History Eagle Mountain House Hotel, Jackson New Hampshire

The Eagle Mountain House stands on land once part of a grant to Captain Joseph Pinkham. Pinkham, one of Jackson's first settlers, erected a log house in 1790 "on, or nearly on, the present site of the Eagle Mountain House". Carter Notch Road was once a horse path which followed the center line of the original town lot plan. The log cabin was replaced by a frame house which stood directly on the site of the present hotel and which eventually became part of the first hotel. The Eagle Mountain Farm, as it was called, consisted of 300 acres. It eventually passed to Cyrus F. Pinkham, who lived there with his wife Catherine Johnson during the second quarter of the nineteenth century. After Cyrus Pinkham's death and a brief hiatus, Catherine Johnson Pinkham married Reverend Jonathan Gale and moved back to the farm in 1849. Their son Cyrus E. Gale and his wife Marcia Pinkham Gale entered into the hotel business following a common pattern: in 1879 they opened up their farmhouse to twelve guests. Over the next few years, they expanded the farm house and built a cottage, ultimately accommodating 125 guests. In May 1915 the hotel was destroyed by fire, leaving only the adjacent barn and garage.

That year, Arthur Pinkham Gale (1882-1957) purchased the property from his parents and proceeded to erect the existing building on the same site as the previous building. It opened on July 4, 1916. Although the new hotel post-dated the peak of the White Mountain summer resort era, the hotel's guest base was apparently firmly established and could be relied upon to return to the new building.

To avoid the fate of the first Eagle Mountain House, the rebuilt hotel was of fireproof construction. It was erected according to Gale's own plans and built by Roswell Ward of Intervale. On the ground floor were a handsome lobby with fireplace and office counter; ladies' parlor, also with a fireplace; writing room; and spacious dining room with large plate glass windows affording magnificent views. Beneath the dining room were a music room and billiard room. On the upper three floors were ninety guest rooms. Each second and third floor room had a sink and telephone, and many had "private baths en suite", reflecting the demand for up-to-date technology and comfort, even in the mountains. The building was fully electrified and heated throughout by steam to accommodate a fledgling winter business. A verandah encircled three sides of the building. Two buildings attached to the rear served as a laundry and workshop. A photographic dark room was set aside on the lower level. In 1926 the hotel added an elevator, one of only two in Jackson.

In 1929 Arthur Gale doubled the size of the hotel with a southern addition that matched the original in scale, materials and design, suggesting he designed the addition as well. Each of the sixty guest rooms in the addition (excluding those on the top floor) was provided with a private bath. The dining room was enlarged, and a private dining room located behind it. The verandah was extended across the front of the addition, but no longer continued around the south side. That the addition was built in the declining years of the White Mountain resort era is unusual, but indicates the hotel enjoyed a stable guest base and was adapting to the changing vacation habits engendered by the automobile.

Arthur Pinkham Gale (1882-1957) was born in Jackson. At the time of his birth, his parents had been running the first Eagle Mountain House for three years. Arthur assisted his parents in its operation, becoming sole owner in 1915. His entries in Dartmouth class reports describe a man devoted to his work, leaving little time for outside activities. Until the Eagle Mountain House was rebuilt and furnished with steam heat, he supplemented his managerial responsibilities there with hotel management in Florida during the winter months, a common pattern among White Mountain hotel operators. Gale continued to run the Eagle Mountain House until his death, at which time his sister and her husband, Marcia and Orin Chadbourne, who had worked with Gale for nearly forty years, purchased the property. When they finally sold the hotel in 1973, over ninety years of single family ownership ended.