Carriage Entrance Hazelmere Park
Carriage Entrance Hazelmere Park
HAZELMERE INN
The 1915 map of Cattaraugus County, shows the location of the Inn, called a
hotel on Lime Lake overlooking a state road, to be improved, across said road
from an acreage of land owned by G. Cheney.
After speaking with Mr. Cortland Cheney, a life time resident of Lime Lake, he
states that on the weekends in pleasant weather, travelers visited the the area
by train, which came to the end of Hazelmere Avenue, and walked to the Hazelmere
Inn to spend the day or an overnight. He stated that there was a bicycle path
for people to cycle to the Inn. In the winter, transients from Buffalo, worked
on the lake, employed by the various ice houses, cutting ice.
March 4, 1920
"Hazelmere inn, the once famous summer hotel at the head of Lime Lake was
destroyed by fire at 6:30 o'c1ock on Friday morning. The fire began from a
defective flue In the second story and was so fierce that in little
over half an hour from the time it was discovered the building was a mass of
ruins. It was owned by the Webster Ice Co. of Buffalo and was in use as a
boarding house for the ice harvesters. But very little of the contents were
saved. The tenant, William Lansing, lost several hundred dollars worth of
provisions and supplies with no insurance. The building was supposedly well
insured.
The first hotel on the spot was erected thirty nine years ago by Frank Hammond.
It was afterwards enlarged by John Seamon and about twenty years later was still
further enlarged and practically rebuilt by B.F. Hazelton, who being a man of
enterprise and business ability, would have made it a famous summer resort had
he lived . The location Is one of the most beautiful in Western New York. ''
The Hazelmere Inn was located once in what is known as Hazelmere Park. The Inn
employed a steam launch for excursions around Lime Lake and various points of
interest on the lake. The steps leading to the Inn are still in existence and a
bronze plaque is located on the site.
The park was not used for many years until Earl Pratt and Elmer Potter bought it
and built a dance hall there and that dance hall is now the main building for
the conference grounds.
The Odosagih Bible Conference Association purchased the dance hall and park and
has since held meetings and conferences there. The name Odosagih is an Indian
Origin and signifies "clear spring water.''
The above information was
obtained from the Machias, New York, Chickasaw Sesquicentennial 1827-1977 book.
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