Eidelweiss Property Owners' Association History

Coleman owned the original land of what is now the Village District of Eidelweiss. Colemen sold the property to the Great Northern Land Company that was started by a group of lawyers from Massachusetts.  The Great Northern Land Company had originally developed the land as a resort in the late 60’s.  They promoted the land and beachfront properties to people from Massachusetts who were coming up for vacations. 

In 1968, Bernard Scher met Jack Sidell at a country club in Sharon, MA. Jack told Bernard that he was selling a lot at a lake in Eidelweiss, and Bernard bought the lot and built a house in Interlaken Circle.  At the time, Bernard owned the only house on that side of the pond.  

The EPOA was formed in 1970 by a group of early settlers of the Village. They were Bernard Scher, Andre Ter Meulen and Lena ter Meulen, Herb Karol, Nat Roussin, and Bob Watson who were all from Massachusetts.  The EPOA was initially formed as a convenient way to collect fees for snow removal and general road maintenance because it was becoming difficult to collect all the fees.

The Great Northern Land Company backed out of the development in the late 70s.  The backing out of the developer led to the formation of the District in 1979. There were problems fomented with the Town for several years over the issue of a double tax burden, and the District was pushing for secession from the Town.

Matters came to ahead when the State representative at the time, Bob Holmes, filed legislation in 1987 to abolish the District. Luckily, at the Public Hearing in Concord, it was agreed to try negotiations.  In 1988 there was a political upheavel in the District and a new leadership committee was formed that included John Vendola, Larry Monet and Mark Graffam.  The VDOE used the A-Frame house by the Little Pea as their office.

In fact, in 1970, Jack Sidell had built two red clay tennis courts where the basketball court is located today.  There also used to be a pool, a huge waterslide and a cabana on the top of the mountain next to the maintenance structure by the former Lodge.  People used to come up and socialize at the pool with a nice view of the ponds, but eventually it became too expensive to maintain so they took it down.

The renters used to bring big speedboats and jetskis into the ponds. There are always loons coming back to the pond every year and the speedboats would speed close by and try to frighten them.  Things turned ugly when one of the speedboats decapitated a loon, that was when the EPOA put a stop to this and banned all motorboats on the ponds. Since then, the ponds have been peaceful and clean, the loons are back, and thanks go to the EPOA on their decision. 

The Lodge was at the top of Oak Hill, which overlooked all three beautiful pea porridge ponds. The lodge was sold in 2022 because it needed extensive repairs and was used infrequently.  

At the top of Oak Ridge Rd is the vista. There is a picnic table on the overlook area. This area is for all to enjoy.