Dance New England

Camp & Site Visit Reports for Potential Purchase

State	Name	Price	Size	Privacy	Water
ME	Camp Winaco	$1,000,000+	230+ acres	pretty private	9000' of shore line
ME	Hancock Pond	$495,000	50 acres	none	on peninsula between 2 ponds
ME	Island Pond Road	$425,000	160+ acres	maybe issues	1900' of waterfront on large pond
ME	Moose Cove Lodge	$895,000	170 acres		4000' waterfront on Pebody pond
ME	Peabody Pond	$1,000,000+	100 acres	some issues	5000' of waterfront
ME	Weymouth Pond	$439,000	100+ acres	extremely	4000' undeveloped waterfront includes 18 acre pond
NH	Magpies	$200,000	100 acres	emiprivate lake	900 ft. of waterfront

Camp Winaco:

 

Seen by Bill McCarthy and then by Paul Freundlich, Emmy Rainwalker, Linda Lindgren and Anne Moss. Over 230 acres. 9000' of shore line. Property controls the whole shoreline of a pinched cove and a 1000' +/- beyond on a small, relatively undeveloped pond. My guess is that the site controls about 213 of the frontage on the pond (Southeast Pond) Operated as a camp until a few years ago, most buildings are savable for at least the short term, including a small (100 person) dining hall. No big building, but lots of open spaces. other than the high asking price of $1,000,000+ this is the best of the lot, we will probably not find better unless we find totally private.

 

Hancock Pond:

 

Seen by Bill McCarthy, Myra Romain and Bill McAvinney visited this 50 acre site. One nice building . rest of buildings in disrepair. straddles two ponds: no privacy. Also has access road cutting through middle. Asking $495,000

 

Island Pond Road:

 

Seen by Steve Robbins, Bill McCarthy and Bill McAvinney. Intriguing possibility. 160+ acres on one end of large pond. Needs major overall, but some building could be saved for short term use. Pond has about 20-30 houses across water. Left end beyond property undeveloped, apparently due to power lines. Lots of open space to build on. Beach seems reclaimable. Waterfront may be issue. Not much traffic, no apparent boat ramp, and beach in open cove area but might have issues. If serious about buying might want to keep this in. Asking $425,000

 

Peabody Pond:

 

Laurie Tenent-Gadd, Amy Brown and Bill McCarthy saw a 100 acre site on Peabody Pond near Mataponi in July 1997. Nice open site about 5000' of waterfront. Old camp, buildings in universal disrepair/shambles. Shorefront on one end of pond. All land across pond is undeveloped and had no current access. Asking $1,000,000+ and some privacy issues. The other end of the lake has houses and there are two house lots between end of property on left end and the undeveloped land. Seems very pricey for some privacy and a total gut job.

 

Weymouth Pond:

 

Seen by Bill McAvinney, Steve Robbins, Bill McCarthy. Extremely private. Own a pond. 100+ acres practically undeveloped. Unlike other two properties, never had a developed waterfront, therefore, now can not be developed. I personally liked the site, but seemed very impractical for DNE due to development costs and lack of beach. Asking $439,000.

 

Earlier Searches (Bill McCarthy):

The first time I was involved in a buying search I was the only one involved. After we had the scare at Omni in 1995 we started one of the rental searches we got nowhere. Then Omni came through and the energy went in other directions. At this time I was empowered by the reps to find some plausible sites to video, photograph and display at camp 1996.

I commenced searching and found two sites in the summer. One was a parcel of land with one home about 3-5 acres cleared and 100 acres total for $175,000. The other was camp Magpies in Orange, NH, which a bunch of us (Me, Bill McAvinney, Myra Romain, Will Kaizen, Donlon Wade and Steve Robins(?). viewed. It was a former camp (Peter Romani went to it.) for about 60 campers run by this wonderful couple that had stopped running it some years pervious and had been using it as a summer home since then. It had 100 acres about 900 ft. of waterfront on a semiprivate lake (4 private owners and the state) and with minimal work could have handled 100 campers in the short term with enough buildable land to grow into. They were asking in the $200,000 range I believe, but we ran into town zoning interference (camp too out of date, Orange not interested in any but residential devel.) and ended our interest. It was not perfect by any means: the road (although seldom used), separated the main camp from the waterfront, many buildings were only savable for the short term, septic was suspect at best and definitely needed work and expansion. Nevertheless I found it intriguing.

Last modified: May 1, 1998