established in 1907
The historic Wawbeek Resort and Shore has witnessed numerous evolutions since it was established by orchestra conductor Henri G. Blaisdell in 1895 as a musicians’ retreat. Until the early 1960s, the Fernald family operated an American Plan summer hotel (including a dining room that accommodated 100 guests), sleeping cottages, a recreation hall fronting a natural beach, and a large dock with a 20 foot high diving tower. The Lake Winnipesaukee mailboat delivered mail to the main dock into the 1970s, and Wawbeek Shore cottagers would make a daily walk along north and south lakeside shore paths to fetch their mail from boxes at the hotel. The dock and its diminutive two-room dock house continue to serve members of the Camp Wawbeek Condominium Association today.
The family transitioned Wawbeek to a housekeeping cottage colony when the decision was made to take down the labor-intensive and aging hotel in 1962. In 1969, Chet Fernald (father of the current property trustees) developed the first set of year-round condominium residences at the Wawbeek Colony. Today, Gerrish House is complemented by York House (completed in 1974), both overlooking the lake along Wawbeek Road near the Lodge. The rec hall has been sensitively converted to a beach-front cottage by cousins of the Fernalds.
The Lodge was built for the Edward Hoagland family and completed in 1907. Hoagland was a Broadway producer and had married into Wolfeboro’s prominent Carpenter family, hence the Lake Winnipesaukee connection. Chet Fernald’s father acquired the Lodge in 1925 to serve as a guest house, supplementing the hotel’s capacity next door along the resort’s 1,000 foot shoreline.
At present, four surviving siblings co-own the Lodge as beneficiaries of a legacy trust structured by our far-seeing parents, Chet & Marion Fernald. Including our children and grandchildren, we have enjoyed the Wawbeek Shore for five generations!