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The north parcel of the 1927 purchase was known as the Levi Chase farm.
There were many Chases in the area and their name remains as Chase’s
Point on Lake Winnipiseogee (now Winnipesaukee). Levi Chase, a veteran of
the War of 1812, bought the farm from Israel Stockbridge in 1843. Levi
Chase, whose house was moved by the Blakes and is now our infirmary and
married staff quarters, died March 21, 1867, and is buried on a hill just
above Nineteen Mile Bay.
Going one more step back, we find Jeremy B. Wingate, a selectman of
Tuftonboro in 1844 and 1845, who sold the property to Stockbridge in 1838
for one hundred dollars. The property at that time was fourty-four acres
and had as its southwest corner a large flat rock marked with an “X”
as the south end of the cove.
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Over the years, two additional parcels of land
were added to North Woods Camp’s original 110 acres. In 1950,
approximately fifty acres known locally as the Capitola Tyler property
were purchased from the Carpenter family. This land is south of and
parallel to the south parcel of Blake Heights.
Years ago, there was a farm house on this property but it was moved down
the road and added to an existing house. Close to the property line
between the Tyler property and the south parcel of Blake Heights on Route
109, was the Mirror Lake School. This building was used before 1895. After
that date the school was located on the east side of the state road about
one-half mile farther south. The location of the Mirror Lake School is the
clearing now used as a turnaround on Route 109.
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The most recent addition to camp property was the land of John Hardie.
This forty acre parcel was purchased from Mr. Hardie, who preceded Glenn
Hodgdon as our caretaker, with the provision that Mr. Hardie could live in
the house for the rest of his life. The Hardie property was previously
owned by Joseph Blake, brother of the owner of Blake Heights. Joe Blake
had three wives, the last of whom outlived him. The Joe Blakes had
boarders, ran a Gulf gas pump, sold ice cream and had a cobbler’s shop.
The cobbler’s shop was the earliest business and made “sale” shoes
– meaning that a factory cut the pieces, Blake and Amos Fox, a neighbor,
sewed the shoes together, and returned them for sale. The ice cream store
and gas pump were operated into the 1930’s.
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When the house was purchased by the Joe Blakes
in the 1890’s, it still looked pretty much as it did when it was built
Green Chase in the 1830’s. The Blakes “improved” the property by
extending the porch across the front and adding decorative corbels and
dormer windows. The Blake/Hardie house and two acres were sold in 1977 and
the present owners are working to “unimproved” the Victorian
improvements to the simple Greek Revival house of Green Chase.
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