Over 100 years ago, in 1891, five young men built a small boathouse and dock on Cream Hill Lake where the clubhouse presently stands. The prime movers were two sons of the Reverend Samuel Scoville, a summer resident who had been born in Cornwall.
These brothers were nineteen-year-old Samuel Scoville Jr. ("lawyer Sam", father of Alice Barry) and eighteen-year-old William H. Scoville (father of Roxana Hammond). To secure the land, they involved their twenty-five-year-old cousin, Samuel R. Scoville ("farmer Sam", uncle of Ralph Scoville), who owned the lakefront property.
The group also interested Charles L. Gold, age 28, grandfather of Ralph and Charlie Gold. Charles controlled the lake's dam that served his grist and saw mill a mile downstream. The fifth founder was John E. Calhoun, age 32, grandfather of Denny Frost. John was a close friend of Charles and held an active interest in another lakefront parcel.
"These five owners generously allowed their boathouse to be used by some neighbors. One of these, L.O. Hedden, built a float for swimmers using wooden barrels."
— Early ArchivesFor nineteen years, approximately twenty to thirty selected neighbors were allowed to use the facility on an exceptionally informal basis, primarily gathered for swimming during the warm Connecticut summers.
By 1910, the original wood structure fell into substantial disrepair and was judged unsafe for use. To resolve this, neighbors gathered to form the Cream Hill Lake Association. The needed rebuilding of the boathouse was completed in 1911, funded entirely by foundational loans from the Scoville brothers, Norman Ruland, Colin Morgan, Charles Sackett, James Cooke, and C.S. Steele.
The Association's first bylaws, penned in 1910, designated the original five owners as charter members, exempting them and their families from all dues, fees, and assessments. Around this time, Samuel R. Scoville (farmer Sam) provided a right of way to the boathouse through his farm driveway, barnyard, and pasture land leading to the north end of the dam. It was a rustic path, not a road. Additionally, Samuel Scoville, Jr., who had acquired the boathouse land, granted usage permissions and subsequently sold the deed directly to the Association.
Sam Jr. was an exceptionally avid and legendary swimmer. Having first swum across the lake and back when he was just twelve years old, he repeated the feat at least once every single year for the next fifty years.
His enthusiasm for the waters was never dimmed, even by a tragic event on July 22, 1918, when his cousin from Plainville, Ralph Irving Scoville, suffered severe muscle cramps and drowned while swimming alone after a long, strenuous day in the hot hay fields with farmer Sam.
Under the original 1910 rules, active voting membership was strictly capped at thirty families, restricted to year-round residents. Summer residents joined as associate, non-voting members. To qualify, members had to own or rent property contiguous to the lake or Cream Hill. The foundational dues rate was set at $5 per year.
During the 1920s and 1930s, the Association maintained formal guidelines to preserve community decorum. Strict house rules forbade children under fourteen from using the boathouse's upper floor between 3:00 and 6:00 p.m. Bathing suits were strictly prohibited on the upper floor at all times, and Sunday dancing or phonograph use was strictly forbidden.
Social customs gradually shifted over the decade. It wasn't until the late 1920s that it finally became acceptable for male members to swim bare-chested without social disapproval.
Every Saturday at 4:00 p.m., the Association hosted its iconic "Teas." Boasting memorable spreads of home-baked cookies, cakes, and elegant sandwiches, these gatherings were the absolute pinnacle of the weekly social calendar. Members dressed with great care, acted with meticulous decorum, and enjoyed lakeside conversations long before the invention of modern cocktail parties.
No matched milestones.