Diamond Island House
1861
The Diamond Island house in 1861. It is hard to believe that this simple structure ultimately became the New Hotel Weirs. However, a common element are the verandas that run the entire length of the building, as well as the numerous dormers along the roof line. Note the Lady of the Lake docked in front of the Diamond Island House. This was the predominant mode of transportation to the house. On the reverse of the second, real photo postcard, the following words were hand-written: “Moved over the ice to the Weirs – no longer exists. Used timbers to build right-hand section of Hotel Weirs. First called Sanborn’s House, then the Weirs Hotel. Enlarged before 1909, second Tower and wing were added and name changed to the New Hotel Weirs. Burned 1924 – 230 rooms.”
The Diamond Island house in 1861. Postcard #1.
The Diamond Island house in 1861. Postcard #2.
Below, a photo of the Lady of the Lake at the Diamond Island House. One of the Lady’s regular stops was at Diamond Island. Coincidentally, the name of the island matched the diamond the Lady sported on her paddlewheel box.
The Winnipesaukee Steamboat Company, owners of the Lady, had purchased Diamond Island in 1865 after leasing it for four years from Nathaniel Folsom of Wolfeboro. They had built the Diamond Island House in 1861 to provide a rest stop for their tourist passengers. The company then further developed the hotel, adding an ice house, bowling alley, and even a dance hall. The House became a very popular hostelry for Civil War-era summer excursionists.The hotel was open year-round, catering to winter fishermen in the off-season. How it was supplied in the winter, when it was socked in by the winter ice and unreachable by the Lady, is unknown.
In the 1870s, the hotel developed an unsavory reputation as a rum house and gambling den. As a result, when the steamboat company sold the island in 1880 to Winborn A. Sanborn, a former captain of the Lady, he did not hesitate to dismantle the house. In February, 1880, he cut the hotel in half and hauled the halves over the ice to Weirs Beach. There, he reassembled the halves to build the Sanborn House, which later became the Hotel Weirs.
Without its hotel, Diamond Island remained relatively undeveloped until the arrival of the U.S. Navy’s “Visibility Laboratory”, from 1947-1966. A fascinating account of the laboratory can be read in Stephanie A. Erickson’s book, “Islands of Southern Lake Winnipesaukee”, pages 70-73. In 1970, the island was subdivided into 26 properties.
