1881 – Letter written on a photomechanically illustrated lettersheet advertising a boarding house in the Adirondack mountains

Keen Valley, New York, 1881. Envelope or Cover. Very good. This four-page letter is written on photomechanically illustrated stationery advertising the Maple Grove Mountain House in Keen Valley, New York. The letter from M. C. Hubbard to her son, John, in Minneapolis, Minnesota was written on 18 September 1881. It is enclosed in a three-cent green U. S. postal service stamped envelope (Scott # U163) that has been canceled with a concentric circle handstamp a circular Keene Valley postmark, dated 20 September. Both the envelope and letter have unexplained multiple strikes of a large, oval Minneapolis Insurance and Real Estate Company handstamp. In nice shape.

The especially attractive stationery was produced by Henry Washbond, the owner of the boarding house, and shows the main building and one of its two cabins in a woody setting. Mrs. Hubbard’s letter reads in part:

“I suppose your aunt Maria has written you so that you know all about our being at this place. . .. I send you a picture of the place we are boarding at. The house with windows in the roof is the dwelling house of Mr. Washbon (sic) where we eat and where he accommodates some boarders when he needs to he has two cottages one of which you see in the picture where we room and another consisting of only two rooms on the ground floor which has been built since the picture was taken. He has now only Ben & myself three young ladies . . . of Belleville N. J. and two young men acquaintances of theirs the oldest of which will complete his medical studies next year. . ..
“I have never seen a more interesting group of young people. They . . . have been abroad [and are] extremely well bred and unassuming. They have spent the past four summers here . . . and have been here since early in July. They tramp a good deal and enjoy everything. . ..

“The house is plainly furnished with no carpets excpt on parlor, but good food well cooked. Ben is getting on seemingly all right. We are hardly half a mile from church, but Mr. Washbon took us by his big wagon. [Ben] has got quite brown being out of doors so much. There is a beautiful maple grove close by [with] 700 trees. We have plenty of maple syrup. . .. Just beyond is the forest of balsam pine &c. This is a pleasant place surrounded by mountains – lovely air though today it is pretty warm. . .. “

. In the 1880s, the Adirondacks experienced a major boom in tourism and began to transform from an untamed wilderness into a popular summer destination for wealthy Eastern city-dweller who wished to escape the heat and pollution of urban life. During the late 1870s and 1880, over 200 lodging houses and hotels, some of which were quite palatial, began to dot the region. As well, the super-wealthy, like the Rockefellers and Vanderbilts built huge rustic compounds in lakefront “Great Camps.”

A terrific early photomechanical advertising piece from the beginning of Adirondack tourism.

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