Sandy Beach: A North Pond Landmark During the mid-1800s through the early 1900s, much of the development around Congamond Lake — then known as Southwick Ponds — centered on picnic groves along Middle Pond. The eastern shore boasted Hatheway’s Log Cabin Grove, the western shore offered the first-class Railroad Pavilion Hotel , and the south end drew crowds to the Lake House and Saunders Grove. By contrast, North Pond — particularly its northern shoreline — remained undeveloped. Formerly King's Sandy Beach (Courtesy of Richard Cowles Photography) In 1914, on the sandy northeastern shore of North Pond, a small lakeside cottage appeared. Its owners named it "Sandy Beach" — a private retreat set against one of the lake’s most inviting stretches of shoreline. The cottage’s name was inspired by the gentle curve of light-colored sand meeting the clear water, a feature rare enough on Congamond to become a landmark for boaters who often picnicked there. Two years later, in 1916, N...

  - A forgotten 1909 lakeside murder—and the hat that cracked the case.   A Grim Discovery at Congamond Lak e On the still morning of August 30, 1909, the peaceful surface of Congamond Lake in Southwick, Massachusetts, gave way to a dark secret—one that would unravel over the weeks to come. While going about his morning routine, a man named White, employed by the Berkshire Ice Company, spotted something disturbing—a man’s head and shoulders floating in the lake. Alarmed, he called over Maloney, an employee of the nearby Lake House , an old hotel on Congamond Lake known more for its bootleg liquor than its lodging, along with another bystander. Together, the men towed the body to shore. The deceased man appeared to be about 5 feet 10 inches tall and roughly 190 pounds. Though dressed in a dark brown suit, a mixed-fabric shirt, and size 7 shoes, his weathered appearance and empty pockets suggested he may have been a tramp. His body was still limp—he hadn’t been in the lake lon...

A northbound passenger train on the New Haven & Northampton railroad had departed New Haven, Connecticut, at precisely 7:15 a.m. on January 30, 1884. The train was supposed to arrive in Westfield, Massachusetts, at 9:20 a.m. But just below Southwick, Massachusetts,—a notoriously sharp bend in the track in a remote, wooded stretch known as Copper Hill, in East Granby, Connecticut—disaster struck. As the train approached the curve, it was reportedly traveling at 25 to 30 miles per hour—dangerously fast for such a bend. Without warning, the tender and three railcars—a smoking car, a baggage car, and a passenger coach—derailed and violently flung down a 25-foot embankment, coming to rest on their sides in a ditch filled with icy water. Miraculously, the locomotive itself remained on the rails. But the danger was far from over. Inside the derailed cars, coals from the onboard heating stoves dislodged in the chaos. Flames soon ignited the floorboards in one car and the cargo in another. ...

  Harry Newton Carr, MD The Wounds He Healed, The Laws He Broke   Dr. Harry Newton Carr’s life was a tumultuous blend of ambition, scandal, and relentless reinvention. Born in Fairchance, Pennsylvania, on Christmas Day 1890, Carr would go on to achieve professional heights and personal notoriety that spanned continents and courtrooms alike. Carr began his medical career with promise. After graduating from the Middlesex College of Medicine and Surgery in Cambridge, Massachusetts, around 1918 or 1919, he received the prestigious Oliver Rea Scholarship. He used it to study medical diagnosis, obstetrics, and pediatric diseases in New York City. By the end of 1924, he was awarded a second scholarship for advanced training in ear, nose, and throat surgery at the New York Post-Graduate Hospital and Medical School. Carr's quest for education continued into 1925, when he closed his Feeding Hills, Massachusetts office and embarked on a whirlwind of study in New York and Europe. He train...

On June 14, 1931, the Southwick Country Club opened to the public as a nine-hole course along College Highway in Southwick, Massachusetts, on land that had once been part of Luzerne Fowler’s tobacco farm—a transformation arranged by Fowler’s son, Raymond. Designed by local golf professional Dan Sutton, the course featured more long holes than any other public course in the region, offering a challenging layout that quickly attracted attention. It was the fourth course Sutton had designed in the area, further cementing his influence on the development of golf in western Massachusetts. The Southwick Country Club remained a popular destination for golfers even as new competition emerged, including the opening of the Hilltop Trail Golf Course, a nine-hole layout near Sodom Mountain, which welcomed its first players on June 10, 1933. The club’s future, however, was shaped by a turning point following the death of Luzerne Fowler in 1932. Just a year later, Westfield Savings Bank foreclosed o...