Beach: Timeline

Most of the beach section is about construction and specific changes but this page is intended to give a quick look at some of the changes over time.

Mom’s cousin Marie and her husband George McDonald purchased the property in 1943. The war in Europe was finally taking some positive turns and they must have thought the future looked good. They purchased the roughly 1 acre lot with 50 feet of lake frontage that had recently been subdivided. Another of mom and Marie’s cousins Colette and her husband Bob Dufort purchased the property next door at the same time. All the cousins knew the area because they had all played at the public beaches, dunes and quarry just down the way. Over the next couple of years both couples built houses on the properties. McDonald’s built a simple one season Cape Cod cottage on pilings. Duforts built a 4 season house with a poured concrete basement under half. By August 1969 George McDonald had been dead for a few years and the cottage went largely unused. Mom and dad (Frances and Robert Schott) and mom’s sister Madeline and husband Earl Hack went in together and purchased the cottage from Marie. Mom and dad had been looking at cottages for years but didn’t feel they could swing it alone. We all lived in a house mom’s dad had built (Hacks with two kids in the upstairs flat, our family with 5 kids downstairs) so sharing the cottage must not have seemed a big step. They concatenated the family names and called the place the Schack but it is usually just “the beach”.The photos below dated 1969 were from an envelope labeled “Our Cottage” and I could feel their excitement as I opened it. The 1978 photos appear to be from an insurance inventory. Earl died in 1973 and Dad in 1986. As dad got sick John and Pam helped more and more with cottage chores and from 1986 until 1991 maintained the cottage and built an addition to make room for their growing family when they visited. On July 4th 1991 the cottage was transferred to John and Pam who used the value of the addition to help cover the purchase price. The 2003 images are from a very brief period when we thought about running a Bed and Breakfast. The images below capture some interesting/fun moments in the cottage history. Much of the rest of the beach section is about the physical improvements that were made over time. All the wonderful people and times are in the family photo albums that we hope to share elsewhere as we scan and organize a wealth of family photos.