The Forge House: Owners, Proprietors & Managers, Part XI

The Old Forge Company Years: 1896-1915, cont’d

In August 1906, Frank J. C. Steber, cashier for the Poland National Bank, purchased the Company shares held by Dr. Crosby, Garmon, Victor Adams and Homer Snyder and was soon elected Company president.

In December 1907, the brothers Harry T. and John W. Quinn signed a five-year lease of the Forge House and took possession January 1, 1908.

John Quinn had run the Old Forge Barber Shop for the previous two years.

For the previous five years, Harry Quinn worked for the W. T. Cantwell Company plumbing firm in Utica and the Hammond Beef Company of New York.

The news release in the Utica Daily Press indicated that the Company would be making extensive renovations.The barber shop and pool rooms would be moved from the right wing to the left.

The grill room would be moved to an unused room between the two hotel wings where a third dining room would be located.

A new kitchen would be installed.

A large double piazza would extend across the front and the hotel now accommodated 300 to 325 people.

The first affair hosted would be the Brown’s Tract Guides banquet on January 9 and 10, 1908.

In early March, John Quinn played second base in a baseball game between hotel staff and village residents on snowshoes at 10 below zero. The Forge House won, 9-6.

But two months into the summer season, the Quinn Brothers stopped paying their rent and the Forge Company began dispossession proceedings.

The Quinns refused to pay the $1,700 due because the Company failed to complete the grill room, bowling alley and other improvements as promised.

Judgment for a smaller amount was allowed at the end of August.

In September, the Company placed ads informing customers that the Quinn Brothers had vacated the premises, but that management was fully capable of accommodating guests.

When the Company assumed management on September 15, they learned that the Quinns had not renewed the liquor license and, not only was the weather dry, but the Forge House likewise would be “dry” for a month.

The Quinn Brothers leased the new Long Lake Inn in Oneida County at White Lake Corners, three miles from White Lake Station on Dr. Webb’s railroad, in May 1909.

When advertising in 1910, they publicized that they formerly ran the Forge House.

John Quinn became keeper of the North Lake Reservoir in 1915 and later was a realtor in Whitesboro, dying in the 1950s. Harry Quinn departed from the partnership in 1911, became a prominent businessman in Utica and died in 1955.

The Long Lake Inn operated as an inn until purchased by the Boy Scouts of America and opened as Camp Oneida in 1921.

In 1952, Catholic Charities purchased the property.

In 1953, Camp Assisium moved its children’s camp operations from Inlet to this location, now called Camp Nazareth.

Needing managers on short notice, the Company hired Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Lampkin.

They made many friends, held numerous events and were given a farewell banquet in April 1909.

The party began at the Wood, Harney & Foley store and were paraded, led by the “Old Forge Band Orchestra,” to the Forge House.

The employees gave the couple a silver set. I could only find that they were from Utica; Joseph Lampkin was in the Utica 1910 census as a butcher at a saloon.

In May 1909, the Company hired another short term manager, Lew C. Fuller.

The Utica Daily Press reported that L. C. Fuller was from New York City and connected with several hotels there for years, most recently as manager of the Hotel Irving at Gramercy Park.

Fuller had first come to the Adirondacks in the days of buckboard from Boonville and continued to over 35 years, sometimes guided by Sam Dunakin to the Fulton Chain lakes. John Roberts, the Company’s secretary also hired Alexander Briggs to assist L. C. Fuller.

In March 1910, the Company leased the Forge House to Laurence Charbonneau. Laurence (often spelled Lawrence, sometimes named “A. Lawrence”) was Old Forge’s David Charbonneau’s brother. Charbonneau was born in St. Eustache, Canada and came with his family to Forestport in 1856.

His hotel career began at Boonville’s Hulbert House in 1885.

He became a clerk at Utica’s Baggs Hotel in 1890, worked briefly at the Butterfield House, then returned to Baggs in 1899. He worked at the Globe Hotel in Syracuse around 1900 and then the Osgood House in 1901.

In 1904, he worked for the Lee Chair Company and resigned from this position to manage the Forge House.

Laurence was manager of the Forge House when Daniel Stroebel of Herkimer and William J. Thistlethwaite purchased majority shares of the Forge Company in October 1910.

Laurence’s lease ended in December.

Laurence returned to Utica in May 1911 and assisted George Baer in the management of the Tha-On-Da-Ne-Ga Hotel at Summit Park in the Mohawk Valley.

He soon left this to manage the Hotel Martin until October 1912 when he began management of the newly renovated, then historic, Yates Hotel of Utica.

After this ended, he soon returned to the Baggs Hotel as head clerk, retired in 1931 and died at the age of 81 in April 1941.

Thistlethwaite, the Company’s new secretary, hired Alexander and Nellie Briggs to manage the Forge House beginning in 1911.

The Forge House installed “all night service” electric lights, a new concrete and steel kitchen and refurnished the dining rooms.

The menu featured fresh milk, eggs and vegetables from the hotel’s dairy and gardens.

In June 1911, workmen repainted interior and exterior walls and added a west side piazza.

The Briggs were assisted by L.C. Fuller who had managed the hotel previously.

The Briggs were the hotel’s proprietors until the Company ended its twenty year ownership of the hotel in August 1915.

A September 1915 announcement expected that the Briggs would retire.

Always active in hotel management, the Briggs leased the Willard House at Weedsport, Cayuga County in February 1916.

In October 1918, they leased the Thurston House in Frankfort for a year until health problems for both forced retirement to Utica.

Alexander died at age 84 in September 1920 and Nellie Ambrose, so often referred to as “his” or “he,” died in February 1924.

Old Forge should have a street named Briggs.