Each Monday we share an old Essex photo on the Essex on Lake Champlain Facebook page and invite our viewers to play some Vintage Essex Trivia. The postcard above features one of the buildings at the Crater Club, as the title “The Crater Club, Essex, NY” tells us. Do you know the specific building? Maybe you have visited the Crater Club or been a summer resident there?
The Crater Club’s roots can be traced back to a turn of the century yearning for simple, slow, rural escapes from frenetic urban living and working. Originally founded and developed in the early 1900s by naturalist John Bird Burnham as a summer retreat, The Crater Club attracted outdoorsy families who swam, sailed, hiked, played tennis, etc. in order to recharge and refresh themselves. Unlike the decadent Great Camps often found deep in the Adirondacks, early members favored modest, understated cottages. Although the community has evolved over the last century, many traditions endure including weekly Cape Cod Knockabout sailboat races hosted by Split Rock Yacht Club. (Essex on Lake Champlain)
Knowing that the Crater Club was not created until the early 1900s, and based on the presence of that early model car to the left the photo was probably taken in the early 1900s as well. Do you know what kind and/or year the car is?
Share Your Essex Artifacts
If you want to share your old photos of Essex (or brochures; postcards; menus; tickets; any artifact) on the blog please email us at editor [at] essexonlakechamplain [dot] com.
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