For the love of Sprucewold: Remembering Margaret Schwartz - Boothbay Register

The beauty of the Boothbay region, especially in summer, has drawn millions of visitors over the years. Some of them stay for days, weeks and months and some, like Margaret "Margie" Schwartz, loved to return summer after summer.

Schwartz, who died in April at the age of 94 in her winter home in Peru, New York, fell in love with the Sprucewold area of Boothbay Harbor beginning over 80 years ago.

Her daughter, Rachel Romanowicz, relates the following about Schwartz's magical and immediate attraction to Sprucewold and Boothbay Harbor:

"Margaret Schwartz’s (then Margaret Camp) first trip to the Boothbay Harbor region was in 1940 when she was invited to visit her friend Sarah “Smiles” Thomson whose family had a cabin on Spruce Point. The next summer, 1941, Margaret was invited by her friend, Pat Wood (now Pat Inglis), to stay at her family’s cabin in Sprucewold for a week. Margaret arrived by train to Wiscasset and proceeded to continue to stay for another three weeks until her parents finally drove up to bring her home.

"The following summer, 1942, her parents rented the Dale cabin in Sprucewold which was also for sale and when her older sister, Miriam Camp, came to visit she said, “Have you bought it? If not, why not?” The following year, 1943, her parents, Burton and Rachel Camp, bought the cabin jointly with her uncle, Paul N. Rice as well as an additional 50 feet of waterfront for $1,750 each.

"Margaret continued to come up to Boothbay Harbor every summer through World War II and the family used heavy green shades to prevent light from escaping so the U boats off shore could not pinpoint the cabins. During the rationing, Margaret and her family would get groceries delivered by bicycle from a small grocery store on Atlantic Avenue. She and her friend, Pat Wood, also used to walk into town and take the Linekin back to Sprucewold. The Linekin was a boat that used to make several trips a day between Sprucewold and Boothbay with other stops.

"Throughout her 80 years coming to Boothbay Harbor and Sprucewold, Margaret saw many things change. She and her father built two additional rooms under the original cabin. She also saw Linekin Bay change from having plentiful starfish, sand dollars, mussels and scallops when raw sewage was allowed to flow into the bay to the much cleaner sea water we have now. The cabins and the community of Sprucewold changed as well, through the '50s with many rental cabins and with new people coming and going, to when those rentals were sold and private owners and shared ownership became the norm.

"Margaret had many adventures at the cabin and many trips to the local hospital for excellent health care, including appendix and wisdom teeth removals. Through it all, Margaret most enjoyed being hostess for family and friends and the cabin was always full of family, guests and a wide selection of animals. When not organizing a swim to Cabbage Island or a hike along the Indian trail, she enjoyed watching the bay with friends from the front porch and making up stories for each boat that pulled in to anchor while enjoying a cocktail, or two.

"Margaret made it very clear to both her first and second husbands that Boothbay Harbor and the cabin were where she wanted to spend her summers. In 1995, she bought her cousins out of their share of the cabin. Margaret loved Sprucewold and Boothbay Harbor and frequently referred to them as 'Heaven on Earth.’"

Ray Hopkins, who like Schwartz, Ralph Kimball, Mary Otto, Elaine Fossett Rittershaus and others wrote the Sprucewold column for the Boothbay Register from time to time, provided this teaser on Schwartz's life at Sprucewold as recorded in a 2016 interview done by Kimball:

"I want to convey just a few themes that emerged (from Kimball's interview with Schwartz): the joys of friendships, the intoxicating mix of woods and water and the diversity of our 'neighborhood.' As Joanne and George Carlisle, Sheila Jaeger and I sat on Joanne’s porch last Thursday listening to the nonpareil chain of events Margaret has experienced during her summers here, we found her account rich with warm, positive moments. She prized growing up with her childhood friend, Pat Wood (later Inglis) and life on the 'bosom' of Sprucewold in what is now the Addis home, her family’s buying their home on Crooked Pine in 1942, her walks through the woods, and times using the Lodge’s resources: swimming in its pools, eating with friends, attending talks, or playing games such as ping pong and Monopoly, or just hanging out on a rainy day. Lodge resources acted almost like a day care facility, Margaret reflected.

"Near the end of her chronicle we discussed the future. Margaret expressed concerns about sustaining the wonderful aspects of our area ... Margaret wondered, as others have, whether the decline and possible disappearance of the Sprucewold Lodge could undermine the wonderful social helpfulness and diffuse reciprocity of our members."

Perhaps a piece written for this newspaper by Annaliese Rittershaus Neff in August 2020 can allay the concerns Schwartz had about the future of Sprucewold.

"My parents (Charles and Elaine Fossett Rittershaus) bought a cabin in Sprucewold in the year 2000, when I was at the start of my 20s. I loved it – a beautiful antique log cabin, nestled in the woods, high above Linekin Bay. It quickly became a very special place, hosting many wonderful dinners for friends and family, sometimes 40-plus people at a time! In 2011, my fiancé, Richard Brauman, and I planned our wedding in BBH – the wedding ceremony would take place on the harbor at the Rocktide Inn and the reception celebrated in the dreamy, vintage log cabin dining hall at the Sprucewold Lodge. While he tragically passed away weeks before the event was to take place, the many memories of our years spent loving these places together, are alive and well in my heart.

"Five years ago, I bought my own beautiful log cabin in the woods of Sprucewold. She is 100 years old this year! My brother and sister-in-law own a cabin a few hundred yards away now as well. My nieces, 5, 7 and 9, run down the hill to my house, and nothing could make me happier than the sound of their feet running up the porch to say hello. These girls love all of the things that I loved about summers in Maine, and I so enjoy reliving it through their eyes. Small things, like providing marshmallows to roast in the fireplace, make me feel like I’m doling out divine treasure. I was fortunate to fall in love with my wonderful husband, Dan Neff, and last year we were blessed with a beautiful daughter, Minka. She is 18 months old now, and I love to watch her experience the sunlight shining through the pine trees and hearing the wind and the waves. Watching her delight makes my heart ache with joy. I look forward to her childhood – sleepovers with her grandparents, playing with her aunts and uncles, cooking and eating local seafood, swimming at the beach with her cousins, footbridge ice creams and warm band concert nights on the library lawn. Sprucewold is a jewel in the crown of Boothbay Harbor, and I am so very grateful for our time here and the love I feel in this place."

The love of Sprucewold continues.

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