Anthony Cuva, a guest of the Nash’s, holds a piece of Hulett treasure he found while visiting the Landing. (Click picture to see full-scale.)
Larry Nash contacted me to tell me that one of his guests, Anthony Cuva, found an old key while metal detecting this past week. It is attached to a star shaped piece of metal, labeled “Lakeside Inn 5.”
The original “Lakeside Inn” was built in approximately 1877-1878 and was a boarding house on the peninsula directly south of the steamship landing. Built by Whitehall businessman, John W. Hall, after purchasing one acre from Philander and Emeline Hulett in November 1873, it was originally constructed as a Victorian cottage. There was a bridge between the two peninsula’s because the area between them was swampy and difficult to traverse on foot. Many classic pictures of Huletts show the “Lakeside Inn.”
Anthony recounted that he was out metal detecting and he found it buried right beneath the surface. “It was only covered by a thin layer of dirt and the metal detector picked it right up,” he said. “I wasn’t quite sure what it was, so I showed it to Larry and he knew right away.”
While the key ring is clearly in excellent shape, the key itself is only partially attached and is mostly rusted away.
All-in-all this is a great historical find and most likely over a century old.
A closeup of the Lakeside Inn key tag, that Anthony Cuva found.
Many thanks to Anthony and Larry for sharing this piece of Huletts history!