Every week we share a different image on the Essex on Lake Champlain Facebook page and invite our viewers to play some Vintage Essex Trivia. The last image we shared is shown above, although we cropped off its caption!
Take a look at this old postcard! Do you recognize the building on this postcard? Where is it? It’s not in Essex but a neighboring town. What can you tell us about it? When do you think this dates to?
Here’s just a bit of what the community already had to say (this postcard generated a lot of conversation and almost everyone recognized the building!):
Dianne B Lansing: Westport Inn probably in the 1950’s. Was a waitress there one night before the season and had our wedding reception on the lawn just before they tore it down.😪
Bobbi Degnan Atz: Its the Westport Hotel before one of the two fires.
Roberta Decker: Westport Inn. I worked as a waitress there in late 50’s. We bought a room at the auction so have a few things from there!!
Dora Atwell: Westport Inn. Westport Where the skating rink is today.
Teresa Sayward: Could be on Willsboro Point?
Lydia Linton Pontius: Westport Inn The New York Times use to run a column about who was visiting there. Not sure of the dates, Mike Pontius do you know?
Nancy Boyle: My mother worked as a waitress there in the 1920s during her highschool and college years.
Dee Carroll: Looks like Westport in what is now Ballard Park. I think it was taken down in 1967.
Ann Dickinson: Looks like pictures I’ve seen of the Westport Inn. My dad worked there some summers back in the 1940s.
Deirdre Forcier: Yes the Westport Inn. Fell into disrepair and ended up being demolished. 1960s? Where it was is now Ballard Park.
Terra Pfund: Westport hotel before it burnt down
Ellen Few Anderson: I remember going to a movie of The King and I at the Westport Inn when I was about 8 years old. What a shame it had to torn down!
Nona Hoskins: Wasn’t it Grand! So sad to see all that gone!
Barbara Wrisley: It was a lovely place and was very busy.
This was the Westport Inn in Westport, NY and from the sounds of the conversation of those more knowledgeable about it then I, it suffered at least one fire and it was demolished sometime in the 1960s after falling into disrepair.
Below is the back side of the postcard. We can see that it was mailed and it looks like the postage stamp is dated 1947. So the image of the Inn likely dates to that decade as well, possibly before. Does anyone know when the Inn was built? The postscript on the back notes that the sender actually lodged at this inn!
Do you have any thoughts to share? Please leave a comment below!
Share Your Essex Artifacts
If you want to share your old photos of Essex (also brochures, postcards, menus, tickets, artifacts, etc.) on the blog please email us at editor [AT] essexonlakechamplain [DOT] com.
Definitely the Westport Inn, perched on top of the hill which is Ballard Park today. Add my name to the list of former employees; I worked in the dining room the summer of 1961 and over Labor Day weekend 1962. The Inn was then owned by two young couples, all 4 recent Cornell Hotel School graduates – Chuck & Sue LaForge were one of the couples – they also owned The Beekman Arms in Rhinebeck NY and The Equinox in Manchester, VT, as well, all under the name of Wayfarer Inns.
I remember what a big deal it was when Lee Marvin moored his yacht at the lakeside docks and took over the top floor. The Inn was also a major hangout for the disc jockeys from AM radio station WPTR, “serving Albany, Schenectady, Troy and the great Northeast…” as their jingle went. I also occasionally provided transportation for the Inn’s more elderly guests, chauffeuring them over to Lake Placid for shopping or doctors appointments, or whatever.
Was sad to see it fail commercially. Lots of good memories…