Home     History     Shadows                           

 

 

Copy of the Depot Dispatch October 1984.

 

CRYSTAL ISLE ONCE PART OF ISLAND COMPLEX

 

By: Jean Strebe

 

Progress takes its toll upon familiar landmarks which have outlived their usefulness.  Buildings are razed, leaving only memories.

 

Crystal Isle Inn, once known as Stark’s Pavilion has finally met that fate and will be demolished.

 

At one time, the pavilion was just a small part of a posh resort on Crystal Lake.  It began when Mr. Barnes bought the largest island and adjacent land for .50 cents from the United States government at the turn of the century.

 

Barnes built the original 320 foot bridge to the island, then constructed a family home and a building that included an office, lobby, kitchen and dining room.

 

Later this was sold to Mr. and Mrs. Reigh, who built the pavilion, bathhouse and annex or hotel.

 

THE REIGH’S HOTEL was a large, 3-story frame building, enclosing 37 rooms and two bathhouses for its summer guests.  This, however, was not the first hotel on Crystal Lake.

 

The first stood where the Girl Scout Cam is now located and little is know about it.

 

Reigh’s Hotel was particularly grand in its day.  Beautiful hand carvings decorated the woodwork and a long winding open stairway connected the three floors.  A massive fireplace burned 5 foot sections of log on cool evening nights.

 

The warm glow of kerosene provided lights until around 1925.  A unique drainage system was installed on the island to purify the waste.  An ice house on the island provided ice from a winter harvest for summer use.

 

IN THE SPRING of 1913, the pavilion was sold to Mr. and Mrs. Louis Stark of Milwaukee.

 

Dances ere held each evening and Sunday afternoon at the pavilion from the last Saturday in June until Labor Day.  Music was provided by students of the University of Iowa.

 

A park once surrounded the pavilion with huge cedar trees which gave the lake it original name, Cedar Lake.

 

People came on a street car from Sheboygan, Kohler, Falls and Plymouth to picnic on sunny afternoons.  A large windmill stood on the hill pumping water for the resort.

 

The pavilion had a soda fountain or bar.  Tables and chairs surrounded the dance floors and waiters served its numerous customers.

 

The bathhouse, beach and an 18 foot high dive seemed to be the largest attraction at the time.  Two piers jutted out into the lake, one containing the 18 foot high dive, the other a slide.  High diving exhibitions were often put on for resort visitors by local people.

 

The original bridge to the island was damaged by ice and later rebuilt in 1918 by Mr. Stark for vehicles to cross. The bridge is unusual t this day since there is no way for a boat to pass beneath it.

 

When gambling had its era a Wisconsin resorts, tourists sought gaming services t Stark’s Pavilion along with every other entertainment establishment around.

 

One-armed bandits (slot machines) enticed many customers.  Poker games provided the exchange of large sums of money.  It is said that Chicago ganster types had an occasional fling there, which worried the local residents some.

 

IN 1946, the resort was sold to a bachelor named Swenson who demolished the hotel piece by piece, selling the island to Gottsacker.Realty who sub-divided it.  The wood from the hotel was used in building two cottages which still stand today near the pavilion.

 

Swenson shocked the locals when he changed the appearance of the area considerably, destroying the park, leveling the hill and removing the old windmill.

 

The pavilion was later sold to the Kretsch brothers of Plymouth and is now owned by Gordon Petherick.

 

During the big band era of the late ‘40s and early ‘50s, big name bands were featured at the pavilion and as the years passed by, echoed through its walls.

 

Whatever your memories may be of the pavilion, progress will not remove them.