Gallery - Steamboats | NewburyNH Historical

The steamboat era began in earnest when the Concord & Claremont railroad was extended from Bradford to Claremont through Newbury. The Bradford Depot was the last stop from 1850 to 1870. The climb of 100 feet per mile was almost impossible for a train. Ten thousand cubic feet of granite rock at the Newbury Summit barred the way for 20 years until 1870 when the Newbury Cut was blasted.

Steamboats met summer visitors and their baggage transporting them to hotels, summer homes, and boarding houses around the lake.

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Bradford RR station, perhaps with passengers to the lake before the RR. No room for luggage etc. The railroad to Newbury and the steamboat made summer on the lake an easy trip

Lake Station & steamboat landing in the early 1900's. Note the cleared fields across the lake.

Here is the Lady Woodsum that steamed around Lake Sunapee. Built around 1876 only a year past by before a fatal accident occurred. In 1877 the Lady pulled in one day to leave a can of milk and some freight. George Woodward of Sutton, was working on Little Island for N.S. Gardner at the time, was dipping a pail of water from the well when he heard a boom. He looked up to see a great cloud of steam rising from the Lady and watched in horror as the Lady settled onto Hay Reef until nothing was above water but the top of the pilot house. Lafayette Colby was aboard the Lady that day in the boiler room looking out the window, when behind him the boiler exploded. The blast blew Colby through the window and onto the water, leaving him uninjured. Elias Woodsum was unlucky. He was badly burned by the steam. They moved him on shore, but within two hours he would die of burns from the steam. The Woodsum family would raise the Lady off of Hay Reef and tow it ashore. With help from the Boston & Maine Railroad they rebuilt the Lady and was put back into service

Edmund Burke, 1885-1908 met the train and took passengers, servants, children, pets to their summer homes for the entire summer. Private launches were also used by some families, including John Hay, to their own landing. In 1875 Lafayette Colby built the first true summer resort hotel, the Lake View House

Sunapee landings map of 1900. The dotted lines represent the steamboat routes. They started at 6 a.m., and completed the trip around the lake in about 3 hours, making regular stops at a dozen or so lakeside landings.

In 1887 the Amenia White was launched, it was 101' long and carried 650 passengers. It was the flagship of the Woodsum Brothers fleet and the biggest ship to ever sail Lake Sunapee.

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Armenia White & Winonah at Lake_Station landing. Note the cleared fields on the opposite hills

The Armenia White and the Wetamoe at Blodgetts landing. In 1902 the 50-foot Weetamoo was launched and was later scuttled near Newbury. The ship is still intact and is visited frequently by local scuba clubs.

A carriage approaches the Armenia White at Blodgetts dock

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A Sunday excursion on the Armedia White at Blodgetts

In 1897 the Lady Woodsum and the Armenia White were joined by the Kearsarge, a 250-passenger 70- footer. The year 1902 saw the launching of the 50- footer Weetamoo, and 1907 that of the 60-footer Ascutney, each of which carried a three-man crew and could handle 150-200 passengers.

Daily steamer schedule started before 6:30 in the morning, when one of the boats cast off and got under way, to be joined later by the other steamers as the press of business warranted. The complete trip around the lake took about three hours, with stops at the major landings of Sunapee Harbor, Georges Mills, Lakeside, Blodgett's, Brightwood, Pine Cliff, Lake Station, Soo-Nipi Park, Burkehavcn and Granliden.

Pine Cliff Inn on the east side of Lake Sunapee had its heyday as a summer retreat during the steamship era, and it served tourists under the name Masner’s Hotel until the end off World War II. Pine Cliff Inn was formerly the home of Armenia White, benefactress to the Woodsum brothers, who named their flagship in her honor. Early summer residents at the Pine Cliff colony were from prominent Concord families, closely allied by birth and social standing. Main was delivered daily by the mail boat.
Text courtesy Newbury Historical Society