HPA-Membership Site - History of Holiday Point

Part One - Candlewood Lake and the CL&P

The Holiday Point Association (HPA) was officially recorded in the Sherman town records August 1956, but the reason for its creation goes back to the story of Candlewood Lake. And that has to do with hydroelectric power – the generation of electricity from the energy of falling water.

Candlewood Lake is part of a forward thinking project started in 1895 with the completion of the power plant at Niagara Falls, N.Y. By 1903 the Connecticut Light and Power Company (CL&P) began to harness the power in the fall of the Housatonic River. It built a plant at Bulls Bridge in 1903, the Falls Village plant in 1914, the Stevenson Station in 1919 and completed our Rocky River facility in 1929. We have all seen this plant, across Route 7 from the big black pipe leading down from a dam holding back Candlewood Lake above.

The earlier power plants together were capable of producing 30,000 KW of electricity but this was not “firm”. That is, it depended on the volume of flow of the river. Our plant was the first built in the United States that pumped water up into a storage reservoir at low electricity demand time and then was capable of generating 31,000 KW of power to meet peak loads at any time.

Candlewood Lake was begun for the plant in 1925 by the damming of the Rocky River valley that ran north through the village of Jerusalem into the Housatonic River at New Milford on Route 7. Farms homes, churches, and 2 cemeteries had to be removed. The largest man-made lake in Connecticut was produced, covering 8 square miles with 60 miles of shoreline. It became not only the water storage element of a power plant, but also the beginning of a new beautiful recreational area. The lake was named after a nearby Candlewood Mountain.

After completing the lake, the CL&P formed the Rocky River Realty Company to manage its land. They set aside an area known as Holiday Point for the use of their company employees. When Dorothy Diamond asked permission to use the beaches in July of 1935 she was told in a letter from J. D Brown, Real Estate Engineer that “ it is owned by the Rocky River Real Estate Co…. and some 30 odd people…. if permission is granted to one family it makes it difficult to discriminate…. The power company has set aside for the people of Sherman about six acres of land….. just north of the Allen property” for a Town Beach.

Part Two - The Holiday Point Association is Formed

By the summer of 1955 the majority of owners of properties at Holiday Point were no longer CL&P employees. Its location at the extreme west of the state was said to make it difficult for the employees to reach.

A group of owners began to organize a formal homeowners association to try to take over control of Holiday Point from the Rocky River Realty Co. The first meeting took place on the beach on July 9th 1955. First officers were chosen: H. Keever President, E. Tordick VP, and Secretary, Henry Oberg. They agreed to take control of the property and make improvements, assessing members of this new organization according to the number of lots owned. To reduce the use of the beaches by non-residents they proposed posting signs saying that this is private property. The meeting was adjourned, and the twelve men and women present put in three hours on the first beach clean up. Forty-nine letters were sent out to all owners explaining the idea of a Holiday Point Association calling them to a second

meeting on July 16 at the Community Beach.

On Feb. 1, 1956 a letter was written to Mr. Henry Oberg at Holiday Point by J. S. Lewis, Real Estate Engineer.

It said that "those areas now held by the Rocky River Realty Co. can be turned over to an association…, if the residents will form a corporation…. it will be willing to transfer, without charge, all the property located at Holiday Point…. We feel sure that a proper corporation owned by the various property owners will add stability to your development and leave the control of the development in proper hands…. [and]will be a good investment on your part as owners or in case you anticipate selling the property to others."

The letter also mentions that at that time he noted that…. “"he main beach, which incidentally is one of the best bathing beaches on the lake, is sorely in need of cleaning up."

Part Three - The Salem

Cigarette Commercial

When the lake was made by the Connecticut Light and Power Co it selected the most scenic property on its north end for their own executives summer resort - now the land of the HPA. The confirmation of this opinion was made when scouts of the advertising company for Salem cigarettes discovered our Point and asked our Executive Board for permission to make a commercial here.

For a small compensation (does anyone remember what?) we agreed, and waited excitedly for the appointed day in July 1962.

On the appointed day two semi-trailer trucks roared up to the beach parking lot and unloaded filming equipment from one and props and wardrobe materials from the other.

Here the wardrobe person is ironing the clothing for the actors, powered by a portable generator. The actors arrived in the silver convertible.

My boat was pushed aside and the two actors set out at the west beach in their own. Allen’s camp and the Town Beach are in the background.

The film crew takes to the water also, while the blond actor makes last minute adjustments to her make-up.

He offers her first SALEM.

For the next scene on the shore, the quality of our green grass has to be enhanced with a little spray paint.

Here the blond is offered her second SALEM.

Finally all eyes and camera concentrate on the SALEM Pac itself, as it rests on the trusty handmade Holiday Point Association picnic table.

Author: Stephen Diamond

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