Last week we went to the Lake Sunapee area which is the western edge of the "Lake District" of New Hampshire. The big dog lake here is Lake Winnipesaukee which sprawls over an impressive part of the eastern central area of New Hampshire. It's glacial in origin, and I think it was originally several small lakes that over eons of time sort of melted together. It's not like a Texas lake with huge areas of water. Lake Winnipesaukee has 278 islands scattered throughout it. Those islands give this lake so much shore line that the tourist attracters advertise it as 'the sixth largest lake inside the United States'. In reality, it's about the 70th largest lake in the US, but you have to admire the zillions of silver fingers threading their way around the green islands. Some of the islands are postage stamp size, while others look multi-sized beads in an archipelago chain. There are all covered with trees, trees, trees. There are no beaches. It's as if the trees grow right down to the shorelines.
The reason we were able to see all this so clearly is that we were standing on top of a mountain. Albeit, a SMALL mountain, which turned out not to be a mountain at all. We were on the grounds of the Castle in the Clouds. First, it's a promotional name to cash in on the tourist trade, which it does admirably. Second, there's no moat, but there is a turret and a trolley car you get to ride on from the Carriage House to the Castle. Third, it's awfully small in castle terms: only 16 rooms. It does have astonishing views, and the house is clever and imminently livable. That's pretty surprising in itself since most of the 'grand houses' I have toured are at essence not very comfortable. You just can't imagine yourself sitting around in your pjs' drinking coffee and reading the paper or diddling around with your computer eating cookies.
I guess that's why I liked Lucknow - the original name of the house. It was built by a rags to riches to rags guy named Plant. He made his fortune in women's shoes around the turn of the century - to the tune of $21 million when he sold out in about 1910 - about 3 billion in today's money. He went to Europe after he cashed out, acquired a wife who was 26 years younger than him and 13 inches taller. As Drake put it, he probably seemed pretty tall and virile standing on top of all that money. They designed the house together, and they had it built in a year between 1913 and 1914. He imported stonemasons from Italy, and the completion of a house that size in that speed cost him a lot of extra money which wasn't exactly a problem for him in 1914.
He was very forward thinking. He had the house wired for electricity generating his own power hydroelectrically using mountain streams on the 40 acres the house sits on. (The closest town, Moultonborough, didn't get electricity until 1921.) He built in a central vacuum, a house wide intercom, foot to head multiple jet showers (called a 'needle shower' - it sent needles of water spray at your organs - a health thing), his own pipe organ, and hand painted rondels for two windows in each room. (A rondel is a handpainted sun catcher depicting a scene.) I thought they were the most special thing about this house. The house style is 'arts and crafts' and I could easily see myself living there. There were no formal rooms. The dining room, for example, has a quite small round table set with simple flower adorned china. There is no formal living room. There are many places to sit and visit in nooks and crannies on comfortable furniture, most of time while having an astounding view. If that's not enough, there's a pipe organ built into the house, and there's a secret room! Plant, something of an eccentric, built a secret room into his library. If he was bored by a guest, he waited until the guest's back was turned, and he popped open the wall, slid in and closed the wall behind himself. This little room was equipped with an easy chair, book shelf and floor cabinet radio. This is also a guy who liked to wear his complete suit of armor to parties.
Apparently Plant lost his business acumen. He managed to go broke BEFORE the Great Depression. When he died, his friends had to take up a collection to bury him. I guess he did manage to score true love because his young 6'1" wife stuck by him. (Hint: By going back to the first paragraph, you can work out how tall Plant was.) The house needed major repairs when it was finally sold, and the new owners were smart enough not to mess with it too much. They resold it, and it was being run as a cheesy second rate tourist attraction with a new name: Castle in the Clouds. Finally, in the late 1990's a conservation group got hold of the house and grounds and started restoring it to the glory Mr. Plant intended when he built it. The installed a wonderful restaurant in the Carriage House where we had a nice lunch on the terrace and snapped pictures of Lake Winnipesaukee and all those lovely little islands. The conservation group restored the house, room by room, and the lawn and garden. They kept the "Castle in the Clouds" name for the tourist attraction value. There is still some restoration, and they are aiming for completion of everything for their centennial (2014).
I wrote this blog backwards. We actually started the trip with a visit to the Loon Center - no, not a holding pen for crazy people, but a conservation center dedicated to saving loons - those black and white speckled duck looking birds with the lonely call. We didn't see a loon, but it didn't lessen the enjoyment of the little hike and the view of Lake Winnipesaukee. I did get some handmade note cards that have loons on them. And, the center has a few stuffed ones to see when the loons are out and about and unseeable.
All told, it was a very relaxing day, nice little hike, a lovely lunch, and a good attraction topped off with ice cream and a surprising fountain. This day was a joy since I was trying out my new camera, and my new orthotic. (Good news: looks like the orthotic is going to let me take up some restrained hiking again!) Better news: I love the new camera. You can tell me what you think. https://picasaweb.google.com/jalyss1/2011NewHampshireTour7CastleInTheClouds?authkey=Gv1sRgCK_Q24Cnkp-T8wE#
