In 1928, the Rotary Club and the Business Men’s Club of Skaneateles published a brochure extolling the beauties of the village. Here are the photographs that illustrated their pitch.
“Clark Photo” refers to E.L. Clark who took many photographs in Skaneateles and Syracuse.
Last year I posted this photograph of “Redfield Cottage,” about which I knew nothing, and that, in retrospect, seems unfair. So here is the image again, with a story.
Charles Treadwell Redfield (1837-1923) was the youngest son of Lewis Hamilton Redfield, a pioneering journalist whose statue graces Forman Park in Syracuse. Charles made his mite as a hardware merchant with the firm of McCarthy & Redfield in Syracuse. He was also a prolific inventor of mechanical devices and held many patents. In 1872, Charles married Fanny C. Wynkoop, and they had one son, Robert, born at Glen Haven in 1884.
Charles had a cottage built near the Glen Haven Hotel, and it was completed in the summer of 1886. The family called the cottage “Brookside,” and the Cortland newspaper noted:
“C.T. Redfield, of Syracuse, has leased for 50 years a piece of ground a short distance north of the new [Glen Haven] hotel, and just beyond the little brook which crosses the road, and has built an elegant and convenient modern cottage, at a cost of about $4,000. The cottage is most thoroughly constructed and is designed for a winter as well as a summer residence. The interior is beautifully finished and artistically decorated, and will probably be occupied by Mr. Redfield and his family about July 1st. The cottage is by far the handsomest structure about the Glen, and its location is the choicest that could be selected, its broad piazzas commanding a charming view of the lake. The music of the brook just beside it recalls those lines of Byron:
‘Tis sweet to be awakened by the lark, Or lulled by falling waters,’ *
for if ever there was a soothing sound, it proceeds from this little stream.”
The following summer, Charles had “six or seven men” building a boat house and a boat landing at his cottage. This was vital, as we learn from Sedgwick Smith’s Sailing on Skaneateles Lake (1934):
“Charles T. Redfield, a retired hardware merchant of Syracuse, had taken up his residence at Glen Haven, where he designed and built a number of sail boats of different types. Among these was a yawl about 18 feet long, somewhat like Charles Poor’s Perhaps So, except the ‘dandy’ (mizzen) sail was leg o’ mutton; she was built about 1887. The catamaran White Cat was built about the same time. The Black Cat, however, was a catamaran which Mr. Redfield bought. About 1894 he purchased a 16-foot Atlantic City [Mosquito Class] cat which was reputed to have been the fastest boat at Glen Haven in her day.”
The catamaran that Smith speaks of was probably the Fire Fly. In August of 1898, four young men took it out in heavy weather, in search of adventure, and promptly lost the mast. Fortunately, the Ossahinta had just arrived from Skaneateles, and Charles chartered the vessel to steam out to rescue the boys and his boat. They were safely towed to shore; Charles perhaps had a few soft words of advice for them and the young women who had been watching the drama from the porch of the hotel fawned over the boys as returning heroes.
For the Redfield family, it was nice having a hotel next-door. In 1893, reporter Percival Hine wrote:
“Master ‘Trottie’ Redfield spent his ninth birthday Saturday in royal style. At supper in the evening all the guests at the hotel were served with a birthday cake, presented by his mother, that would tickle the palate of the most confirmed dyspeptic. Master Robert Longstreet Redfield was born at the Glen and has spent the greater part of his life here in the beautiful cottage of his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Charles T. Redfield, just north of the sanitarium.”
Such was Mrs. Redfield’s social prominence that in 1894, when she was down with rheumatism, the newspaper printed notices of both her confinement and recovery.
Another newspaper account, in 1899, gives us a glimpse of life inside the cottage:
“Yesterday afternoon Mrs. C.T. Redfield gave a tea at her attractive ‘Brookside’ cottage in honor of her guests, Mrs. Jas. Wynkoop and daughter of Denver, Colo. Cottagers and Glen guests generally were invited, and the company was quite a large one. Mrs. Redfield and Mrs. Wynkoop received, and Miss Wynkoop and Miss W.W. Phelps of Syracuse presided at the punchbowl. Refreshments were served on the cottage veranda. The table was daintily decorated with sweet peas and maiden hair ferns, and a profusion of sunflowers, artistically arranged, gave a novel and striking appearance to the library. Mrs. Redfield’s well known capacity for graceful and generous hospitality was never more happily displayed, and the occasion was made a most delightful one for all who were present.”
Also during the summer of ’99, Mrs. Redfield won first prize in a progressive euchre tournament over at the hotel, bringing home a silver case with its own deck of cards inside.
Charles Redfield lived at the cottage nine months of the year. I would have, too.
In 1911, the City of Syracuse bought the Glen Haven Hotel and 150 acres of land to prevent further development on the lake’s watershed and the contamination of the city’s water supply. Two years later, the hotel, out-buildings and surrounding cottages were torn down and carried away.
* * *
* The quote by Lord Byron (1788-1824) is from the first canto of Don Juan (1819), and here is a bit more of it:
“Tis sweet to know there is an eye will mark
Our coming, and look brighter when we come;
’Tis sweet to be awaken’d by the lark,
Or lull’d by falling waters; sweet the hum
Of bees, the voice of girls, the song of birds,
The lisp of children, and their earliest words.”
Amazing to think of a time when journalists quoted Byron.
* * *
Thanks to postcard publisher Walter S. Bull, son of one of the last Glen Haven Hotel proprietors, J. Seymour Bull.
Thanks to the amazing Bill Hecht for finding the small photo of “Brookside” in a scrapbook.
The one thing I will miss, if the derelict gas station to the east of the village is removed in my lifetime, is this light, made of pipe, pipe joints and a tapered sheet metal base, weathered and rusted, so odd, homemade and humble.
It was only a matter of time before “penny in the slot machines” made their way to Skaneateles. In 1888, on New York City train platforms, the Thomas Adams Gum Company introduced vending machines that dispensed chewing gum when you put a penny in the slot. Soon there were “penny in the slot” machines that told your weight, dispensed candy, peanuts or postage stamps.
In 1891, a company in Brooklyn developed a gambling machine based on poker. Players would put in a nickel and pull a lever, five drums would spin and the player would receive a poker hand. A good hand could pay off with a free beer or a cigar. Soon every saloon and cigar store had one or more of these lucrative “slot machines.”
By 1893, the hybrid vending/gambling machines had made their way here. The Skaneateles Free Press reported:
“’Penny-in-the-slot’ machines are in operation in this village as mentioned before and complaints [are made] that even 10 year old boys are permitted to risk their pennies in these gaming devices, in the hope of securing a cigar! One place on Genesee Street has often a crowd of boys out of school hours on week days and also on Sundays. Is this legitimate or beneficial to our youth?” (Dec. 29, 1893)
“The gambling slot machines are in operation in several places in this village. The village authorities should suppress them at once, as is being done in nearly every city in the state. The slot machines are a great inducement to gambling.” (Mar. 23, 1894)
In October of 1897, the U.S. Mint reported that the demand for pennies was at an all-time high; they were minting close to 4 million per month. A spokesman explained that the penny in the slot machine “has spread over the land like the locusts of Egypt within the past two or three years. A single automatic machine company takes in half a million pennies a day. As there isn’t a cross-roads village in the country that hasn’t a chewing gum, kinetoscope, music or weighing machine operated in this way, the number of coins required to keep them all going is enormous.”
In 1906, the Skaneateles Free Press again made its case:
“How about the slot machines in Skaneateles? The attention of the Village Fathers is called to them. Men, youth and even school boys are seen playing slot machines in this village, fostering their gambling spirit and demoralizing those who play them. Why should not the slot machines in Skaneateles cigar stores or other places go?” (Jan. 9, 1906)
“A local merchant, speaking the other day about penny in the slot machines, said he purchased one in self defence, because he was continually short of coppers to make change, having to hunt up $3 or $4 worth every day. He therefore resolved to secure a slot machine and found it kept him well supplied with pennies.” (Oct. 3, 1906)
By this time, public opinion, or at least the public’s stated opinion, was trending against slot machines and they were declared illegal. However, reports of raids and confiscations in the 1920s, ‘30s and ‘40s attest to their continuing popularity among those willing to risk jail in Syracuse, Auburn and Utica.
Skaneateles was rid of the scourge early on, with one notable exception.
Two histories of the Skaneateles Country Club note that slot machines were introduced to the Club in the early 1940s. Beverley Hastings Lapham (1903-1980), a stock broker and golfer, cited a slot machine from the Mills Bell Company of Chicago as “the bulwark of our financial income at the Club.” At first there were three: a nickel, a dime and a quarter slot machine. A second quarter slot machine was purchased in 1946. When the winter months came and golfers went to warmer climes, the slot machines were sent to the basement of the National Bank & Trust Co. on Genesee Street.
Sadly, in consideration of rising concerns about their legality, the machines were disposed of in 1953. And so ended a colorful era.
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Thanks to Gil Elvgren for his illustration, “Potluck,” showing a 1948 Mills High Top Jewel Bell.
It is probably a little early in the year to think about swimming the length of the lake, but not too early to discuss some of the earlier attempts.
On Saturday, July 24, 1934, Ellsworth “Chubby” Greenough, 28 years old and coated in grease, swam the 16-mile length of Skaneateles Lake; it was his fourth attempt and first success. He entered the water at Clift Park at 7:40 a.m. and climbed out at the south end of the lake at 6:45 p.m. He tried to repeat the feat three times in 1950 and 1951, but cramps caused by the cold water defeated his later attempts.
In August of 1952, Carleton Dunn, 19, said he swam the length of the lake but he did it without the benefit of witnesses. Cramps ended an early morning attempt after three miles, but after some time in the hospital, Dunn returned to Glen Haven, dove into the water and began the swim again, over the protests of his friends, without a boat to accompany him. He was feared drowned until he appeared at his home on Griffin Street at 4:30 a.m., and told his parents he had swum the lake, mostly in the dark. He later told a reporter, “I’ll do it again anytime anyone challenges me and I’ll do it with witnesses,” however, there is no further evidence of an encore.
In August of 1966, Walter “Wally” Duncan, 69, swam the lake in 10 hours, 46 minutes. He was quoted afterwards as saying, “Damn. It was cold.” He also swam the length of Owasco Lake, and swam Cayuga Lake four times.
On July 14, 1984, Cornell co-ed Claire de Boer, 24, swam Skaneateles Lake in 8 hours, 20 minutes, north to south, as part of a tune-up for a swim of the length of Cayuga Lake, a 38-mile, 20-hour, 30-minute swim she completed in August.
In July of 1987, while training for an English Channel swim, Jerry Ferris, 47, swam from the village to the south end of Skaneateles Lake, and turned around to swim back; just two miles from the village he was forced out of the water by a thunderstorm. He did the 30 miles in 12 hours.
Jerry Ferris in 2013
Earlier, Ferris swam the length of Lake George in 1983, and said it was his hardest swim. He swam around the island of Manhattan in 1984. His 1987 try for a round-trip English Channel swim was foiled by strong currents and tides, so he only made the crossing one way, from Dover to the French coast.
On August 16, 2003, the Skaneateles Girls Varsity Swim Team swam the lake in relays of 15 minutes each, and, although stopped by repeated thunderstorms, they made it to Glen Haven. My thanks to swimmer Maddie Halstead for this correction to the earlier account.
If anyone has other accounts, I’d be delighted to hear them.
I have written before about Virginia Loney, a young woman who survived the 1915 sinking of the Lusitania because she had learned to swim in Skaneateles Lake, but I hadn’t seen this photo of her, taken in 1924, shortly after her divorce from Robert Gamble.
The door prize at the St. Mary’s church fair, won by Mrs. James Haskins in August of 1910, was a half-ton of coal.
Skaneateles 