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Mt. Sugarloaf

(c) Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, Deerfield MA. All rights reserved.
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Dwight Jewett built the Mt. Sugarloaf Hotel in 1864. His hotel was lucky, as it survived for a half century without serious incident: most other such houses burned down at least once in their career. By 1898, Jewett was elderly and hired others to manage it. In 1900, he began seeking a new owner. However, the fashion for mountain houses was beginning to pass, and the house was in poor repair. In 1902, a bill was submitted before the legislature of Massachusetts for the state to purchase the land. The bill sat in Boston for nearly five years before it was passed. The Act to Establish the Mt. Sugar Loaf State Reservation was passed in 1907. The Massachusetts General Court (state legislature) authorized a reservation not exceeding 100 acres "lying on the southerly part of said range now owned by Dwight Jewett and others." A total of $7,500 was allocated for this purpose. A decision was made that the hotel would be allowed to decay and would eventually be torn down. Instead, a "suitable pavilion with a covering to shelter visitors" was eventually erected.

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