the "Tower House" at 4 Olive Street

I've never before thought of restoring older houses to what they once were, but maybe I'd like to with this one, if I could.  Having grown up in love with the Lakewood Theater - my parents home neighboring Libby Mills and becoming friends of Henry & Twinny Richards, and occasional house guests of Fancher Swett.... there were never any shortage of Lakewood stories! -  I was always in search of memoribilia of the years of the past; and here was a whole house! I'm excited to own it now, and have plans to make it a part of the extended Lakewood community again. 

This is the "Tower House" with the famous Dance Hall, where my vision for Olive Street will begin to take shape.

I can't give you better information about the house than what was written by Colin W. Sargent as "Wild Olive" and subtitled "Lakewood Theater Colony: a secret history" in the November 2018 issue of Portland Monthly  Below are some edited excerpts. Please read the entire article at:

https://www.portlandmonthly.com/portmag/2018/10/wild-olive/

If Lakewood Theater colony is the bathtub-gin martini, this rustic Victorian bungalow is the olive. If you love theater, parties, and lakeside living, [the house at] 4 Olive Street [will] get your heart pumping.

The 1,192-square-foot mini-resort [ ] features a three-story Italianate tower, [and] views of Lake Wesserunsett. Also conveying is a legend best told over cocktails.

Eric Pierce [ ] sensed magic the moment he stepped inside[.] he contacted Jenny Oby, author of Lakewood Theatre (Arcadia Publishing, 2017), about the structure also known as “The Dance Hall.”

“The Theater is on the north side of Hayden Brook,” she says.[ ]  Olive Street was named for Olive Hayden.

“[ ] at the back of the house, you’ll see what looks like old stagecoach doors facing the lake [ ] You’d have had to drive your horse or car around back to use them. Just above those three doors is just this gigantic open room. [ ]  If you look closer, “the separate double-wide entry stairs and door that faces the courtyard instead of the road” compound the mystery. If not for a limited-access speakeasy, what else could this possibly have been for?

Which brings us to a sexy little stream that separates this house from the Lakewood Theater Colony. [ ] Lakewood Theater Colony manager “Herbert Swett was determined to make and keep his theater and surroundings attractive to highbrow clientele in order to attract the best actors and actresses of the time, and to attract the most affluent visitors as well. The Dance Hall is a five-minute walk from the theater, and you have to cross a stream. Local legend has it that on the theater side of the stream, the theater had lots of rules for the actors and staff and housed them in gender separated housing. If you crossed the stream you were no longer under Swett’s ‘jurisdiction’ or the rules of the theater. There is no doubt in my mind that a lot of thirsty and bored actors, actresses, and patrons crossed that stream on a very regular basis to drink, to party, and get a little wild [ ].”

[ ] there’s a chance Humphrey Bogart dared to cross this stream—to stay at this bungalow possibly. [ ]. “During the course of the 1934 season, Mary Philips, then wife of Humphrey Bogart, had spent the early portion of the season at Lakewood while Bogart finished his run in The Petrified Forest. When Bogart arrived he went to Herbert Swett to request a private cottage for himself and his wife, but Swett, in all seriousness, suggested that Miss Philips stay in the cottage she had been sharing with Katherine Kidder, another member of the players, and that Bogart could move in with Sanford Cummings and Keenan Wynn, a suggestion which led Bogart to seek another landlord the next day.”

Though Bogart didn’t have much use for the tame side of life, we don’t have a drop of Prohibition proof that he and Mary actually relocated or partied at 4 Olive. It’s just wild conjecture about Wild Olive. To suggest otherwise would be crossing a different stream. Over there is the stuff that dreams are made of.