When Lake Agawam's Heart Beat Strongly

Life was good for Charlotte Schermerhorn, a rich widow who built up a compound of rental cottages in the late 19th century in Southampton Village—“the most charming of all small cities by the sea.”

“They had their cottage on Lake Agawam and their family friend with them, a great Newfoundland dog named Joe,” says Sally Spanburgh, speaking of Charlotte and family in her new book, “The Southampton Cottages of South Main Street,” which she’ll present at the Rogers Memorial Library on Wednesday, August 5. “They had a schooner at the ready to take rides on the lake at any hour; a garden full of prized fruit, flowers and vegetables; and staff to look after them.”

But tragedy struck—the dog was shot, the second of Ms. Schermerhorn’s three sons died, and the surviving one wrested away his mother’s real estate while threatening to declare her insane. Properties were sold off, generations passed, and, after a 75-year presence, the once-prominent Schermerhorn family had completely vanished from the village, where only a carriage house from the original compound stands today.

That’s one of Ms. Spanburgh’s favorite stories in her second book, which offers an armchair tour of 34 homes built between 1683 and 1930 on South Main Street, of which 29 survive, and whose heavenly names, from Wyndecote to Grassmere to Sunny Hours, evoke a time of leisure well enjoyed.

“I want to have dinner with Charlotte before she loses everything,” the author said. “I’m so intrigued with her.”

It’s hard to imagine what life on Lake Agawam was like 100 or more years ago, right after a wave of new colonists had transformed the colonial farmsteads on the village’s oldest street into sophisticated vacation homes.

The summer residents built sidewalks, put up streetlights and for a short time gave Agawam a new name, “Silver Lake.” Lake Agawam was the lifeblood of the community, completely lined with health-enhancing paths for walking and bicycling, and recreationally used for fishing, swimming, ice boating, ice skating and sailing. There were annual regattas, and outdoor concerts on Saturday nights.

Old postcards show fancy ladies, dressed from head to toe and toting parasols, being pulled in dog carts along dirt paths surrounding the lake.

“I had no idea that Lake Agawam was the heart of the social activity in the summer,” Ms. Spanburgh said. “They swam in it, they fished in it, they stocked it with fish—carp and bass.” It was the Village Improvement Association, whose members were summer colonists and local residents alike, that would keep the lake clean for all these purposes.

Today, of course, the lake is dirty, and the area to the east of it has grown more exclusive and private—Ms. Spanburgh discovered during her research that many residents have no idea who their neighbors might be.

Even so, she said, she found the people whose homes she photographed and chronicled to be committed to taking care of them, and often keen to learn about their origins. “They’re such proud owners of history,” she said. “They love their homes.”

A consultant, writer and researcher whose background is in architecture, interior design and preservation, Ms. Spanburgh is active in local historic preservation, especially in her role as chairwoman of the Southampton Town Landmarks and Historic Districts Board. Her first book, “The Southampton Cottages of Gin Lane,” was published in 2012.

Wednesday’s talk at the library will start at noon. Reservations are recommended and can be made by calling 283-0774 or emailing programs@myrml.org.