Lakeside Hotel
Built in 1880 by George W. Weeks, for which Weeks Street is named, the Winnipesaukee Marketplace was originally a hotel, known as the Lakeside House. It was owned by Mr. Weeks from 1880-1912. Edward T. Milton, who owned it from 1913-1925, erected the footbridge in 1917 “to afford easier access to the Lakeside for auto parties”. In the early 1940’s, the name was changed to the Lakeside Hotel by its new owner, Alberic Favreau. In 1987, it became the Winnipesaukee Marketplace.
1940s
To the far left in the photo below, we see a glimpse of the former building on Lakeside Avenue known variously as the Lakeside Garage, Knottty Pine Restaurant, Teen Haven, and Nashville North. At the time of this photo, as is partially evident by the sign on the building, it was named the Weirs Supper Club. On the footbridge we see a sign promoting “Bowling”. It would appear by that sign, as well as the larger one on the building, that the Lakeside Hotel featured bowling on the premises, and some kind of sports, as well as 65 rooms which were available for only $1 or $1.50 a night. (The Hotel did indeed have a six-lane candlepin bowling alley on the premises. Scroll down this page for a picture of the bowling alley.)
To the right in the photo, we see a traveling van of the Rudy Wallace Orchestra, who were staying at the Hotel at the time of the photo. The orchestra appeared frequently at the nearby Irwin’s Winnipesaukee Gardens, and was considered one of the “top New England territory bands” [Allegro, Volume CV No. 11, November, 2005]. According to the article, in late 1942, Rudy Wallace retired and Mal Hallett took over the band.
Lakeside Hotel Dining Room signs. The Lakeside Hotel bowling alley.
A green Lakeside Hotel brochure from the 1940s.
Souvenir cup and saucer, 1940s
1950s
The Lakeside Hotel in the 1950’s
The Lakeside Hotel in the 1950’s. Note the two stone pillars; they dated back to the early 1900’s, but were torn down around 1998 because they obscured the view of the front lawn of the building from the boardwalk and vice versa.
A 1950s brochure, tinted red, used the same drawing of the hotel on its cover as was used in the 1940s green brochure.
1960s
A full page advertisement of the Lakeside Hotel in the 1960 New Hampshire Vacation Guide
A 1960’s Lakeside Hotel brochure.
1970s
A 1970’s Lakeside Hotel brochure.
1980s
Lakeside Hotel guests were able to access a private beach at the end of Baker Avenue, seen in the photos below. When the hotel was sold in May, 1987 to the Winnipesaukee Flagship Corporation, the new owners quickly sold the original hotel building to developer Marvin Cohen, who transformed the hotel into the Winnipesaukee Marketplace. The Winnipesaukee Flagship Corporation then made their real profit by selling off the “Motel” part of the property on Baker Avenue, along with beach rights, as condominium units.
A May 11, 1985 photo of the Lakeside Hotel, as the Winnipesaukee Railroad train passes underneath the footbridge. Two years later, the entire rear of the Hotel would be torn down in the conversion to the Winnipesaukee Marketplace.
The Legacy of the Lakeside Hotel
By Lorrie Baird. Front page article in the Weirs Times, July 8, 1993 issue. Edited and condensed by the webmaster.
In August of 1940, the deed to the Lakeside House hotel passed from John Beede, who for reasons of his own, had closed down the property the previous summer. Alberic J. Favreau, a high-energy entrepreneur who was living in Warren at the time, bought the property.
Alberic was no stranger to hard work and hard times. In his early 20’s, he graduated from Lowell Tech in Massachusetts, and went into his own electrical business. Along with his brothers, Alberic grew the business to the largest in Lowell. A 1923 newspaper advertisement reads: “We’ve wired 800 homes, next year our goal is 1,200.” Headquartered on Merrimack Street in Lowell, the Favreau brothers grew their business to warrant a fleet of 30 electrical trucks. When the stock market crashed, the business went down along with it. For ten years, Alberic, his wife Alice, and their two children, Donald and Marcella, lived in Warren, NH, where Alberic became a successful traveling salesman selling vending arcade machines.
Since their years in Lowell, the Favreaus had been summering in the Lakes Region, so when the opportunity to buy the Lakeside Hotel arose, Alberic seized it in his high-energy, optimistic way. Little did he know that at the same time, he was passing on a business legacy to his two children. Don was 15 at the time. He recalled, “My mother was also a hard worker at the hotel. She was in charge of the chambermaids and often did a lot of the work herself.”
It was during this time that Don would stroll by a two-story lakeside house on Baker Avenue and dream of one day living there. Thirty-five years later, he bought the property which is to this day his summer residence. From the second story porch of this elegant, circa-1920 lake house, there is an enviable view of Eagle and Governors islands, the Ossipee mountain range, Mt. Chocorua, and Mount Washington beyond. It is a good place to reminisce from. From his second-floor apartment, Don remembers the days when his father was an ambitious businessman whose first order of business was to open a popular roller skating rink in the old Lakeside Garage, where skaters came in from all over New Hampshire in busloads.
Perhaps Alberic’s most ambitious undertaking was the conversion of the garage into a popular nightclub in late June of 1950. Entitled “The New Weirs Supper Club”, the club was launched with lots of fanfare in a full-page newspaper ad which touted “The Ultimate in Dining and Dancing for Laconians and Lakes Region Summer Visitors…SINGERS! COMEDY! MAGIC! ACROBATS! JUGGLERS!…direct from the smartest hotels and supper clubs in the country.” Alberic constructed the entire club by himself. Don recalls traveling to Vermont to purchase the rock maple flooring. The walls were knotty pine, and the stage area had a facade which was built to look like the outside of a building.
Some years after the supper club was built, its popularity gave way to the new wave of teen clubs sprouting up all over the country. When Don read about them in Time magazine, he convinced his father to convert the club into “Teen Haven”. “We’d have a thousand kids on a Saturday night!” recalls Don.
With the death of their father in 1970, Don and Marcella became the owners and operators of the hotel. “At the time we had forty bedrooms in the hotel and twenty-two housekeeping units and cottages,” notes Don. In May, 1987, they sold the hotel to the Winnipesaukee Flagship Corporation. After spending 47 years in the family business, Don was ready to retire at age 62, and so was Marcella. (Webmaster’s note: Marcella passed away in November, 1990; Donald passed away in October, 2004, at age 78.)