LB2010.9.120310

LB2010.9.120310

Interior, probably of a Belvedere Inn housekeeping cottage. View from living room into part of bedroom and kitchen. Furnished in a folksy, late-1940's vein, to evoke in the vacationer happiness and homey-ness while away from home, as in a Hollywood movie set, this interior is heavily styled with wall-to wall carpeting, exposed ceiling beams, overstuffed furniture, and fanciful decorative wall trim. The two beds are elaborately curtained with bold floral fabric. A kitschey feeling of comfort and leisure is emphasized by nooks and shelves filled with magazines and tchotchkes, miniature chairs with dolls, plenty of decorative kitchenware, and artificial floral arrangements. The Belvedere and other large hotels, including the Elmwood Hotel, and The Martha Washington, served by the railroad stops at Readfield Depot and Maranacook, sprang up around scenic Lake Maranacook beginnning in the 1880s and flourished until the 1950s, when automobile vacations allowed more options for travel. Located on the western shore of the lake three miles from Winthrop, the Belvedere and its housekeeping cabins and cottages offered "commanding views of picturesque Lake Maranacook", according to a 1950s brochure. By then, the establishment advertised itself as a "resort" with a "swimming pool and diving board, woods trails, boating, canoeing, fishing (the lake was stocked with salmon), tennis, ping pong, shuffleboard, badminton," and "bowling and riding and golf...in Augusta," 12 miles away. In the 1930s the hotel was a favorite of Maine Governor Lewis O. Barrows.