The Cottages of Mississippi Lake — Carleton Place Ontario

The “Riverside Cabins” were established by James and Ethel Drummond in c.1947. These cabins and main booth were on the edge of Mississippi River at the end of Lake Avenue. Riverside Cabins was a great camping spot for local and out-of-towners! Photo-Carleton Place and Beckwith Heritage Museum

This is “Tranquila Lodge”,One of two cottages built by Henry Schwerdtfeger at Lake Park. The Schwerdtfegers spent the summers next door in their octagonal cottage, and this building was rented out. It still stands today, painted a bright blue colour! -Photo Carleton Place and Beckwith Heritage Museum- Photo

Photo- Linda Seccaspina

Lake Park has been a summer resort centre of one kind or another for about a hundred years. As Allan’s Point, later sometimes called the Regatta Grounds and Carleton Park, and finally as Lake Park, it served for most that time as a community park for many of the town’s bigger lakeside events of the summer season.- Photo-Linda Seccaspina

The name Lake Park came partly from its purchase as a publicly owned picnic and regatta part for the town being under consideration when it was bought in 1892 by a local syndicate at the start of a period of about fifteen years as a very lively commercial summer resort. Photo-Linda Seccaspina

Within about fifteen years the high life at Lake Park was fairly well finished and soon after it settled down as an ordinary summer cottage community. One of the reasons for the change was claimed to be township local option, which did not arrive in the town itself until 1916. In 1907 as an indication of the change at Lake Park, the steamer ‘Lillian B’ belonging to the Park’s Queen Royal Hotel, was replaced with a bus line as the regular passenger service and later was beached in the Hotel Bay. A view of this abandoned forty foot steam craft about the year 1910 with her ribs lying open to the elements may serve as a picture of the end of one era on the lake, still carrying its earliest Indian name of the Lake of the Big River, and the start of another era a little more like our own. Photo- Linda Secaspina

The point at the lower end of Lake Park has had the name of Lookout Point for many years, and alternatively has been called Hammond’s Point and McRostie’s Point after cottage owners of the past fifty years. The bay and mainland shore behind it have been called Duff’s Bay and Duff’s Shore for the other William Duff and his family (Little Bill Duff) who lived there from the 1840’s.

Howard Morton Brown– summer cottages Photo- Linda Seccaspina

1912 Social Column

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Brighton Dale Cottage- The Schwerdtfeger cottage at Lake Park 1905- Henry and Bertha on the top verandah. Children Hazel and Gladys on the grass. The cottage was demolished in 2005. This poster is available for $5.00 and available at the Carleton Place and Beckwith Heritage Museum.

 

 

 

Mississippi Lake in 9 Minutes

Larry Clarka day

Love the cottage photos as I recall most of them. The booth at the riverside cabins would have been at the left in the photo. Used to hang out there a lot. On one of these occasions I first encountered Americans. They were bragging about the fish they had caught and I saw that they were all sunfish, rock bass and perch -was not impressed and wondered why they would want to keep them. We never did unless, somehow, we had latched on to a huge one. While on this theme, I remembered another encounter with a man from Georgia (which we were later to discover). I was in the CP Dairy to buy ice cream when a man entered after me. He attempted to order a cone but the clerk couldn’t understand him because of his very thick accent. She asked me but I didn’t know-he tried again and still no understanding. At this point he got very red in the face. angrily went behind the counter and pointed to the ice cream that he wanted. This story would have be much better if I could remember what it was he wanted!