Pleasurable summers spent in Moodus

It was a result of a late-at-night whim that I entered a search into Google for Moodus. And boy was I surprised to have located your site!

Moodus was a family affair for us. I spent most of my childhood summers at various resorts in town from 1948 to approximately 1959, but my parents vacationed there slightly longer. As my parents were both teachers, we were able to spend the full ten weeks of vacations away, and we did so each year. We stayed for many years at Karas Rest Farm (unmentioned in your site), Klar Crest Resort and Willow Manor. As I got into my teen years, I spent more time away at camps and teen travel tours, but even then I would still spend several weeks in Moodus.

After spending at least one summer at Karas, my grandparents and my uncle rented a bungalow at Elkin’s and subsequently at Richard’s bungalows. As I recall, they vacationed in Moodus for at least a year or two more than my parents, and this brought me back to town as well as I frequently visited with them for a period of time. Another aunt and uncle took their annual two-week vacations at Orchard Mansion. In summary, our years in Moodus probably spanned from 1948 to 1961.

My days in Moodus were pleasurable, and I was lucky to be able to spend them away from the hot streets in Brooklyn. I was always impressed by the rural character of the area, and the vast differences there compared to back in the city. I can still remember our first arrival day in town with utmost clarity and I believe I still retain a tremendous wealth of information about the area during all of those years. My parents were quite knowledgeable about the affairs of the village, and they knew many of the merchants in town. My father would like to spend some of his spare time analyzing the personalities of each of the different proprietors of Levine’s and Weinstein’s soda shops, and had a number of actual incidents and original jokes to share about each one.

Even though my folks were only summer residents, they held a library card and were quite friendly with one or two librarians whose mutual friendship they enjoyed on their weekly visits for all of those years. In various ways, we also became friendly with a number of local families, and even though we were only summer visitors, we very much felt a part of Moodus ourselves.

Moodus was a part of our lives, and as a child I thought it would go on forever the way it was. I recall the decline of most of the hotels and bungalow colonies, and everyone knew that the demise of the area as a vacation area was soon at hand. A number of years later, I read an article about the destruction of the commercial district, and was even more shocked a few years later; whereupon, I made my first return to the area to have driven by the original location of the village without even being able to spot any vestiges of the past at all. It was just like An Outer Limits TV show. That former main street, an eclectic mixture of a tourist spot with a unique small farm-town flavor, was the basis for making that entire area a community, and what a loss it must have been.

My last visit to the area, about four to five years ago, was with my wife and teen-age children to attempt to show them what it was like for me. Sadly, there was no way to recreate for them the wonderful summers that I spent growing up with my family in this very special place. Obviously, it was a different day and age for me, and others, who spent time there as I did, will probably agree that they really felt a darn lot happier, with a whole lot less, than our kids today.

On my last visit, I was unable to visit the public library to inquire about anyone trying to record the history of the resort period in Moodus. So, it is with a great deal of pleasure that I discovered the existence of your site. Thank you for your efforts.

Sincerely,
--G. Shapiro

Rest Farm

I want to bring to your attention a resort missing from your list: Rest Farm. Rest Farm was located on Bashan Lake Road and consisted of a large main house and 8 bungalows. A few of the rooms in the main house and all the bungalows were rented by the week, month, or summer. My parents took me there every summer as a child, starting, I believe, in the late 1950s.

My parents, The Kaplans, and another couple, the Ondriseks, purchased Rest Farm from a Mrs. Karas sometime in the 1960s. A few years later my parents sold their share to the other couple who continued to operate this small resort until sometime in the 1980s. At some point after my parents sold their share its name was changed to, I think, Four Seasons.

During the 1960s and until it closed, Rest Farm was rented to Czech families from New York City (by the way you misidentify bohemians as Hungarians; in fact, Bohemia is part of what is now the Czech Republic (the western half of the former Czechoslavakia). It is likely that Czech families had been going to Rest Farm even before this period, as I suspect it was the presence of Czechs that initially lured my parents to Moodus. I also believe that the previous owner, Mrs. Karas, was of Czech descent. You may also be interested to know that many of the Czechs, families, retiring couples, and their adult children eventually moved to Moodus and the surrounding area after spending their summers at Rest Farm.

Rest Farm was once of those resorts that, as you mention on your web site, had once been a farm. There were a number of chicken coops and sheds of all sorts, a barn on the property, which I as a child from the city, loved to explore. I hope you will consider adding Rest Farm to your list. If there is any additional information you'd like about Rest Farm, please feel free to email me.

--Sincerely, Jerry Kaplan