Vibe-Fall-2024 - Flipbook - Page 74
Pickelball? Probably not. Badminton was a very popular game in the
White Mountains during the late 1800s. There were also endless opportunities for outdoor sport, relaxation, and entertainment at the grand
hotels, which sought to meet their guests’ every need. Guests enjoyed
hiking, golf, bowling, baseball, croquet, billiards, fishing, bicycling,
horseback riding, polo, boating, archery, and badminton, plus promenades, coaching parades, dances, dinners, and musical performances.
The following are found memories written in 1967. VICTORIAN INTERVALE “Can you picture Intervale in the days when there were trains, trains, trains., no cars, no
telephones, miles of paths through the Cathedral Woods and the Merriman woods pine trees, and several big hotels! The Intervale House stood where Mr. Cannel’s
“Intervale Motel” now is. (You can still see the cement walk that leads from near its NE corner ... that was where the Intervale House porter pushed the guests’ luggage
over to and from the station.) The Intervale House Saturday evening “hops” were gay; we cottagers could go and dance. I learned the schottische and the lancers. On
certain mornings we’d take our embroidery and sit on the long piazza and listen to the orchestra.” More memories at www.hardenbergh.org.
Photo by Bartlett Historical Society
around this time that the Hotel Randall also suffered a similar
fate; but unlike the Hotel Randall, the Intervale House was
not rebuilt.
The site of the Intervale House, long-owned by the
Cannell family, continued the tradition of building hotels on
that site when they sold the land in 1965. The Intervale Motel
was built, a 16-room, one-story motel that featured access to
the same views that guests at the Intervale House enjoyed for
many years. The Scenic Vista land was donated to the state in
1967 by the Cannell family to ensure that the views that once
inspired artists and left guests speechless at the local hotels
would be protected for generations to come. The Intervale
Motel was razed in 2021 to make way for the construction of
a new hotel.
Heather Corrigan, Executive Director,
Conway Historical Society
hcorrigan.conwayhistorical@gmail.com
74
Photo by WiseguyCreative.com
Photo by WiseguyCreative.com
MIDDLE LEFT: Ray and Lydia Cannell attend to full-service gas duties at the
Cannell’s Country Store, next to where the Intervale House once stood. The “New
Intervale Inn” can be seen across the street (where the welcome center now is).
ABOVE: The Intervale Motel was built in 1965 and featured access to the same
views that guests at the Intervale House enjoyed for many years. The motel was
razed in 2021 to make way for the new four-story 0hotel being developed in 2024.
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