From collection Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Company Collection
Belvedere Inn -- Lake Maranacook, Maine D14
Image shows part of Lake Maranacook, looking across the water from the Belvedere Inn's property on the west side of the lake to the pristine eastern side. A rail line is visible along the shoreline in the foreground. The Belvedere and other large hotels, including the Elmwood Hotel, and The Martha Washington, served by the railroad at Readfield Depot, 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.
