Our Town Theatre is pleased to participate in this year’s Chautauqua events in Mountain Lake Park. The theatre will be hosting Victorian house tours from 11 a.m. – 3 p.m. on Saturday, July 6th. Please join local actors for an afternoon of history and fun. During the tour we will enter some of these majestic homes and hear stories about historic Mountain Lake Park. Tours start every 45 minutes and tickets are $15 per person. Each tour will have a limited number of reservations, so please don’t delay. Our Town Theatre will start to take reservations after May 20th and you can buy tickets until the day of the event. Please visit the Our Town Theatre website after May 20th for more information.

The Gables

The Gables, owned by Manning L. and Katharine L. Smith, is one of the historic homes on this tour. Its history dates back to November 6, 1882, when the Mountain Lake Park Association of Garrett County conveyed to Solomon L. Allen the property on which the home sits.

The property changed hands twice within two months in 1909 between Mr. Allen and Thomas M. Hulings. On August 17, 1910, the property was purchased by the great-grandparents of Katharine Smith and held in the name of her great-grandmother, Harriet Elizabeth (Bess) Elson Stone of Wheeling, West Virginia.

The house became a retreat from the city and summer heat during June, July, and August. Bess’s husband, Edward Llewellyn Stone, was the sixth child of Elijah James Stone, a businessman from Wheeling who purchased lots in Mountain Lake Park at its inception and built the Stone Cottage diagonally across the street from The Gables.

Each generation has made a contribution to The Gables. The original structure included the area seen in the wicker room, sitting room, four bedrooms (above the previous two rooms), a wraparound porch, and the carriage house (The Haunt).

The Gables has remained in the same family for five generations.

For more information on Chautauqua Then & Now, please visit artsandentertainment.org/chautauqua.