Fabulous times at Banner Lodge

I remember as a young teenager my parents took me and my brother and sister to vacation for a week in August of 1968 & 1969.  In fact it was 40 years ago exactly today that I remember driving as a family on Sunday 8/17/1969 from Framingham Mass.  The reason I remember the day is because I recall hearing on the radio the death of Dr. Philip Blaiberg. He was one of the first recipients of an artificial heart transplant, and the longest surviving one at the time.  Also I developed a relationship with a nice girl I met from New Haven who I kept in touch with for several years

The food, activities and entertainment were fabulous. It was a shame to hear what has happened to the property after Jack Banner's death.  I understand some New York investors purchased the properties in 2005 and plan or are building condos there.  The glorious days of the 60's will never be the same, only just a great memory.

--Randy Hecht

Orchard Mansion baked goods were a treat

My family went to Orchard Mansion for 1 week the summers of 1959, 60 and 61.  My brother and I looked forward to it each year with great anticipation.  There was always so much to do and a week was far too little time to pack it all in.  The Kabatznicks worked really hard. Herb was all over the place.  He drove a school bus during the off season.  They had a son Moise I believe a year or two younger than me (58) who used to participate in everything.  I believe they also had a younger daughter but she was not around as much.  I believe the Kabatznicks inherited the place from Rose's parents.

They had entertainment every night usually a movie a couple of nights a week that would break at least once.  Saturday night was the big night, everyone would go up to the barn for square dancing.  The biggest thrill was next to the entertainment building was the kitchen where Max the baker would be baking all the baked goods for the next day, as for everything at Orchard Mansion was freshly baked on the premises. If the kids begged enough and you were quiet during the entertainment Max would give you a roll to take back to the room. 

After the entertainment we would go back to the room and my parents would go to Banner Lodge to visit a cousin who was more well to-do then us.  If you told Herb you were going off the grounds he would have someone check on you every half hour, but everything was always safe at Orchard Mansion.  When my daughter was small, now 24, I wrote to them requesting a brochure and of course it came back with no such place.  I then wrote to Banner Lodge and I think it was a computer camp.  It was a simpler and better time and wonderful memories.

--Stuart Baum

Honeymoon at Hilton's

We spent a week at the resort in May 1954 one week before my husband was sent to Japan and Korea.  It was a wonderful week and the food and guests were great.  We still have pictures of the boat ride and us enjoying a night of entertainment by the guests including my husband.  We still have fond memories of that week, and pictures of the cabin we stayed in.

--Ruth and Harry Bolger

A good job at Orchard Mansion

I came upon this site for Orchard Mansion and it did bring back memories. My parents went there a few years. Then I started working there in the large dining hall. For a teen at that time I made some very good money. Herb and Rose, well if anyone knew what went on behind the scenes they could fill a book about that family.

--Rick Millman

Fond memories of 1950s Moodus

I came across your site and saw a picture I recognized. On the Moodus-center-pix page, there is a picture labeled ‘First National, Bill's Soda Shop, Weinstein's and Lou's Package’, which also seems to have been used for the ‘Greetings from Moodus’ card. I’d love to get a good copy of it.

My grandmother, Evelyn Levine, lived in the house whose porch partially appears on the left of the picture. There she raised her sons (Nathan, George, Bill, Barney, Saul, Jack, and Dave). The picture was taken in 1960, I think, despite the heading and the name ‘moodus_center_east_1940s.’ In any case, I think the car parked in the 2-car lot to the side of the house is a 1959 Rambler that belonged to my uncle Nathan (whom we called ‘Manny’), and it looks like there is a 1956 Chevy parked in front.

I have fond memories of exploring that house, and I still remember the floor-plan, my dad’s childhood room up-stairs, and the incredible antiques (treadle sewing machines, hand-carved sandstone pottery, my grandfather’s old butchering tools) I found exploring in the attic and basement.

One of my early memories (I was all of 4 years old) is from Memorial Day, 1959. My family drove down to Moodus from Massachusetts for the Memorial Day Parade, which became an annual event for us in the early 1960’s. We saw the parade (replete with Fife and Crum Corps) and then went to Billy’s store where my dad let us buy penny candy. We usually stayed in one of the cabins at Banner Lodge (Pop Banner was my godfather) over the weekend. None of the pictures I saw show it, but there was a covered and raised outdoor stage at the end of the lodge pool on which instructors would lead dance and exercise classes. The memory is that my dad (George) would take me to that stage in the evening, and we would sit, the two of us, while he told me about being a kid growing up in Moodus, working for Banner Lodge during his teen summers, and other recollections.

By the mid 1960’s, the ravine (Moodus River) behind my grandmother’s house was so polluted that the house began to smell horrible. She moved to a house in Middletown, and we ceased to spend Memorial Days in Moodus. Toward the end of the 1960’s, the family would still get together in the area with the brothers and my many cousins, either visiting Bashun Lake, Gillette Castle, or the Goodspeed, but by the early 1970’s, Moodus was essentially gone.

--Hal Franklin

Eels in the river at Hilton's

My family visited Ted Hilton's in the summer of 1952.  The week as I remember was wonderful.  The horses were tied up and waiting on the far side of the river so one had to row across.  I had a crush on the top wrangler. We went riding at least three times, once for an early morning breakfast ride.  We stayed in the new lodgings at the top of the hill -- overlooking the swimming pool, where I also spent a lot of time.  The river was lovely with its little sandy beach -- but it was the first time I ever saw an eel -- and didn't appreciate the experience as that long, black shiny, slimy thing coiled about my ankle!  The food was great and I remember one morning particularly.  I always got up very early and there I could walk down to the lodge by myself and eat with other guests, likewise early risers.  I was 10. 

--Jeanne Melis Mills