The Willoughby Lake House was opened on July 20, 1852. Pleasure boats were made available for the use of visitors. Among the attractions offered to the traveler were a ride on the lake, a hike on Pisgah or Hor, or an angling excursion on the lake or in the neighboring streams. Newspaper articles about this marvelous place became irresistible invitations.

The Lake House must have enjoyed instant success; it was well filled with guests from all parts of the country, and also accommodated from 30 to 50 regular boarders. In those days people often chose a pleasant place to settle down for weeks or even months in the summer. Soon another building referred to as �The Cottage,� later known as Pisgah Lodge, was opened across the road to provide additional sleeping rooms. This was evidently a remodeled farmhouse; it was said the Bemis family stayed there when the Lake House was closed for the season.

The Willoughby Lake and White Mountains Stage Coach line operated by Bemis, Hall & Company provided �good coaches� to run in �connexion� with the regular trains of the Passumpsic Railroad.

In 1921 Henry W. Winslow published a piece called "Forty Years Ago Around Willoughby" in the Vermonter magazine. He said, "How many times I stood upon the porch [of the Lake House] when the great yellow stage came in and brought men and women from that other world 'down country.' I saw it carry back the 'city folks' with real trunks and grips and how I longed to go too."

Dorothy Walter of Lyndonville, a descendant of Alonzo Bemis described the old stagecoach: "When the last link of the railroad was finished between Lyndon and Newport, the stage route was outmoded, and Mr. Bemis saw he was going to lose some of his excellent clientele to the resorts to the north in Newport and Canada that could be so easily reached by rail. So he (Bemis) bought this elegant coach, lined with peach-colored plush, and advertised to meet his guests at West Burke with it. For a while this was a great attraction, but later, perhaps after his death, the coach fell into decay and was stored in a ruinous old bowling alley behind the hotel. Later the hotel burned, but the old coach was still there and I recall seeing it when our family picnicked on the site when I was a little girl. In time Mr. [Henry] Ford's agents got wind of it, bought it, and carried it down to Sudbury [Massachusetts]. It illustrated so well a small eddy in our Vermont history of transportation and of the tourist business." (Excerpt from letter written by Miss Walter to David Warden of Barnet Center, Vermont, February 17, 1960.)

An 1854 print shows no verandas on the west side of the Lake House. Sometime later three-story verandas were added, as later photos show. All photos of the Lake House show a first floor porch on the west side, and second and third story balconies on the north end where one could sit on a clear summer day and enjoy the �splendid views" and the �excitingly picturesque and romantic" scenery.

Hiram Cutting, A.M., M.D., of Lunenberg, referring to the Lake House in Hemenway's Gazetteer, described it as "elegantly constructed, and to render it still more pleasant, there is a large fountain in front in which the numerous fish sport, - taken from the lake and placed there for the convenience of catching when wanted." Henry W. Winslow wrote: "Out by the fountain under the lilac bushes by the spring house, some lovers were quarreling."

Between 1871 and 1879 the Lake House was managed for a while by a Dr. Wheeler, and then by a partnership know as Gage and Thurber. There seem to have been a few years when the Lake House did not open. Then in 1879 W. A. and Francis Richardson, well known hotel keepers in northern Vermont and New Hampshire, bought the House and advertised to open the first day of June. They refurnished the hotel throughout and added 24 sleeping rooms by remodeling the ell and the cottage across the road. They also built a plank walk from the Lake House to the lake shore. Captain Mose Colby rigged up his steamer "Water Witch" for another summer on the lake; he anticipated an even larger business than he had had the summer before, because of increased business at the Lake House.

A Fourth of July ball was such a success it became an annual event. Winslow wrote: "All afternoon the horses and buggies went by carrying the fellows and their best girls up to Richardsons'. Those who were nearer walked but all the countryside went to the Annual Ball. Our mothers always had new white dresses and danced with our fathers till midnight." He told of the supper march with Francis and Naomi Richardson leading the guests down the three long flights of stairs from the top floor ballroom. To music of Batchelder's orchestra, they marched to the big dining room where there was "everything from oyster stew to cold meat and cake with half walnuts on top and fruit and nuts." After supper the men went to the office and "tried to look natural" while smoking five-cent cigars. The women went upstairs and changed their dresses because "it was the custom to wear dark dresses after midnight and return home carrying the fine white dresses worn during the early hours of the evening."

The Fourth of July balls were not new with the Richardsons. Annie R. French once wrote of having the privilege of reading a diary kept by Alonzo Bemis's daughter. (Her name is not given.) She wrote of the Fourth of July balls which had been held for many years "when the gallants and the ladies came from far and near." These were the days of ruffles, frills and huge hoop skirts. It must have been a gorgeous spectacle. The guests drove up in time for a six-o'clock supper. Dancing began at eight, with music by Paul and Russell�s Quadrille Band of Stanstead. A midnight banquet was served in the big dining room, then back to the ballroom on the top floor to dance until daylight.

When the Richardsons took over the Lake House they seemed to know what people enjoyed as well as the early proprietors had. The meals were delicious. There were rides on the steamboat, hikes or horseback rides to the top of Pisgah Mountain, dances and musicales, as well as bowling and croquet on the premises. Sometimes wrestling matches were arranged, fought by men from local communities. There were boat races; contestants rowed one and a half miles from the hotel landing and returned for purses of $15 and $10. There were drives by the beautiful white-birch-lined road beside the lake, often with a picnic included. On Sundays church services were sometimes held in the hotel parlor, or the guests went by steamer to church in Westmore village down the lake.

A lady correspondent from the Philadelphia Bulletin wrote in 1879 of this "hotel admirably situated in full view of the water and superb mountain gorge. The house is well filled by families from New York, Boston and other cities all of whom are delighted with the place and its surroundings." She liked the "remoteness from the gay and festive fashionable resorts" and the fact that a "neat demi-semi-toillette" could meet all requirements; "unfettered by sweeping trains and fairy slippers, the ladies were always ready for boating, walking or driving."

Though the Lake House was located in the town of Westmore, its mail came through the West Burke post office. In 1880 it was reported the one Monday morning over 50 letters were mailed at the West Burke from guests of the house. Business at the Lake House was excellent.

Francis Richardson died in 1891, but Naomi Richardson stayed on. It was said she could drive horses as well as any man; she kept a livery of 16 for her own use and for use by the guests. She could curse roundly; when going over grain accounts with Leroy Roundy who worked there, Mrs. Richardson would pause, frown, and exclaim, "Dammit, Roy! There's a mistake somewhere!" However, she evidently knew how to run a fine house: business continued to flourish. Dinners were 50 cents; rates were $7.00 to $14.00 a week according to room and accommodations. The reputation of the Lake House was established and the beauty of Willoughby Lake never failed. Even the local people called the area "Willoughby Lake" in the summer and Westmore in the winter.

Suddenly, it was all over. The Lake House burned down on November 18, 1904, and no one wanted to believe it. People from the nearby towns as well as guests from away had often enjoyed the hotel's fine dinners and entertainment. The newspaper reported that the Lake House had been closed for the season, but since carpenters were laying hardwood floors there were fires in the fireplaces. About 10:30 that morning smoke and flames were seen coming from the roof; the fire had gained such headway it could not be checked.

Today the hotel's stone foundation can be found in a grove of birch trees just south of the White Caps campground. Tourists still take the Pisgah Trail near the spot where the coach house once stood. Across the road, Pisgah Lodge, which was operated as a hotel for many years after the Lake House fire, eventually became a decrepit reminder of happier days. Like many empty hotels, it too burned in September, 1971. It is supposed that the bodies of Francis and Naomi Richardson lie beneath the ground somewhere on the property.