beaverlakewa.html

The following are excerpts courtesy of the HistoryLink.Org....Should I include ??? This site is not to include every Dance Hall in the USA but very often if it was a rural resort location there was more there than a Dance Hall. If nothing more discovered this page will be later deleted.

In the 1930s, more summerhouses began springing up along the west side of the lake, including a community known as the Colony, located near the south shore. In 1932 Gus and Lulu Bartels bought a large piece of waterfront land on the southwest shore and established the Four Seasons Resort, also known as Bartel's Resort. Jake Lott built or helped to build 15 cabins for the resort (including a new cabin for himself in 1937 after his first cabin burned). Many of the cabins were nicely decorated with rented Frederick & Nelson furniture. Around 1936 the Four Seasons Lodge was built on the lake. The Four Seasons Resort also had small rental cabins and the Prescott family of Seattle spent several summers there in the late 1930s. The cabins were small, recalled Charlotte Prescott Marsden of Beaver Lake. As I remember it they were just one large room with knotty pine walls. There were cots in the room to sleep on. There may have been a place to cook on the side of the room (Interview). Marsden fondly recalled summer outings at the lake in 1938 and 1939. There was fishing and rowboats, of course, but there were also primitive paddle boats there. They were so low that you mostly rode in the water; only your head and chest stayed above water (Interview). Tennis was another option offered at the resort if you preferred to stay on land.

The year 1939 was a pivotal year for Beaver Lake. Bratnober completed his logging operations on the west side of the lake by the late 1930s, and closed his Monohon mill in September 1939. Meanwhile, Weyerhaeuser likewise completed its logging operations on the east side of the lake about this time and in April 1939 platted its Beaver Lake property on the east shore of the lake for residential and recreational use. Beaver Lake was now open for use and development, and in June 1939 the Red Cross Aquatic and Life Saving School held the first of many training schools at the Four Seasons Resort.

In the 1940s and 1950s, Bartel's Resort was the place to be on weekends and in the summer. It was great, remarked Connie Del Missier of Mercer Island, who attended many a dance and summer event at Bartels resort during this time. Everybody who went to high school in Seattle in the 40s and early 50s went to dances at Beaver Lake. And in those days it was really going out in the country, she added. We called one road 'whoopee road' because it was like riding a rollercoaster (Interview). 'Whoopee Road' was 228th Avenue SE, between SE 24th and todays Issaquah-Pine Lake Road. In July 1950 Dick (Andy) and Ruth Anderson took over operation of the resort and renamed it Andy's Beaver Lake Resort, more typically known as Andy's. Although records indicate that the purchase was not completed until 1956, Anderson actually ran the resort under the name Andy's for six years prior to 1956. Andy's continued the dances, and they were big recalled Charlotte Marsden, who attended dances there between 1948 and 1950. Marsden added, Quincy Jones was in my graduating class (Garfield High School, 1950) and his band played at our dances (Interview).

In 1960 Anderson sold the resort to the Catholic Archdiocese of Seattle for use by the Catholic Youth Organization (CYO). The CYO established a youth camp there called Camp Cabrini. Camp Cabrini operated until 1985, when King County purchased the site for a park, now known as Beaver Lake Park.