Hotel Samoset
The Hotel Samoset was located on Centenary Avenue. In the late 1920’s-early 1930’s, the proprietors of the Hotel Samoset were Charles E. McIntire and Robert ‘Bob’ Wagner. McIntire was Wagner’s father-in-law. In the circa 1927 photo of the gasoline station below, McIntire is on the right, and Wagner is on the left. McIntire’s home was on Centenary Avenue, directly across from the Samoset. Before becoming an owner of the Samoset, McIntire ran a baggage transfer service for the hotel.
The gas station was expanded, and became the Half Moon Tea Room. In March, 1931, Wagner bought the empty lot at the center of Weirs Beach, where the New Hotel Weirs had once stood. Later that year, he moved the Tea Room down the street to form the core of the new Half Moon building on the empty lot. With the Tea Room gone, construction could proceed on a new Weirs Beach fire station, which was built here in 1936, and remained until 1984.
The sign on the station reads: Hotel Samoset • McIntire & Wagner • A Home Like Hotel • Tourists Accommodated • Information Here. Partly visible on the right of the photo is a public restroom, which co-existed with the fire station for some time. The restroom is shown on a 1948 tourist map and was probably torn down sometime in the 1950’s.
On September 24, 1945, Wagner sold the Hotel Samoset and the Half Moon properties to local businessman Howard Ballou. Mr. Ballou quickly resold the Samoset property, while holding onto the Half Moon. The new Samoset owners renamed the property Locke’s Manor, the name it retained until it burned on March 18, 1984.
Around the beginning of the 20th century, the Chateau de Lis hotel, the predecessor of the Hotel Samoset, was built.
The hotel was expanded and renamed the Hotel Samoset around the mid 1920’s. The photos below show that while the tallest part of the original structure remained, a 2-story wing had been added to the left and a 2-story wing and a 1-story parlor had been added to the right of the main building. The separate building on the left of the photos may or may not have been part of the Hotel.
The real photo postcard below is dated August, 1927 and titled “Mcintyre’s & Wagners”.
The Hotel Samoset was located between Morris and Allan Avenues, right off of Centenary Avenue, in the Methodist Campground section of Weirs Beach. Morris Avenue separated the 19-room main hotel from the 6-room Annex. On December 29, 1931, the Annex was destroyed by fire. The main hotel continued in operation until 1954. The building then became a rooming house and private residence until burning down in 1984.
The Annex
Looking down Morris Avenue from Centenary Avenue. Annex on left, hotel on right. (The previous set of photos were looking up Morris Avenue from below.)
A view of the main entrance to the Hotel.
Hotel Samoset brochure
A cropped and magnified version of the dining room photo.
Samoset was the first Native American to make contact with the Pilgrims. From 1914-1968, there was a summer boy’s camp in the nearby town of Gilford called Camp Samoset. Today, there is a condominium development of the same name on the site of the former camp. There was also a local chocolate company named Samoset (dates unknown). There are also many other places, businesses, and organizations named after the former Indian chief.
