Lake Improvement Company

There was a time in the early 1920s through the mid-1930s when neither Hanson's Amusement Park nor Sandy Beach were the most significant recreational centers for Lake visitors. Rather, the Lake Improvement Company at Sunset was the largest recreational complex at the Lake.

Located at the gateway to the Lake, Sunset was the site of the Lake's earliest hotel, the Lake House (later Rhodes Hotel) built in 1855. The Lake Grove House was erected in 1881, and the majestic Oneonta Hotel opened in 1898. Above the Oneonta was the terminus of the Wyoming Valley - Lake trolley line and the traction company's picnic ground and dance hall built in 1897. The Sunset Pavilion dance hall, which gave the area the name Sunset, was erected in 1890. It rested over the Lake on sunken rock cribs which are still below the Lake's surface.

In 1905 George W. Bennethum (1877-1927) from the Reading, Pennsylvania, area erected a four-lane bowling alley and billiards room near the Rhodes Hotel. Bennethum already owned bowling alleys in Reading, and he was planning to expand his business in the Wilkes-Barre area. His 1905 venture at the Lake was certainly more popular than a merry-go-round erected on the same spot in 1904 by Amos Ogden. He operated the carousel day and night, seven days a week, since May 1904. Its organ created a musical nightmare for Sunset residents and the local court granted an injunction in August to limit the operation of the merry-go-round. Ogden relocated the attraction to Mountain Park, a once-famous amusement park on Wilkes-Barre Mountain.

Bennethum later was better known as the owner or manager of nearly 30 movie theaters in the Reading and Pottsville areas.

In late December 1921, a partnership of George W. Bennethum, George H. Kline (1885- 1976), and George H.B. Martin incorporated the Lake Improvement Company. Kline would be the company's manager at the Lake in its early years. He was the brother of Bennethum's wife, Estella Kline Bennethum. Kline was also in the movie theatre business. He later became a motion picture and movie poster distributor The Lake company acquired considerable acreage and lakeside holdings at Sunset for recreational and beach side development.

In March 1922, the three partners incorporated the Lake Autobus Company to operate a passenger and freight service around the Lake. Previously, Lake visitors and cottagers relied on steamboat and spasmodic bus service to travel around the Lake. The bus line met all trolley cars at Oneonta Hill from 7:00 a.m. to midnight. Three buses and a private motor car delivered passengers to their destinations.

In April 1922, the company acquired fifteen WWI Army barracks at Cape May, N.J, which were disassembled and freighted to the Lake for reassembly at Sunset as cottages the company leased to seasonal guests. These cottages were known as Bungalow City.

The Bungalow cottages were fully furnished and had electric lights and running water from an artesian well, and a sanitary toilet in each cottage. Many Lake cottages and area residents still relied on out-houses and Lake pollution was finally becoming a serious topic and one reason for the creation of the Lake's Protective Association. The Bungalow cottages were leased for $300.00 for the summer season, or for $175.00 a month, or for $50 per week. Several of the cottages, remodeled over time, remain along Hillside Avenue.

The 1922 season was the first full season for the Lake Improvement Company. It still operated or leased its 1905 bowling alley; ran its Auto Bus service; had an extensive bathing beach and bath houses which rented wool bathing uniforms; maintained ice houses to supply ice to Lake cottagers; operated a gas station and auto accessories store; leased out refreshment stands; and had the Lake's earliest outdoor movie theatre which was free to the public.

The Lake Improvement Company did not permit gambling or uncivil conduct on its property, and it employed a private police force to enforce its rules. In July 1922 the company also initiated discussions with the Lake community to create a fire company with brigades organized at various points around the Lake to respond to fire threats.

By 1912, the early nineteenth-century Sunset hotels had been lost to fires or demolition. There were newer hotels and boarding houses at Sunset and elsewhere around the Lake. The popularity of the Lake Improvement Company's facilities also drew new investment at Sunset. In 1922, Carpenter's Hotel, a descendent of the old Rhodes Hotel bar, was remodeled and an extensive dining room added. At the foot of Sunset Terrace road the Bon-Air restaurant was built adjacent to the steamboat landing. The Bon-Air was later lost in a January 1935 fire. Behind the bowling alley, a new restaurant, the Grotto Cote D'azur was opened. Over time the restaurant had different owners and locations at Sunset, but it was the origin for the name Grotto pizza at the Lake. Near the Sunset bridge, the Nanrek Inn was known for its "home cooking and refined patronage."

For the July 4, 1923 holiday, the Lake Improvement Company began an annual holiday tradition of water shows, swimming contests, and bathing beauty contests. On the same holiday, the Harvey's Lake Protective Association had owners of bowling alleys and pool rooms at Sunset arrested for violating "blue laws," which prohibited certain amusements on Sundays. Among the defendants was George W. Bennethum. The usual punishment was a $50 fine and payment of prosecution costs.

In May 1924, Bennethum and Kline dissolved the Lake Auto Bus Company. Apparently, it was not a successful venture. Likely, the post-WWI boom in private automobile ownership resulted in less dependence on a bus service at the Lake. There were also still four large steamboats and a launch, the Emily, which provided a water-taxi service around the Lake.

In 1925 Estelle Bennethum was in the news in the Philadelphia area where the family had a home. She was in her $3,500 automobile in late March in the front of the home when she was held up at gunpoint and her car hijacked. The robber had overlooked the jewelry she was wearing valued at $10,000. The robber, John Daly, was caught and arrested but he insisted his name was Pontius Pilate.

Occasionally, accidents occurred at the company's grounds. On July 4, 1926, someone threw a lighted firecracker into a display of fireworks in the front of the company's bowling alley. A fire followed, but a bucket brigade led by the Police Chief, John T. Ruth, saved the building. Later in the month, a 17-year-old Wilkes-Barre boy, dove into four feet of water from a company pier. He hit a rock and became unconscious. A crowd gathered at the pier while others sought to rescue the boy. The pier collapsed and a dozen people fell into the Lake. The boy and the others were all safely rescued. The boy was taken to Nesbitt Hospital, Kingston, where he recovered.

In April 1927, George W. Bennethum died in Hot Springs, Arkansas, where he had gone the previous December for treatment of a chronic illness. He was survived by his wife, Estelle, and a son, George, Jr., a student at the Annapolis Naval Academy. While Bennethum summered at the Lake, his principal business interest was the movie theatre industry. His theatre empire had expanded to the Harrisburg area, and in 1923 he acquired the Grand Theatre in Hazleton.

With the death of Bennethum, his widow, Estelle, assumed the controlling interest in the Lake Improvement Company, and she had a more personal attachment to the Lake than her husband. But events would shortly occur to signal the decline of the company as the lynchpin of Sunset's center of gravity for the Lake's recreational/vacation industry.

In June 1928, the Lake's largest and most elegant dance hall, the Oneonta Pavilion at Sunset was totally destroyed by fire. The dance hall had hosted some of the nation's most famous orchestras. In mid-August 1928, a pinboys' boarding house attached to the rear of the Casino, an amusement center next to the Sunset bridge, caught fire and two pinboys, Abraham Dymond, 15, and Matthew Yatko, 14, both from Wilkes-Barre, were killed.

In the meantime, in late July 1928 the Lake Improvement Company opened an expanded bathing beach and new dance hall at Sunset. Uniquely, the company had music piped over the beach for the bathing crowd and lit the beach at night. The beach was now called Crystal Beach and the company may have hoped Crystal Beach would become the new name for Sunset. After all, the historic North Corner of the Lake became Alderson after the Lehigh Valley Railroad reached the North Corner in the late 1880s. William C. Alderson was a LVRR official. Similarly, The Lake's West Corner became generally known as Sandy Beach after the new beach was opened in 1926.

Then, a year later, on Monday, August 26, 1929, the Lake Improvement Company's entire complex was destroyed by a fire. An account was published in Wilkes-Barre's Evening News on August 27, 1929:

Property damage, variously estimate today at from $150,000 to $200,000 resulted from a blaze of undetermined origin which swept the Shawanese area at Harvey's Lake leaving in its wake the charred remnants of ten buildings.

Fanned by a breeze off the lake the flames made rapid progress and before an organized effort to extinguish the fire was underway, it had spread to several buildings other than the one in which it originated and presented a serious problem. Those who witnessed the fire were loud in their praise of the fire fighters in keeping the flames from wiping out an entire section in which the fire occurred. As it was it required more than three hours for the combined fire forces of Dallas and Harvey's Lake to conquer the flames.

Fortunately, no one was badly hurt although several persons suffered minor injuries or burns. Among these are Dr. Robert E. Lewis, Kingston; Frank Ambrose, Wyoming Seminary student; Dorothy Starr, one of the colonists at the lake; William Bennett; and Jack Higgins, member of Harvey's Lake police force.

The buildings which fell prey to the flames are:

Commonwealth Telephone Company exchange and Garinger meat market occupying a building on Hillside Avenue.

Frame dwelling used as a residence for employees of the bowling alley next to telephone building.

Warehouse and power plant for the bowling alley and other buildings in the rear of the bowling alley.

Office of the Lake Improvement Company on Hillside Avenue and Lake front drive.

Bennethum bowling alley and confectionary store on lake front drive.

Sunset pavilion and bathing house, both on the lake front.

The blaze is believed to have originated in the power plant in the rear of the bowling alley, about 5:30 p.m. o'clock. Immediately upon discovering the flames, fire extinguishers were used by employes in and about the bowling alleys but the nature of the structures made possible the rapid spreading of the flames and the efforts of the volunteer firemen were all in vain. In the meantime, the Harvey's Lake fire company was summoned and shortly after its arrival a call for aid was sent to the Dallas fire organization.

With the arrival of the Dallas firemen the flames had gained great headway and at one time extended entirely across the roadway leading around the lake and to the Sunset pavilion and other buildings on the opposite side of the road.

Appreciating the fact that the buildings already engulfed by the flames were beyond saving, the firemen centered their efforts on preventing further spreading of the flames. This was made exceptionally treacherous because of the fact that gas tanks in the fire area presented the possibility of explosions with disastrous results at any moment. To add to the difficulties, both light and telephone service was disabled and it wasn't until sometime after the fire was extinguished that these were restored.

However, both were brought back in record breaking time through the direction of State Senator A. J. Sordoni who, incidentally, directed the fighting of the flames. The question of light service was solved when employees of the Sordoni Construction Company cut out high powered lines extending through the fire area and extended a temporary line in the rear of the affected area to restore service. With the telephone service out the installation of a new switchboard was necessary and consequently a longer time was required to restore telephone service. This was brought about at 10:30 last night after a temporary exchange was established in the new Lake View Inn.

Although the exact amount of property damage probably will not be known for the next few days pending a complete checkup of damage done, the loss at the Bennethum establishment alone is estimated at about $125,000. This, with the other losses, it is believed will bring the total damage near the $200,000 mark.

Last evening's fire was the fourth serious blaze to have affected the lake area in a little more than a year. In June of last year the Oneonta dance pavilion and several smaller structures were burned with a loss estimated at $50,000. Two months later the Casino burned...and two boys asleep in the building were suffocated. The property loss there was estimated at $20,000. In May of this year the summer home of Rinaldo Cappellini, local labor leader, was levelled by fire with a property loss estimated at $15,000.

Following the 1929 fire, the Bennethum Estate planned the reconstruction of the Lake Improvement Company. For clarification the company did not own the Sunset Pavilion. The 1920 dance hall had a private owner who leased its management in the mid-1920s. The pavilion also had an extensive bath house on a lower floor under the dance hall. It was not rebuilt after the 1929 fire. The Lake Improvement Company now had a new manager, Milton J. Lapp, who was a professional park manager from New York and West Virginia. Plans included picnic areas, a band stand, amusement devices, an expanded parking area, and a new bath house and boardwalk. Later, a Bennethum son, William, became the manager.

The company also owned the Lakeview Restaurant next to the bridge. It opened in 1921 and was apparently a remodel or replacement of the decades old Hill's Pavilion at the site. The restaurant was leased to various managers over the years and had a name change to the Plantation Club in 1931. In 1935 Estelle Bennethum assumed control of the club under its more famous name, La Casa. At a later date her son, Harold Heiter, operated the club along with the Castle Inn along Memorial Highway. Heiter was a son of Estelle Bennethum from a short, youthful marriage Estelle had prior to her marriage to Bennethum.

The reconstructed Lake Improvement Company facilities and beach continued as a recreational destination into the 1930s and 40s. Crystal Beach Park opened in May 1930 with another bath house, swimming docks, restaurant, free parking and an amusement park with a merry-go-round, Whip, Hey-Day and Mix-Up rides along with a Ferris Wheel and kiddie rides. The company claimed it had 1,000 lockers for beach guests. A locker cost 30 cents. A locker, bathing suit rental and towel cost 50 cents. By the mid-1930s the company also had a 5-stand barber shop, a children's playground and innovative flush toilets. But there was increasing competition as Hanson's Amusement Park and Sandy Beach expanded its visitors' attractions. The company still had Bungalow City cottages for rent. The company under Estelle Bennethum relied primarily on leasing its facilities rather than direct operational control.

Too, Sunset became a mecca for bars and entertainment facilities, which made it less attractive to family fare which found Hanson's Amusement Park and Sandy Beach more appropriate. Sunset was a constant target for police and county detectives citing Sunset bars for Sunday and after-hours liquor violations

In February 1947 Estelle Bennethum sold the Lake Improvement Company holdings to Francis Ambrose, an educator and real estate investor. This was the same Francis "Red" Ambrose injured in the 1929 Sunset fire. He had no interest in operating a night club and he closed La Casa, using it to store boats for a marina he operated. He leased or operated certain of the facilities, including eleven of the cottages remaining from Bungalow City. His principal interest in the property was the creation of Sunset Park, an amusement park which he operated at Sunset from 1949 to 1965. His uninsured LaCasa was totally lost in an August 1973 fire. He also sold a considerable portion of the former company holdings including beach and Lake front property.

On August 31, 1952, Estelle Bennethum, was stricken ill while playing Bingo at Sunset. She died upon arrival at the Nesbitt Hospital. She was buried at Birdsboro, Berks County, the town of her birth in 1890.