Star Island's History is Its Compass

Editor's Note: Fifth in a five-part series

Melissa Saggerer has no doubt that Star Island will retain its rustic beauty and charm as a retreat and conference center where guests can step back in time and gives themselves a break from their hectic daily lives.

Star Island Corporation's leadership team and board of directors will carry on the vision that was created by Thomas and Lilla Elliott when they first came to the island in 1896 and recognized it was the perfect place for peaceful gatherings.

Star Island's history as a place that was first discovered by Capt. John Smith in the early 1600s, thrived as a fishing village of 600- to 1,000 people in the 1700s, and survived the American Revolutionary War when its population was reduced to just 50 people until it ushered in the Grand Hotel era of the mid-1800s serves as its compass to point the way forward.

Saggerer believes the very things that make Star Island what it is today are rooted in its past. The island's remote location 10 miles from the mainland combined with the shared desire of the thousands of guests who visit each year to see Star Island remain a sanctuary from the world will preserve the experience for future generations.

Elliott was a member of the Unitarian Universalist church when he and his wife, Lilla, came out to Star Island after attending retreats at The Weirs near Lake Winnipesaukee, according to Saggerer.

She said the Elliott's asked the owners of the first Oceanic Hotel on Star Island the Appledore House on Appledore Island if they could use the hotels for religious retreats. The Laighton brothers, who were experiencing some financial difficulties, were agreeable as long as they could fill the hotels with guests.

Saggerer said the Elliott's reached out to other congregations and churches across New England to generate interest and by the time they held their first retreats on Star Island and Appledore Island, they filled both hotels.

“It was really successful,” she said. Religious conferences were held every year since on the Isles of Shoals.

The Star Island Corporation was formed after Louis Parkhurst, a Unitarian Universalist church member, purchased Star Island and put it in a trust until a Star Island Corporation could be formed, Saggerer said.

Before 1897, Saggerer said people would go out to Star Island and Appledore House and Smuttynose Island for summer vacation during the Grand Hotel era after the island transitioned from fishing villages. “Some people would actually stay for the whole summer or four weeks at a time,” she said.

If the religious groups didn’t come along, she believes Star Island could have evolved into another resort area with even some gambling. Saggerer said it was much better for Star to evolve the way that it did.

Eventually, Star incorporated more education conferences and personal retreaters in more recent years. Saggerer is confident Star Island will maintain its character and mission because of its remoteness and the shared desire among the Star Island Corp. leadership and board of directors to maintain it.

“We have a very strong sense of mission and I feel like people come here because they love it here. It is still a mixture. We’re not completely into technology and it is still somewhat discreet. You still come out here and feel like it was 100 years ago,” Saggerer said.

“This island certainly maintains a certain level of uniqueness and experience out here. But I do think it will continue to change and evolve, but in tandem with the rest of the world,” she added.

Saggerer said Star Island will continue to evolve and add things to keep guests coming back such as technology that allows guests to use the cell phones and laptops. She said the Star Island Corporation's Gosport Green Initiative to create a more sustainable island is also another great example of how Star Island is evolving so it can continue to be there for future generations.

Saggerer also believes that people will continue to come back to Star Island as day visitors or overnight guests well into the foreseeable future because places like Star Island are needed in what has become a very complicated and stressful world.

“There is just something out here that is moving for different people in different ways.”

To learn more about Vaughn Cottage and Star Island's history, check out these web sites: http://vaughncottage.omeka.net and http://vaughncottage.wordpress.com

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