Accommodations On Weirs Boulevard (Route 3 South)

Below is an aerial of the Swedish Village in 1961. On the other side of Lake Street from the Swedish Village, the building with the steeple was the location of the ice cream plant and dairy bar of Pitman Keller, son of Otto Keller, the founder of Kellerhaus. Otto’s sons Pitman and Seth had split up the business, with Seth taking over the original store on Main Street in downtown Laconia, while Pitman began his own independent operation on Lake Street.

In June, 1961, the Laconia Evening Citizen reported that when Pitman planned the large building, “…he decided to have all of the ice-cream making equipment in plain sight of the customers as they come to the windows of the dairy bar to make purchases. Every piece of dairy equipment is brand new. The ice cream plant has a capacity of 300 gallons per hour and is designed to be operated by one person. Laconians have been eating Keller’s ice cream since 1906 when Otto G. Keller first opened his Main Street store. Pitman Keller has been associated with his father since 1930. He will be the sole proprietor of the new dairy bar and plant. His brother, Seth, now operates the Main Street store.”

Pitman’s independent ice cream store did not last long. In the 1970s, the location became the site of a Globe department store. It is currently the location of the Village at Paugus Bay, a conglomeration of various stores beneath an apartment complex. Brother Seth moved the downtown operation to Weirs Beach in 1966, where Kellerhaus continues to the present day.

St. Moritz cottages and Adirondack chairs.

The St. Moritz pool overlooked Paugus Bay.

The beach at Barton’s

Two of the long, one-story, brick-faced motel structures.

Barton’s brochure, early 1990s