Memories of Cohasset

I remember taking walks to Cohasset during my childhood, after dinner, to buy candy from the little store in that charming inn on Fourth Lake. Now, Cohasset has become what so many other of the old, great hotels of the Adirondacks have become - private homes. The old hotel was demolished, killed, really. Now there are a bunch of small and unremarkable houses on the point where the majestic old hotel once stood.

An article from the Syracuse newspaper from June 1929:

COHASSET ON FOURTH LAKE, BEAUTY SPOT
Consists of Hotel and Group of Small Cottages

Old Forge, June 1 - High on a wooded knoll overlooking the beautiful south shore of Fourth Lake stands Cohasset. Surrounded by towering pines and birches, the cool depths of the forest are brought to the very verandas. Below the grove surrounding the hotel, a wide sand beach circles the point jutting out into the lake, offering a romp or lounging place where one is enchanted by the sparkle of the crystal water in the sunlight.

Cohasset consists of a main hotel and a number of modern cottages all placed within communicating distance and connected by enticing paths through the woods and along the shore of the lake. The lower floor of the main building is flanked by broad verandas whereon one may find quiet seclusion in a shaded nook or join the happy family of guests bound together through the mutual enjoyment of the inspiring natural beauties.

Cottage life at Cohasset offers an ideal vacation for a family with children or a group wishing to stay by themselves. The buildings are clean and attractive, with big open fireplaces and the conveniences of the main hotel.

Cohasset is reached by two trains daily from Utica and two trains daily from Montreal to Thendara, then taking either a train or a taxicab to Old Forge, which makes connections with the steamboat up the lake. Motorists may go by State road from Utica to Old Forge with a good shore road leading from there to the camp, seven miles distance.

Penwood as seen from space ...

Above is a satellite image of Penwood and its surroundings on Fourth Lake. Alger Island, also known as Big Island, is a state campground whose structures include only a scattering of lean-to's and a ranger station. The most notable feature in this image is Cohasset Point, known as one of the places where Chester Gillette stopped shortly after murdering Grace Billie Brown in 1906 on nearby Big Moose Lake. Legend has it that her ghost still haunts the vicinity of Cohasset Point. This murder, which captured the imagination of the American public, inspired Theodore Dreiser's "An American Tragedy."

Penwood History - September 30, 1953 to Present

Albert and Dorothea Rosenthal Gordon purchased Kenwood from Marjorie and James Kennedy on Labor Day weekend 1953. They renamed it Penwood after the family business, Penfield Mfg. Co., a regional mattress manufacturing company located on Salina Street in Syracuse, New York. The Gordons installed the first telephone service by running a line under Fourth Lake from Cohasset Point. They also rebuilt the main dock, the bridge, and repaired the porches. The first washing machine was installed.

After Albert Gordon's death in 1967, Mrs. Gordon sold Penwood to her daughter and son, Margery G. Burstein and Charles Louis Gordon. Mrs. Burstein in 1981 purchased Mr. Gordon's 1/2 undivided interst as tenant in common after which Mrs. Burstein owned lots 41, 42 and 43 with Mrs. Gordon retaining a life estate in Lot 40. Mrs. Burstein sold two lots from the original parcel, Lot 42 to George Spoll, of West Hartford, Connecticut, who built a home there and named it Pine Bay, after the name of the bay. Lot 43 was sold to Joseph and Josephine Testa of Syracuse, New York, who built a house there called Duck Haven, which thereafter was sold twice to new owners.

The Bursteins replaced the boathouse with a new two slip boathouse, replaced the dirt floors of the basement with concrete, and rebuilt the lean to. They removed the decayed pump house by the bridge and also rebuilt the bridge. The entire porch and stairway up to the house was rebuilt. The porch was significantly enlarged. The screened in porch was enclosed to house a large kitchen. A Smaller screen porch was built where there was formerly an open area on the porch. The back entrance was rebuilt and the back porch was rebuilt. Trees were removed throughout the property. A breakwater was built around most of the main peninsula. The biggest project was replacing the wood bark with cedar shakes after an unusual storm rotted out the south part of the main house. The two upstairs bathrooms were modernized. A clothes dryer was added for the first time. The electrical system was modernized.