The Woodshed is located about a half mile west of the junction of West Side Road and Rte 302. Originally owned by Pop Fosey, beginning about 1920, he had six tourist rooms in the main house and eleven separate cabins. In the era of Prohibition it was a well known Roadhouse serving illegal alcoholic beverages. In 1953 the property was purchased by Bill and Evalyn Gimber and they operated it as an Inn and Restaurant until 1959. A prominent feature in those days were two wooden horses that stood guard out front. The Woodshed is now the private residence of Norman and Kathleen Head, the Gimber's son. Norman is a local Realtor and the President of the Bartlett Historical Society until 2019.

Source Material The Latchstring Was Always Out  Aileen Carroll, 1994.  Post card photos courtesy of Michael Bannon and Dave Eliason.



Some pictures are clickable...

The original Stilpen's Farm consisted of about 150 acres and the original structure was built in the mid 1820's.  A guide-book from the 1880's lists Cornelius Stilphen's boardinghouse with 20 rooms with rates from six to nine dollars a week.  Probably over the years the Stilphens had regularly taken in summer boarders as did many other farm families in that period.

Stilpen's Farm was sold in 1903 to the Libbys of Gorham whose timberland abutted the Conway Lumber Company's Rocky Branch Holdings.  The Libbys' logs were brought out of the woods by Conway Lumber Teams and loaded at the Maine Central Siding in Glen.  The former Stilphen farmstead served as a boardinghouse for the teamsters.  Fires occuring in 1912-1914 brought a halt to lumbering and the old Stilphen house was deserted until 1947 except for a caretaker, Percy Wells who did a little farming and attempted to keep the old house in a decent state of repair.

In 1947 the property was purchased by Raymond and Stella Clark.   They did extensive renovations and re opened it as the Storybook Inn.  In 1956 they added two additional wings and shortly after that added motel type units for a total of 78 rooms. The Clark's daughter Charless and her Husband Jan Filip now manage the place. 

 January 2020: " Jan Filip sent us that update:  Thank you for posting the article, it's quite interesting.  You would think I should know these things but when we are young we don't always appreciate history like we should. My father still resides at the property. The property is open from roughly June to October and my eldest sister returns to help for the summer. At 93 my father refuses to retire so we let him run things his way. Yes the property is not in the shape it once was and the future is uncertain. The Storybook Inn was the founding business that led to the Glen Dairy Queen, the North Conway Dairy Queen, handled by my sister and her husband, Lucy and Brian Eling. The Storybook also led to the  Golden Gables Inn and the Golden Apple Inn handled by me. When you walk through the basement of the Storybook Inn you can see all the rough sawn timber some of which still has bark, used for framing as well as huge slabs of granite used to make the foundation. The first expansion of rooms started in the mid 60's with 20 units being added around the outdoor pool that you see from the road. This is the building that lost 4 rooms last winter due to snow load so rebuilding the section might not be prudent. Starting in 1978 two new sections for a total of 20 rooms were added to the back of the property. Further expansion continued in 1981 when the original barn which had been connected to the back of the boarding house was removed to make room for a new kitchen and additional dinning room seats. As a 5 year old I remember being scared to walk in the back corner of the barn as it had the remints of the outhouse. Two toilet seats leading to a black hole, always afraid you would get sucked in... The last two expansions happened in 1986 with 24 rooms being constructed in back on "Hillside" and in 1990 the indoor pool was added. The old pictures are great for a walk down memory lane.

 

Accident, Jul 1880
A DRUNKEN DRIVER AND A
TERRIBLE WAGON ACCIDENT ON MOUNT WASHINGTON.

Mountain Wagon Upset and Its Occupants Thrown on to the Rocks---One Lady Killed and Five Wounded. GLEN COVE, N. H., July 11 1880 The first accident by which any passengers were ever injured on the carriage road from Glen house to the summit of Mount Washington occurred this afternoon about a mile below the Half-way House. One of the six-horse mountain wagons, containing a party of nine persons, the last load of the excursionists from Michigan to make the descent of the mountain, was tipped over. One lady was killed and five others were injured.Soon after starting from the summit the passengers discovered that the driver had been drinking while waiting for the party to descend. They left this wagon a short distance from the summit, and walked to the Halfway House, four miles, below, where one of the employees of the carriage road company assured them that there was no bad place below, and that he thought it would be safe for them to resume their seats with the driver who was with them.Soon after passing the Halfway House, in driving around a curve too rapidly, the carriage was tipped over, throwing the occupants into the woods and on the rocks. Mrs. Ira Chichester, of Allegan, Michigan, was instantly killed, and her husband, who was sitting at her side, was slightly bruised. Of the other occupants, Mrs. M. L. Tomsley, of Kalamazoo, Mich., had her left arm broken and received a slight cut on the head; Miss Jessie Barnard, of Kalamazoo, was slightly injured on the head; Miss Ella E. Meller and Mrs. C. Ferguson, of Romeo, Mich., and Miss Emma Lamb, of Howell, Mich., were slightly injured. Miss Emma Blackman, of Kalamazoo, escaped without any injuries. The wounded were brought at once to the Glen House, and received every possible care and attention, there being three physicians in attendance.  Lindsey, the driver, was probably fatally injured. He had been on the road for ten years, and was considered one of the safest and most reliable drivers on the mountain. Mrs. Vanderhoot, of Chicago, also received slight internal injuries.

The Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia, PA 13 Jul 1880