History
The Resorts of Lake Kashagawigamog
From an article in the My Haliburton Highlands:
Long before there were cottages, resorts lured people to Haliburton. They weren’t as big or famous as those in neighbouring Muskoka, but they offered the same warm hospitality and escape from the stresses that even then were associated with city life.
What few people realize is the sheer number of summer hotels that existed here at one time. Today they are a disappearing breed; most have long since vanished, and many of those that still exist are being transformed into private vacation properties. But as recently as half a century ago, there were dozens in Haliburton. The greatest concentration could be found on Lake Kashagawigamog, where there were 17 resorts, each one with a unique charm and personality, each with its own special stories to tell.
The story of these resorts can be traced back to the earliest years of Haliburton. Farmers came to the region in the 1880s and ’90s eagerly anticipating transforming the dense forests into golden fields of wheat. Their dreams were soon shattered. Most farms, in the best of years, barely provided enough to sustain the farmer and his family. Prosperity through tilling the soil and cultivating crops proved elusive. Naturally, many people became disappointed with their farmland and began to search for other means of making a living.
The success of resorts in neighbouring Muskoka seemed to point the way toward a prosperous new future. The first to take the plunge and open a resort on Lake Kashagawigamog was the Gould family. “The Goulds came to Haliburton in the 1860s and settled on land on the west side of the lake. In 1903, Robert and Anne Gould started taking in boarders for $3 a week, beginning what would become Wigamog Resort – probably the most famous resort in all of Haliburton,” explains Tim Hagarty, a volunteer at the Haliburton Highlands Museum with a deep passion for the history of these lost resorts.
Other landholders took note and, over the next few decades, began opening resorts of their own with names like Deer Lodge, Caribou Lodge, Chateau Woodlands and Bonnie View Inn.
While the Goulds founded Wigamog, they are probably better associated with another resort they established: Birch Point Lodge. After selling Wigamog, they bought another property across the lake and established Birch Point Lodge, the first purpose-built resort on the lake. It would remain in family hands for close to a century (note: it is believed this resort was just down the road from Chandler Point, across the road from Haliburton Highlands Golf Course.)
Sadly, these blissful memories are almost all that remains of this era – the resorts have disappeared one after another in recent decades. A myriad of factors undermined them. The relative cheapness of air transportation enabled vacationers to head off to Europe, the Caribbean, and other exotic locales. A rising middle class were able to buy cottages instead of spending weeks on end at a resort. And soaring waterfront property values (the Birch Lodge property, purchased for $750, was subdivided into four cottage properties and sold at $1 million apiece) convinced many resort operators to take the money and run. Combined, these three factors alone delivered a near-fatal blow to area resorts.
Source: Inn of last resort, Andrew Hind for the Muskokaregion.com, May 28, 2019
For More Information: Resorts of Lake Kashagawigamog Facebook Page
Royal View Lodge
At the time of this writing, very little is known about the history of Royal View Lodge. Anyone with information, a personal experience or photographs is asked to contact webkeeper@chandlerpointcottages.ca so that we can add more to this page.
Memories of Working at Royal View Lodge
Marg Scheffee was about 10 years old when a friend convinced her to come and work at Royal View Lodge in the late 1960s. One rainy afternoon in the spring of 2022, Marg came by cottage F and shared her memories of Royal View Lodge and some of the history of this popular summer resort that used to be on the site of our beloved Chandler Point cottage community.
Bob and Laura Carnegie were the Owner/Operators of Royal View Lodge for 32 years (1963-1995) and Marg’s childhood friend was Sandra, one of the Carnegie’s daughters. Marg’s guess is that the Lodge and its cabins were built in the late 1920s or 1930s after it was bought from a WW I veteran who was granted the land and initially operated a fishing lodge on the site. By the time the Carnegie’s sold the business and property, the main lodge had a kitchen, dining room, lounge, stone fireplace and sunroom that was the gathering spot for families that came to stay each summer in the 25-30 cabins and about eight lodge rooms. Only in later years did the tiny cabins have bathrooms – before then there were outhouses and shower buildings designated for the men and women.
There were tennis and badminton courts, beaches, fishing boats, docks and a “tuck shop” in Carnegie Hall. A sign was made for Carnegie Hall by a guest and it was the place to be for dances and social nights.
The Carnegie’s lived in a small cottage (demolished in 2021) on the lot next to our current cottage A. Royal View Lodge’s property included all of the our current site plus the adjacent property and waterfront to the immediate south of cottage F (now privately owned and occupied as a large family compound).
Meals were cooked in the lodge kitchen and served in the dining room three times a day. Laura Carnegie did the cooking herself and oversaw all the housekeeping operations of the resort while Bob took care of the business side of things. At the height of the season, when there might be as many as 125 people in residence, it took about 10-12 girls to help with the housekeeping and serve in the kitchen and dining room and two chore boys to take care of maintenance.
Marg remembers working in the laundry, which was a building over towards cottage A, and putting in long hours every day but especially on turnover day, which was always on Saturday. Although most of the summer staff were local some also came north from Toronto for seasonal work; they stayed on the grounds and would work as quickly as they could through the day so they could get to the beach and go swimming in the afternoons. Mr. Carnegie acted as disc jockey in the tuck shop two nights a week where the adults danced to the sounds of the big band records he owned, and every once in a while he would spin some rock music for the young folks. Other activities were also held in the big hall – bingo, and 5¢ betting on table top horse races. Marg remembers the regattas held each summer with all the lodges on the lake taking part in races and games. Royal View Lodge often won and, somewhere, there is a big trophy to prove it! One popular attraction on Lake Kash was the float plane rides that a Mr. Tyler offered to holiday-goers.
Marg remembers that she was paid about 90¢/hour – she might not have made her fortune working at Royal View Lodge but her memories are rich! Thank you, Marg, for sharing those memories with us.
Postcard Memories
Patrick Fioravanti shared this postcard that he found and purchased on ebay.
It is dated August, 18, 1942 with a two-cent stamp, a Haliburton postmark and addressed to Miss M. Russell, The Knoll, 340 Flagley Rd. W., Birmingham, England. As best as can be made out, it says:
Came here Saturday on 2 week holidays. It’s quite nice, good meals, nice guests – played a game of golf yesterday. Not too bad. Tonight- went by motor launch across the other side [of?] lake to a ball game played by ?? Deer Lodge. Canada lots of fun. Lots of changes in Toronto. Bill Sherman here: in Navy. Graham(?) in Air Force. Will explain in letter later on. I certainly needed(?) my holiday and a rest(?) and I’m getting it with some fun and fellowship(?). Love ??fffet(?)
The Journey to Fractional Cottage Ownership
From the Chandler Point Corporation website
The year was 1999. The cost of owning a cottage was becoming prohibitive. Two-income families had become the norm and leisure time was at a premium. On top of that, when vacations did roll around, there was little time or desire by a lot of people to attend to the maintenance required with traditional cottage ownership.
With this in mind, partners Joe Giglio and John Puffer acquired a beautiful seven-acre resort property on Lake Kashagawigamog named Chandler Point and set-out to build the perfect cottages for busy families who had neither the time or desire to own a cottage in the traditional manner.
The first task was to clear all of the old buildings from the former resort property. Although the buildings had charm and a lot of history, most were in somewhat rough shape or not up to the standards demanded by cottagers in 1999. Once the buildings were torn down or moved away, there were 7 acres and almost 800 feet of shoreline to work with and few restrictions as to what could be built. The task was somewhat made easier as John had just designed and built his own cottage in 1996 and Joe was a seasoned developer who paid a lot of attention to detail.
Much discussion took place but a few strong “musts” emerged when deciding what type of cottages were to be built, as follows:
- They had to be cottages for the whole family. This meant large dining rooms, 3 bedrooms (including a bunkroom) and 2 bathrooms, all needed to accommodate multi- generations.
- They had to look like and feel like real cottages, not lakeside homes.
- They had to be built with longevity in mind, easy to maintain and timeless designs.
- They had to be right on the lake.
Chandler Point wanted to create a cottage community that provided for lots of green space and privacy. They wanted the cottages to blend with the natural environment and to have the lake as the main focus. To ensure that this was the case, they only built six cottages spread along the lakefront, even though zoning would have allowed for more.
Shared cottage ownership was a new concept, so Chandler Point had to create an ownership structure from scratch. Key was the fact that everyone wanted to use their cottage each year in the summer. A model was created that allowed each owner to use their cottage for a week in each season plus an additional week. Owners were assured that they had the same summer week each year and the other four weeks would be divided up well in advance and in a way that was fair to everyone.
Key too was the fact that the cottages and all of the property would be 100% owned and controlled by the cottager owners and not the developer.
Lastly, a decision was made that the cottages would be professionally cleaned in between owners’ weeks, someone would be hired to do all of the maintenance and a professional manager would be hired to look after everything else, thereby assuring that the owners would have total relaxation when they were at the cottage.
Sales were slow in the beginning. People loved the idea of shared cottage ownership but it was difficult to get the word out about how the concept worked. Then a lucky break. Pat Brennan, the New in Homes Editor at the Toronto Star at that time, came to see the property and wrote a great article about Chandler Point. After the article hit the paper, the phone didn’t stop ringing for about a week and the project sold-out shortly thereafter.
In the years since Chandler Point became the first fractional cottage development, Chandler Point Corporation has developed four more shared cottage ownership communities in the Haliburton, South Muskoka and Bancroft areas.
Source: Chandler Point Corporation website
For More Information:
Open House for Potential Buyers
Patrick Fioravanti remembers attending an open house at Chandler Point when the old lodge buildings were still standing. He recalls:
“During the Victoria Day weekend of 1999, Joe Giglio and John Puffer organized an “open house” of the Chandler Point property, and they invited people they knew – who they thought might be interested in purchasing an interval.
My wife and I and our two sons attended, and ending up purchasing our first interval that weekend.”
Here is the letter of invitation from Joe Giglio.
Old lodge buildings on site of future cottages E & F
A boat tour of the lake
Lawn and future beach area
Old building on site of future cottage E
Old lodge building on site of future cottage E
Rear of former lodge on site of future cottage D
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