Sabbath Day Point House

In 1767, a grant of 500 acres called the Sabbath day Point Patent was obtained by a soldier named Samuel Adams. Ownership transferred five more times in the following 190 years; however, the point was always a stopping place for a weary traveler to find food and shelter. 

In about 1762, Samuel Adams settled on Sabbath Day Point. He applied for a land grant for the area, which he received in 1766/1767.  This information was found in the office of the Secretary of State at Albany: “That your petitioner (Samuel Adams) hath been Encouraged to Erect a house of Entertainment for the Convenience and Accommodation of Passengers on Sabbathday Point on Lake George in the County of Albany and hath resided there for the space of two years last passed…(patent granted June 3, 1766}”  (source: New York Colonial MSS Land Papers Volume XV11, page 148)

As to the origin of the name, one map drawn by the British Army and dated 1756 calls the place Point Pleasant. An entry in Robert Rodgers’ journal of 1758 called the place Sabbath Day Point. Any more information on the origins of the name are appreciated!

“In 1755, the French apparently built an outpost of the new Fort Carillion at Sabbath Day Point. Two references have been found so far that bear on this. British scouts reported in November 1755 observing from the eastern shore the building of a stockaded fort on the opposite side. They reported many men at work and several log houses built inside the closure. From the reported position, it is highly probable that it was located on sabbath day point. At the same period, two Indian scouts from Fort William Henry were on the western shore and reported similar activity.” (From “Saga of Sabbath Day” by Arthur A. Carr, President of the Ticonderoga Historical Society, March 12, 1959)

With the beginning of the Revolution, colonizing ceased and Samuel Adams seems to have moved to the old French landing at Ticonderoga. We do not know if he  sold the property or if it was confiscated by the rebellious and victorious Americans. The next man of whom we have any knowledge of settling at the point is the Revolutionary War veteran Samuel Patchen.

In December of 1775, Henry Knox, on his way down Lake George with the cannons for Boston, stopped at Sabbath Day Point and was given shelter in a crude hut and given food by Native Americans.

Here is another first-hand account of travel at the time. Mrs. Adolphus Sheldon, at the age of 74, wrote her reminisces of the region. At age 13 in 1797, she traveled north by sleigh across the ice. “On neither side of the lake was there any settlement except at Sabbathday Point. There both sides and the whole length of the lake the great pines stood, all around the mountains, one unbroken wilderness…”

Accommodations were a bit rough, as you can read from the journal of Abagail May from 1800: “As we were told, we could have good accommodation eight miles down the lake--we saw a log hut upon shore to which our Capt{ain} appeared to steer--we all exclaim’d ‘is that the house?’ Being answered in the affirmative, some of us anxiously wish to proceed and pass the night upon the lake--it was however at last determined that we should on shore--the house consisted only of two miserable rooms--pine knots were burning in the stone chimney for light--the fire out of doors at which our cakes and coffee were made, more dirt than I ever saw in one house was here--we swallow’d and hem’d, and but for extreme hunger, and fatigue, could neither have eaten or slept in such a place--Mr. and Mrs. Bowers, Miss Gibbs, and myself occupied one room--our beaus and all the family in the other--the woman owned but three sheets so we could not expect more--one thing disturbed us, a ladder which led to the roof was down in our room, and several cats kept constantly going up and down--we however lived thro{ugh} it and it 5 {ate} a poor breakfast and consoled ourselves with the prospect of dining at Queensbury upon fine fish.” 

Another traveler, Francis Parkman, traveled on Lake George in 1842. “This was Sabbath Day Point, the famous landing place of many a huge army. We ran our boat on the beach of Sabbath Day Point and asked lodgings at the house. An old woman, after a multitude of guesses and calculations, guessed at how she could accommodate us with a supper and bed although she couldn't say nohow how we should like it, seeing as how she wasn't used to visitors. The house was an old, rickety, dingy shingle palace, with a potato garden in front, hogs perambulating the outhouses, and a group of old men and women engaged in earnest conversation in a tumbledown portico. The chief figure was an old gray haired man, tall and sparce a skeleton, who was giving some advice to a chubby old lady about her corn. The old man was a revolutionary pensioner, Captain Samuel Patchen, and stout hearted, hail, and clever by nature.” Patchin, known locally as “Captain Sam,” died in 1844 at the age of 86.

On April 1, 1849, the property was deeded to Samuel Westurn from Lyman Patchen. The facilities were expanded into a first-class summer hotel. In 1860, a farmhouse was built by Samuel Westurn to accommodate 20 guests. By 1879, he was charging borders $7-$8 a week. When his health started to fail, he invited his niece, Florence Adele Westurn Carney and her husband, Franklin, to move to Sabbath Day Point in 1889. Although they were running the hotel, a legal suit for ownership with Adele’s brothers and sisters (Clement E., Elmer E., Etta M., Herbert S., and Mary Westurn) was not settled (in Adele's favor) until 1898. Frank and Adele enlarged the structure in 1898. Frank also established a post office on the hill above the steamboat pier. 

In 1906, 1919, and 1924, other additions were added on by Bruce William Carney, son of Frank and Adele. Bruce and his wife, Lillian Kelly Carney, assumed ownership of the hotel and property in 1913 via Frank’s will.  

n 1914, Seneca Ray Stoddard wrote the following: “Sabbath Day Point house. enlarged since the old days, is a wholesome and attractive place with all a farm’s welcome and surroundings. Accommodations are here in house and cottages, for 100 guests. F. A. Carney, proprietor. There are cozy parlors, dainty home-like guest rooms and a table exceedingly wholesome and of immaculate neatness. The farm of 500 acres furnishes long distance telephone in the house. Electric lights and garage are among modern necessities. A recent addition provides a large dining room with windows opening east, west and south, and a number of very desirable sleeping rooms increasing the accommodations to 100. In the words of the proprietor, ‘We do not have many rules. Guests are allowed to do anything that ladies or gentlemen would care to do.’ There is a fine bathing beach here sloping gradually from the lawn into deep water and another on the circling bay at the west. The books found on the shelves are wholesome and suggestive of a high intellectual standard. Row boats may be had here at $3 per week. Southbound motorists are advised to take the steamer from Sabbath Day Point to Bolton landing to avoid difficult mountain climb.”

In 1956, the hotel and property were sold by Bruce William Carney to Archibald and Austin. The hotel was raised during the fall and winter of 1956-1957 and lots were sold for development.

Researched by Gale Halm, Pam Bresett, and Judy Stock, May 2010

Sources:

“Saga of Sabbath Day,” Arthur A. Carr, President of the Ticonderoga Historical Society, March 12, 1959

Chronicles of Lake George—Journeys in War and Peaceby Russell Bellico

The History of the Hague Summer Hotel by Bernard and Frances Clifton

“Silver Bay Breeze” by Ethel M. Andrus

Stoddard book in the Silver Bay Library