"Chicago to the Sea." Eastern Excursionist / A complete guide to the principal eastern summer resorts, including: Niagara Falls, the White Mountains, Saint Lawrence and Saguenay Rivers, Montreal and Quebec, the New England sea beaches, etc., and how and when to enjoy them.

by William C. Gage

OLD ORCHARD BEACH.

This celebrated seaside camp-ground,—for as a place for temperance and religious camp-meetings it is best known,—is reached by the Boston & Maine Railroad, extensively advertised by its managers as the “shore route” between Boston and Portland. And it may not be amiss to say, in this connection, that it is really one of the finest equipped and best managed railroads in the country. Its general superintendent, Mr. J. T. Furber, is one of the successful railroad managers of New England, a tireless worker, looking after every detail of the road and its operation, with a degree of energy and “push” that marks the successful business man wherever you meet him in Yankeedom.

Old Orchard not only has a vast expanse of beautiful beach, but possesses the additional charm of woodland parks and groves, hundreds of acres in extent, stretching away from the shore, enclosing cool retreats and shady paths, where the forest has been left almost in its primeval state. This happy combination of “woods and seashore” in one locality, affording a pleasing variety and gratifying the tastes of all, is one secret of the great popularity of this resort. The splendid hotel, so conspicuous in the background of our illustration, is kept in a style to please the most fastidious, it being the leading hotel of this vicinity. The less pretentious house in the foreground is a great favorite with many visitors, not only for its home-like air, but for the beautiful views to be had from its verandahs and the charming walks
and drives in the vicinity. Its patrons speak of it in terms of the highest commendation.

OLD ORCHARD BEACH.

Wells Beach and Kennebunkport are also reached by the Boston & Maine Railroad, and are among the long list of popular resorts on the eastern coast. The latter has an elegant hotel, the “Ocean Bluff,” which commands a beautiful view of ocean and landscape combined.

At Dover, on the main line to Boston, connection is made with the Winnipesaukee division to Alton Bay, a celebrated summer and camp-ground resort, at the head of the bay, which is an arm of the beautiful Lake Winnipesaukee, extending in a southerly direction. The steamer Mount Washington makes frequent trips from this point to Wolfboro and Center Harbor, from either of which places connection is made for the Weirs, on the Boston, Concord & Montreal Railroad, by steamer “Lady of the Lake.”

The Eastern Railroad, the other through line between Portland and Boston, reaches several of the beaches already mentioned, and is the direct route to Hampton and Rye Beaches, Boar’s Head, and and Revere Beach, the latter sustaining the same relation to Boston as does Coney Island to New York.

The Isles of Shoals, nine miles off Portsmouth harbor, are also reached by the Eastern Railroad to Portsmouth, thence by steamer to Appledore and Star Islands, where two palace hotels, the Appledore, on the island of the same name, and the Oceanic on Star Island, are kept in regal style by Laighton Brothers & Co. The group comprises nine islands, the largest of which is Appledore. It is also the best known, having been for many years the favorite summer home of many of the prominent literary people of New England. It is the residence of Mrs. Celia (Laighton) Thaxter, whose pleasing poems have gratified so many readers; and her childhood was spent in this lovely spot, the very air of which is full of poetic inspiration.

White Island is the location of a light-house which the readers of the Atlantic Monthly will remember as the scene of many of the pleasing incidents in Mrs. Thaxter’s “Child Life at the Isles of Shoals.”