1883
Wooglin on Chautauqua “On its way to the 1883 Convention at Saratoga Springs, N.Y., at the urging of Charles J. Seaman, Denison 1871, a party of delegates met at Chautauqua Lake in western New York and formulated a plan for an alumni club house and summer resort, which developed into the creation of ‘Wooglin-on-Chautauqua.’ This was a private enterprise promoted by members of Beta Theta Pi, never an official project of the Fraternity.” — Son of the Stars, pg. 40 The club was located on the eastern shore of Chautauqua Lake near the head of the lake and opposite Mayville. The water frontage was about a quarter of a mile, the depth about half that distance. The ground rose delightfully from the lake to the club house. Behind the property was the railroad with the club’s own platform,
no need of a station — the trains stopped on signal — and beyond the railroad was the highway with the farm house which was also the telegraph office and post office — “Wooglin, New York.” The clubhouse was built in the spring of 1884 - frame, quite up to the standard
of summer hotels of the period, well arranged and entirely adequate. There was a good well on the place, a windmill, and a tank. Summer clubhouses in those days had no running water in the guest rooms and no private bathrooms. Kerosene lamps were the universal custom. There was a billiard table up on the fourth floor in the tower. The club owned a fifty-foot steam yacht and its own wharf; the lake steamers stopped at Wooglin wharf on signal. There were bath houses and rowboats, a baseball diamond and a tennis court. The “office” or lobby was spacious with a most attractive open fireplace. The stairs were wide as they left the main floor and at the landing half way up divided and continued to the right and left to the second floor. On the landing was a very good stained glass window, the Beta dragon holding the shield; and, depicted
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