97 SUNSET LAKE RD (Rest-a-While)

Builder: Dolliver, 1926
Kitchen and bath remodeled in 1984

Essay by Marilyn Putnam Ercoline, Summer 2008

The camp was built by John Dolliver from lumber cut on James Putnam’s land and milled in his sawmill.  Frances Putnam bought the lot on which the camp was built in June, 1922, from William E. Hopkins.  The second lot was bought by James Putnam in April, 1924, also from Mr. Hopkins.  The camp was built in 1923 and the porch was added in 1926.  We don’t know when it was electrified.  As was the case with many of the camps, there was an outhouse in the woods across the road. The outhouse faced the woods and had no door and as there were snakes in the area it was a scary place for children and some adults! There was an old chamber pot for use by those who wouldn’t venture outside at night.  In July, 1949, Jim Putnam bought the land across the road from Ruth and Marshall Derby.  The indoor bathroom was added about 1949.  It consisted of a toilet and sink, but the old red hand pump stayed in the kitchen until the 1980s.  At the time the bathroom was added the kitchen was enlarged to provide space for an electric refrigerator.  Prior to that time there was a white icebox in the shed.  It looked like a regular electric refrigerator, the ice going where the freezer usually is today.

In 1974 the Ercolines, Tom and Marilyn, bought the camp from Marilyn’s stepmother.  In 1978 the Ercolines added two small bedrooms and made the main portion of the camp one large room. It had been two bedrooms and a small living/dining room.  In 1982 the old kitchen and bathroom were replaced with a slightly larger addition.

The Putnams originally built the camp as a getaway. Jim Putnam was a farmer in Lyndeborough and couldn’t get away very often or for many overnights.  Being nearby meant that on a hot summer’s day they could pack a light meal and head for Greenfield for supper and a swim.  Jim, Frances, their son, Edwin, and Jim’s brothers and their families held a fourth of July cookout at the camp every summer.  It is a family tradition which we carry on today. 

When I was small my mother and father, Amelia and Edwin Putnam and I, along with my father’s cousin, Lawrence Putnam and wife, spent many Labor Day weekends here at the camp.  My father loved to fish and a favorite spot to fish was at the ledges by what is currently the  Draper cottage.  At some point in time my grandfather, James Putnam, put a number of horned pout in the lake.  In the early summer we still see a few horned pout fry near the shore.

My mother’s parents, Mabel and Walter Catton, spent the last three weeks of July here for several decades. Neither of them could drive but for a number of years the iceman delivered the ice and the Cushman bakery man went by a couple of times a week which was a great help to them.  Various members of the family also helped out with groceries and Walter would row the boat to the public beach and walk to the store and back.  In 1961 the John Wheeler family moved next door, and they were and are still the nicest neighbors anyone could ever have.  They were especially kind to the Cattons and made sure they had anything they needed.

In 1987 Tom and Marilyn Ercoline moved to NH from Ipswich, Massachusetts.  We knew we would be spending our summers at the camp so in 1989 the old shed was torn down and a garage built on the other side of the road.  We also drilled an artesian well after a squirrel died in our shallow, dug well.
Through all the changes we have made to this place we have tried to maintain the feeling that this place is still just a camp as was intended when it was built.

We have so many happy memories here.  Our youngest son, Tom and his wife, Monica, were married on our dock in July of 2000 and our eldest son, Putnam and his wife, Lisa were married on the dock in August of 2005.  We are now the very proud grandparents of Tom and Monica’s children, Lorena and Ariana; and Putnam and Lisa’s daughter, Lily.  We hope they will be able to carry on our traditions.

In June of 2007 we celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary here. 

This is a place where both sides of my family, the Cattons and the Putnams, feel a strong connection to those generations before us.  It will always be, to me, a most special place.