History Story:
Overlook Camps
A Family Resort in Canton
By Liz Rothrock
In the 1900s, there were several “family resorts” or summer camps on Lake Anasagunticook. Though the resorts were advertised as being in Canton, most were actually on the Hartford side of the lake.
However, there was one resort on the Canton side. It was called Overlook Camps (or Overlook Farm). It still stands today on Staples Hill Road where it serves as a residence. It is renowned for its stunning panoramic views of the lake.
Bill and Carolyn Gray, the current residents, purchased the property in 1999 from Lorene King. Lorene and her late husband, Dr. John Clifford King, referred to the property as “Far Hills.” Dr. King was a dentist with a practice in Massachusetts. Dr. King and Lorene harvested blueberries and sold them to the public. As a result, the homestead was sometimes referred to as “Blueberry Hill.”
The Kings inherited the property from Dr. King’s father, John L. King, and his wife Alice. The senior Kings purchased the property in 1939 from Mellan Packard. Mellan and his wife Ellen “Nellie” Brooks built the home that is currently on the property and ran it as a bed and breakfast.
Mellan and Nellie raised two children at Overlook Farm. In the couple’s elder years, their son Arthur returned home to help with the property. Arthur added three cottages to the property and he, his wife Eve Eudora Conant, and their six children, opened it as “a recreational camp for adults and families.” (A copy of the original Overlook Camps brochure is available at the Canton Historical Society.)
Arthur’s youngest daughter, Beverley Howe, later recalled about those days: “Back then, Canton was a bustling little town along the railroad…. It had many guests from New York and New Jersey who would stop to spend the night after a weary day of train travel, on their way to another destination, often Rangeley. There were also many ‘regulars’ who returned for several weeks each year, and became an extended family of sorts, and part of the fabric of many family stories!” Click here to read more about the Packards and their life at Overlook Camps: https://www.desmondfuneralhomes.com/obituary/Beverly-Howe. The Packards could not sustain Overlook Farm during the Great Depression, and it was therefore sold to Dr. King.
The Packards had acquired the property from Mellan’s uncle William G. Gammon. William was born in Hartford in 1824 and died in Canton in 1898, leaving the property to Mellan in his will. There was a caveat that Mellan pay the executor $500 and care for his widowed mother (William’s sister) for the rest of her life.
In William’s will, the property is referred to as the Thomas Chandler Gammon Farm. Additional information on the property is limited, but deeds indicate that Thomas Chandler Gammon inherited the property from his father Thomas Gammon, and that the senior Thomas Gammon purchased the property from Robinson Gammon in 1845. Robinson purchased the property from William French in 1827, and French bought the property from his son a year earlier.
Article Sources: Bill and Carolyn Gray interviews and photos; Lorene King’s notes; Beverly Packard Howe’s obituary and funeral program; Camp Overlook brochure; Oxford County Registry of Deeds website, https://www.searchiqs.com/MEOXE/; Findagrave.com website; Keller Williams Realty’s photo of house.