This well-preserved seasonal camp typifies a cluster of finely crafted rustic buildings. In the mid-1920s Frank Lichtenthaeler, a chemist from Cornell University; his sister Marguerite, a physician in Wellesley, Massachusetts; and her friend Helen Day Montinari from Boston acquired a large tract of land in the vicinity of Stowe Forks, much of it formerly occupied by mills. Here they built a colony of distinctive structures notable for their unpretentious but carefully crafted wood, stone, and iron detailing. Similar buildings in Stowe, likely by the same craftsman, are at 351 Lower Sanborn Road and at 20 and 56 Turner Mill Lane. This camp, built for Marguerite, emulates the Moravian log cabin near Reading, Pennsylvania, where she was born. It is built of hand-worked logs with dovetailed end joints and has a wood-shingled roof with exposed rafter tails on its long shed dormer and extremely deep eaves. Triple casement windows and a massive fieldstone chimney with fireplaces on both floors complement its rustic character. The jambs of the vertical-plank, “Dutch,” main door are tied to the log walls with butterfly joinery, and, along with its screen door, the main door is detailed with massive wrought-iron strap hinges, latches, pulls, and nail heads. Inside, patinated pine walls, built-in benches and bed frames with dovetailed joinery, and wrought-iron kerosene lamp holders combine traditional crafts-manship with Arts and Crafts sophistication.
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Lichtenthaeler Camp
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