations were added. It was renamed the Waverly House in 1882. The Waverly House burned in 1888. The Northport Hotel opened in 1891, three years after the Waverly burned. It was a Victorian "grand old lady" with 64 rooms, a large porch overlooking the bay, and "all modern improvements, telephone, mail three times daily, pure mineral water, perfect sanitary arrangements and first-class table." The Wesleyan Camp Ground at Bayside "is getting to be the most popular resort on the bay," noted the Belfast Progressive Age on August 8, 1873. The character had changed considerably since the first camp meeting in 1849. "The grove is lively with health and pleasure seekers," observed a Belfast Weekly Advertiser writer a year later. Campers were building cottages, and excursionists were coming by the thousands to enjoy swimming, fishing, boating, and sports in addition to the camp meetings. 1891 commentary about the new hotel Everybody who examined it was surprised, at its capacity and general finish. The credit of its design was due to Mr. Lester Cutter of Bangor, a son-in-law of Mr. B. P. Kidder, who had its general supervision and oversight. Mr. Kidder managed its construction with sagacious economy and for the money expended has secured a splendid result. The view from the waterfront is magnificent, and will every day afford a pleasant attraction. with its towers and broad piazzas it will present a refreshing sight from the bay. Every room in it is delightful - light and cheerful - and it contains fifteen more rooms than the Crosby Inn at Belfast. It has three brick chimneys and arrangements for fires in fourteen rooms. Its dining room will easily accommodate 200 guests at one time, and its office gives room to about the same number. The lower floors are of the finest hardwood, and all the upper floors will be tastefully carpeted. There will be 56 elegant bedrooms, including some dozen in suites. It has a most capacious cellar, with a wall as solid as Northport rock and Portland cement can make it. With an elaborate system of piping and abundant closets, bathroom and barber shop, added to a convenient parlor for the ladies, and lastly a convenient kitchen and cook room, the whole will supply the long-felt want of this popular summer resort, and Northport may, with good reason, anticipate a most prosperous season from the crowd that will be eager to enjoy its healthy air and delightful scenery. Rates were $2 to $2.50 per day and $8 to $12 per week. A new pavilion, with seating for 1,000 people, also opened in 1891. It was an ideal venue for worship services and Chautauqua assemblies as well as lectures, concerts, musicals, dances, and other entertainment. Fire consumed the hotel in 1919, and a much plainer Dutch's Inn (seen in this photo) was built on the site. The building still stood at the top of Ruggles Park in 2014. RUGGLES PARK Ruggles Park was named for Hiram Ruggles, a prominent figure in the community at the time. With the growing fashion for spending summer vacations at the seaside, the attention of people in this section of the State was turned towards Northport, as a desirable place for summer residences. The "Pioneer Cottage" was built in 1869 by I. Cunningham of Union. L.A Knowlton of Belfast was the next to build, followed by Capt. Nickerson and Hon. Hiram Ruggles. Hiram Ruggles was born in Carmel in 1813, one of ten children. His parents were pioneer settlers of Carmel, his father a farmer and Baptist minister. Hiram attended the local school and worked on the family farm and became the head of the household after his mother was widowed. He married at 25 and continued to farm in Carmel until 1853. He served as selectman of Carmel at age 23; at 26 he was appointed Justice of the Peace by the governor and made a Trial Justice in 1860. He was a Penobscot County Commissioned and served both as a Representative and Senator in the State Legislature and a member of the Executive Council under Governors Coburn, Coney and Chamberlain. In the 1850s he ran as an anti-slavery candidate and helped organize the Republican Party. He left no issue His daughter died at age 27 and his son was killed in battle before Fredericksburg in 1864. He was a member and an elder of the Methodist-Episcopal church from 1838 onward. He was first mentioned in the Campground News in 1875 and was a leader of the Wesleyan Grove Camp meeting until his death in 1888.