HOLIDAY INN HISTORY

Written by Patsy Houghton Marr

        The inn was not always an inn.  In fact, it was not always one building.  Years ago, buildings were moved and merged as needs arose, and this building was no exception. 

        The section of the living-room nearest New England Inn was built about 1835 and originally a general store.  (The wide board floors under the current flooring are original.)  Its original location was close to the present New England Inn pool.  The other section of the living-room was a home and was built about 1850.  Both properties were owned by Harry Mauran, who according to one of a Carlton granddaughter, had a stage name of “Bloodgood”.  In the early 1880's, Mr. Mauran gave the small home to Daniel Dinsmore Carlton, who then purchased the store building and moved it to the current location and joined it to the home already there to make a home large enough for his and his wife Mary’s family, which home became known to all as the “Little Red House”.  In 1890, after adding the third story and the classic Victorian mansard roof, he opened the building as an inn called "The Forest".  The Carletons operated the inn as a summer vacation destination.  There they raised their family (four children - twins Rose Mary and Mary Rose, Jeannette, and Ruth).   

        Mr. Carlton was a stone mason who, in addition to laying the foundation for his own home and later inn, laid foundations for the Crawford House, the old covered bridge in Glen, and the Hampshire House across the street which was razed about 2000.  The granite for the foundations came from the Redstone Quarry. 

       About 1918, John and Gertrude Furnald purchased the inn. According to Ruth, then ninety-three years old, Mrs. Furnald said to Mr. Carleton, “Well, I’d like to purchase The Forest... how much do you want?”  Mr. Carleton replied, “What will you offer me, Gert?”  She said “I’ll give you $8000", and he said “Sold!”.  The Furnalds renamed the inn "Rest-a-Bit".  They are reported to be the first owners to open the inn during the winter months. 

        In 1938, the Furnalds sold the inn to Warren & Bess Stanley from Beverly MA, who renamed the inn "Stanley's".  They operated the inn during the war years with the challenge of finding enough ration stamps to obtain enough food for feeding the guests of the inn.  He even allowed guests to pay their bills with ration stamps. 

        In 1946, the Stanleys sold the inn to George and Charlotte Burgess.  It was the Burgesses, who, inspired by the movie "White Christmas", changed the name to "Holiday Inn" which was retained until 1984.  George was a ski instructor, which helped to supplement the income of the inn.  George and Charlotte were the perfect hosts - both to their guests and to their circle of local friends. 

       In 1950, the Burgesses sold the inn to Ed and Winnie Houghton.  Ed was also a skier.  In fact, it was his love of skiing that had driven his decision to give up the business world and become an innkeeper.  He was torn between the two major ski kingdoms of the east - Stowe, Vermont, and North Conway, NH.  (One of his best skiing friends, Hal Shelton, nearly simultaneously purchased the Golden Eagle in Stowe.)  Patsy and Ted Houghton were the first children to grow up in the inn since the original Carlton family. 

        The era of the Houghtons was the heyday of the skiers arriving by snowtrain and summer guests arriving by train.  In the earlier years, there was a train station in Intervale, and trains ran twice a day.  Guests were dependent on inn-keeper transportation and enjoyed three meals a day.  Summer guests were treated to day-long outings with the Houghton family.  Skier guests were transported to and from the slopes.  The primary ski area was Cranmore Mountain, home of the famous Skimobile, which was a track with individual open cars pulled along the track by a cable.  It was the days of the Alberg skiing technique made famous by the Austrian Hans Schneider.  In the late 1960's, due to the demise of the snowtrains and the proliferation of the automobile, lunch-time meals were dropped from the inn schedule.   The Houghtons, like the Burgesses before them, entertained their guests and created a home-like atmosphere that caused long-time friendships to develop between them and their guests and among various groups of guests.  In winter, the adults hovered by the fire entertained by Winnie as late as they liked.  In summer, the activity focused on the screened front porch filled with comfortable wicker rockers and chaises interrupted only by wild croquet and badminton games.  There were always raukus card games underway, and music flowed often from the hands of Winnie on the piano in the early years and later on the organ which replaced it.  Ed occasionally joined her on his sax.  (The baritone sax was the favorite.)   For years Holiday Inn offered a winter attraction for area visitors and even made the Boston newspapers for a winter ice show over 50 feet in height next to the stone cottage.  The structure was actually the result of a well-directed hose serving as a “bleeder line” to prevent frozen pipes during the coldest sub-zero days of winter. 

        In August of 1954, the Houghtons purchased the stone cottage and the acreage behind it from Everett and Anginette Weatherbee, who had spent many summers there.  The cottage had been built by Marion Weston Cottle, one of the first NH lady lawyers.  She came from Buffalo NY and had practiced law in New York City and Boston before moving to Intervale.  She was known for being an enthusiastic lecturer on suffrage matters as well as other legal matters.  Later the cottage became a gift shop known as “The Arrow” run by Cedelia Cox.  The Houghtons added heat and divided the cottage into two units. 

        On 15 March, 1956, Ed Houghton’s parents purchased the house on the hill behind the inn, along with several acres.  They spent many summers there, while the “Holiday Chalet”, as it was named, housed the overflow skier groups in winter.  Finally, the senior Houghtons made this their permanent home until Mrs. Houghton, now a widow, could no longer live there alone.  It was then that the little cottage at the rear of the inn was added as her residence.  The “Chalet” became part of the inn property, and, after her death, the cottage became another guest unit.  The original owner of the chalet, then known as “Sylva of the Pines”, was Attorney Marion Cottle.   She lived there during the years that she practiced law in the stone cottage. 

        In 1976, Bob & Lois Gregory bought the inn.  Under the pressure of changing times, they began the transformation from the group baths (two on the first floor and one on the 3rd floor) to private baths.  This reduced the former 12-room inn to 7-rooms.   Meanwhile, the “Holiday Chalet” became the permanent home of the Houghtons where they lived until 199__.  

        In 1984,  Jim and Lynne Clough purchased the inn.  It was they who decided to return to the original name of “The Forest”.  Holiday Inn had been a wonderful name for many years, but the proliferation of the Holiday Inn chain had greatly complicated guest inquiries and reservations.  In the 1960's the Houghtons had succeeded in legally blocking the chain from building in Carroll County, but the Cloughs decided to make the name change anyway. 

        In the late 1980’s, Ken and Rae Wyman purchased the inn.  They were the first to dub the inn as a B&B and advertise it as such.  Rae Wyman made many decorative changes to restore the rooms to a more Victorian decor.  She also served afternoon tea to her guests on an assortment of English fine china. 

        In 1996, Bill and Lisa Guppy acquired the inn.  They ran it as a B&B until 2004, when sale was necessitated by Bill’s rapidly declining health.  He died the day after the sale in January of 2005. 

        The newest owners are Mitch Scher and Linda Trask, who renamed the inn “The Glen Oaks Inn”, which became official at a special Open House on June 1, 2005.  The new history belongs to them.