A History of Stone Camp

Stone Camp was built by John and Imogene Lufkin in 1901. He was the inventor of the "improved buttonhole machine" the design for which is used to this day to sew buttonholes in garments and clothing. Lufkin was an inventor and a senior executive at Thomas Edison's labs in Menlo Park, NJ.

The camp is built on a prominent stone ledge overlooking Androscoggin Lake near Cedar Point. Lufkin used dynamite to shape the point so that it would part the ice and keep it from damaging his boathouse.

Comprised of a main house and a boathouse, the buildings have a first story of fieldstone and a second of stucco. The two fireplaces were designed and built by Norman Safford of Wayne, ME. Imogene's name is inset into the stone with marble in one fireplace and "a face in the fireplace" on the other. Norman collected a wide variety of different rocks for the fireplace in the cottage. If you're a geologist and recognize any, won't you leave us a list and sketch in the guestbook?  The boathouse is shaped like a castle turret and is comprised of three floors: water below the first floor allows boats to enter the boathouse from the lake, a barn above once housed an old horse stall and then a third-floor party room that offers spectacular views of the lake.  Find the horse stall pieces repurposed in the new upstairs bathroom.  For what it's worth, Lufkin's home in Menlo Park, NJ was also a castle. He must have had a thing for castles.

While visiting, check out the cottage's old wiring system which once powered 15 lights. Installed by Lufkin in the early 1900s, Stone Camp was the first building on Lake Androscoggin to have electric lighting. I'm sure it helped that he worked for Edison's lab which was busy installing lighting systems in New York and Philadelphia.  The original "knob and tube" system has been inspected and is as originally installed including use of three porcelain rotary knob switches - one which is a three-way switch that operates an upstairs hallway light from both upstairs and downstairs. Revolutionary!