From collection Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Company Collection
Lake Maranacook, Maine D17
Image of a wooden, vine-covered trellis with sign reading "Belvedere Inn". The trellis forms a sort of gateway over a walk into the hotel. At the right is a patio with picnic tables. 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.
