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The Summit
Springs Hotel, South Poland, Maine  |
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The Summit
Springs Hotel, South Poland, Maine |
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Poland Spring House was not the only resort hotel in Poland. Across
the lakes from the Poland Spring House stood the Summit Springs Hotel. Built around a
spring discovered in 1894, the hotel's management liked to boast that the lower front step
of the Summit Springs Hotel was situated at a height even with the top of the dome at
Poland Spring. - |
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 View of Summit Springs Hotel from the Poland Spring House, ca. 1906 (Detroit Photo Company, # 019261) |
"In Poland, famous for more than its pure spring waters, founded on
the eternal granite of the hill, stands the Summit Springs House, from its altitude of one
thousand one hundred feet, overlooking mile on mile of forest, vale, lake and stream,
hemmed in, in the distant west by the White Mountain range standing out in bold
silhouette, a work of man well worthy the lavish beauty of the setting nature has
provided." (Maine - The Switzerland of America) |
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 White Oak Hill Spring Hotel, ca. 1900 Floorplans: [Office] [1st] [2nd] [3rd]  Summit Springs Hotel, ca. 1905 (Postcard, undated)
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"In 1900
Amos Knight built what was then called the White Oak Spring and Hotel but later became
known as the Summit Springs Hotel. Completed in 1904 the 133 room structure was built at a
cost of $200,000. The architecture of the building was graceful, in its setting of 540
acres overlooking the (Poland Past and Present, 1795-1970) "The building is of a style of
architecture graceful in outline, and pleasing to the eye. Its steel frame,
supporting the three stories, is set upon solid granite, a permanent and lasting structure
unlike the ordinary summer fabric, erected for temporary entertainment.." "On a commanding eminence in the heart
of Poland, unstinted outlay of capital has erected the new Summit Spring Hotel, the peer
of any in Maine. Just as Nature has lavished her choicest gifts on this locality, so
have the management spared no expense to have the hotel in perfect keeping with her
beautiful setting." "In 1904, shortly after the hotel was opened, the Hiram Rickers came to call. At that time the trip from the mountain top was half a day's journey." -"A year after the building was
completed, one of the first elevators in the state, a hydraulic elevator, was installed.
Two artesian wells were drilled to furnish the resort with water. One was reported to be
over 800 feet deep. |
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 Auto Route to the Summit Spring Hotel (Brochure - Summit Spring Hotel, 1911) |
 Automobile tour arrives at the Summit Springs Hotel, ca. 1909 (photograph) |
 Automobiles parked under tarps at Summit Springs Hotel, ca. 1909 (photograph) |
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"Original plans called for gas illumination but there was a last minute switch to electricity. Since no power lines were strung to the 1100 foot high hill-top, two steam driven generators provided the electrical current. These were still in use as a source of auxiliary power until the hotel closed." "The resort could accommodate approximately 300 guests and the management charged from $18 to $35 a day. Children were allowed half price after their summer camps closed in late August. Over half the rooms had fireplaces and the first floor was served with a steam heat system. For years, the summer season extended from the 27th of June until the Thursday after Labor Day. Each summer opened and closed with the breakfast meal" (Poland Past and Present, 1795-1970) "The one hundred and fifty guest rooms
are single or en suite, most of them with baths, and far superior to the usual rooms of
resort hotels in size and convenience. All are desirable and there are no back
rooms. The furnishings are home like; there are large closets, open plumbing,
porcelain tubs, steam heat, also fire places in most of the rooms, electric lights and
telephones. All floors are easily accessible by elevator service."
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 Summit Springs Hotel ca. 1919 (Postcard, postmarked Poland, ME, Aug 11, 1919) |
"[After his
death in 1904,] The Saco Savings bank took possession of Amos Knight's company.
Changing the name to The Summit Springs Hotel, the bank and associates operated it through
the summer of 1913, at which time operations were suspended. In the spring of 1915, the
Philadelphia Professional Club purchased the facility, operating it in 1916, prior to its
closure during the two summers of U.S. involvement in the First World War, 1917 and
1918." |
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 Terrace Cocktail Room Summit Springs Hotel (Postcard) |
"During the 1920's the
hotel flourished. It was, by then, being operated as a Jewish establishment and given the
exclusion of the children of Abraham from Poland Spring, was able to run as a
non-competitor, independent of the larger hotel. In a small town there were, of course,
overlapping services (primarily from local merchants who sold to both hotels) yet business
was transacted in honorable fashion and everyone, including those local traders, the
resort management with whom they dealt and the townspeople in general, benefited."
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Summit Springs Hotel (Maine - The Switzerland of America) Dinner Menu |
The table at this resort
provides all that painstaking and intelligent service, added to systematic farm and market
arrangement, can devise. Our wish and achievement is to have everything which is supplied
to the table of the very purest quality obtainable, cooked perfectly and served with
absolute cleanliness, whether it be for one guest or many. To this end we have
always considered this department of such importance as to require our personal attention
to every detail at all times. We have but one aim, and from the commendation we hear
on all sides, we believe we are successful in supplying the best the market affords, all
poultry, eggs, lamb and garden produce being native, such part as does not come directly
from our own farm being (Maine - The Switzerland of America) - |
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 The Bathing Beach at Summit Springs Hotel (Postcard) |
 Caddies and Caddy Camps at Summit Springs Hotel (Postcard) |
 Along the Golf Course at Summit Springs Hotel (Postcard, postmarked Poland ME Jul 25, 1922) |
 The Spring House at Summit Springs Hotel (Postcard)
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"Regarding the water, considered to
be on a par with that of Poland Spring in both taste and purity, Summit Springs bottled
their beverage and offered it for sale, yet in limited quantities as compared with their
neighbor across Middle Range Pond. It was always available as a drink of choice both at
the dining table and in the rooms." "The most attractive feature of all is
the Summit Spring, gushing from a cleft in the granite rock and flowing into a little
pool. Never varying in volume, it is clear as crystal, and wonderfully soft, pure
and sweet." Poland has long been known to the world for
its springs of pure and health giving waters, and Summit Springs is one of the largest and
best. Gushing from a cleft in the granite of the hill, in never varying volume,
cool, sparkling, in very truth the water Ponce de Leon spent a life time in vain search
of." "..by the summer of 1942, the business of grand hotels was fading...and so it was that Summit Spring's last season was 1948. During the war years it was an observation point for the Civil Air Patrol who watched for enemy aircraft from its vantage point, as well as a place of visitation by Vice President Henry Wallace and Secretary of the Navy, Frank Fox, and it's said that the hotel had a direct line to the White House." "..after only three post-war years, the doors were closed for good following the 1948 season...and was destined to be razed for scrap and building materials, which it was in 1956." (Poland Bicentennial, 1795-1995) "Probably nothing can mark more strongly
the change in the American way of life than the announcement that the lumber from the
Summit Springs House, carried from Clevelands, New Brunswick in 1900, was used to erect |
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Brian Harris 24-April-2004 |
