The first two weeks of August, every year. Our year wraps around that time - how many days til Point House?
Thank you, Darrell! Inspired by our week of family fun in 2000 at Parlee Beach (5 rented cottages, multiple friends and family), he went looking for a place of his own so that we could do that over and over again. And what a find! Point House, only a few years from completely falling apart, a family haven that hadn't been used in years. For those of you who don't know the story, Darrell didn't even get inside when he was looking - he only managed to peer through the windows and tramp the property. Gertrude, Frankie and Malcolm went back to take a look at the inside of both houses, to get the water tested, and generally make sure that it would do for the extended clan. Wow, Darrell had a new project to keep him occupied, because we all know he just isn't busy enough... 2001: first work to start cleaning it up, make it habitable, and prepare for the first two weeks of August. How many loads of things got taken to the dump? An awful lot, to hear the tales. And the giant white bear rug got bundled to an ignominius spot in the ice house, because Denise refused to come while it graced the main room (based only on a picture). And on through the next seven years, work work work on improving the property and the houses. Thank you to Dermot, BJ, Michael, Malcolm, Steven, Jennifer, Gertrude, David, Frankie and everyone else who worked so hard to get everything in place for all of us to enjoy. Some History The original property was a land grant given by the King of England to Obadiah Purdy in the late 1700s, to thank Obadiah for his loyalty to the King during the American revolution. The land grants given out were long skinny parcels, from the top of the ridge down to the water, so that each owner had water access. The point of land sticking into the river was named, not surprisingly, Purdy's Point. The land was passed down through various branches of the family, and split up somewhat to account for the multiplying generations. Our plot (and Malcolm's) ended up with a branch of the family named Bernann. They had the main house designed and built - it was finished circa 1936. (Little House was built over a hundred years ago.) Point House, as it was known, became a prominent social gathering place for the Bernann family. About a decade before we bought it, it was passed down to a generation of four siblings, none of whom was interested in maintaining the property for their own use. It slowly fell into more and more disrepair over the course of ten years, until Darrell found it. |