As America surged through the transformative decades of the Gilded Age, from the 1870s through the early 1900s, the tranquil forests and mirrored lakes of Tompkinsville and Tobyhanna emerged from obscurity to become a sought-after escape for the country’s burgeoning middle and upper classes. Nestled in the heart of Pennsylvania’s Pocono Mountains, the area offered a rustic contrast to the soot and spectacle of the industrial cities that defined the era.
This story is just one in a series I’ve been researching that began as an effort to rebuild my youthful memories of growing up on Lake Naomi in the Poconos starting in the 1960s. As the stories came together, I wanted to start an online dialog with others who might also remember. I’ve created an associated Facebook Group, called Lake Naomi Memories, for anyone to share their memories that will help create a digital footprint on the web. Oh, and they’ll certainly help me remember as well. Link below
Start your experience with a live look at the Club Beach at Lake Naomi – Livecam Click Here
North Beach View – Click Here
We begin the journey looking at maps, and I landed on a 1860 map of Monroe County and the Pocono Mountains west of Easton and Stroudsburg. Among the three contiguous settlements of Tomkinsville, Hauser’s Mill, and Millertown (now comprising Pocono Lake and Pocono Pines), one could find a post office, a hotel, three stores, two clothespin factories, two saw mills, a shoe peg factory, a blacksmith, a wheelwright shop, and roughly fifty dwellings.
Wealthy urbanites, drawn by the promise of clean air, spiritual renewal, and outdoor leisure, began to establish summer colonies, religious retreats, and lakeside resorts. It was a time when nature met refinement, when railroads delivered both people and progress to this once-isolated region, and Pocono Pines found itself at the intersection of recreation, religion, and the genteel ambitions of a rapidly changing America. Those who established summer colonies, religious retreats, and lakeside resorts in places like the Poconos primarily came from New York City, Philadelphia, and northern New Jersey. These cities, rapidly industrializing in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, spurred affluent families to seek seasonal refuge in the countryside, where they could enjoy fresh mountain air, recreational opportunities, and moral or spiritual rejuvenation away from the urban bustle.
At the turn of the 20th century, the Northeast was alive with the belief that nature itself could heal. Doctors in Philadelphia, New York, and Boston often prescribed more than pills — they prescribed a journey. Patients were told to “take the waters” at one of the many mineral springs scattered across the region, where the earth’s own chemistry bubbled up in a glass or steamed in a bath.
Some of the most famous destinations were Saratoga Springs in New York, where visitors strolled from one ornate pavilion to another, sipping from glasses that tasted faintly of iron or sulfur. Bedford Springs in Pennsylvania drew presidents and industrialists alike, its waters rich with iron and limestone, said to restore vigor to the weary. In the Poconos, quieter but no less charming retreats flourished, springs tucked into shady groves, often attached to hotels that promised fresh mountain air, spring-fed water, and hearty meals to rebuild the constitution.
It was during this same golden age of restorative travel that Lake Naomi began to attract summer visitors. Though not a mineral spring in the traditional sense, Naomi’s clean, glacially fed waters were marketed as “pure tonic for body and spirit.” Guests at nearby lodges and cottages swam, rowed, and sailed, breathing in the resin-scented pine air, which was said to be “as curative as any sulfur draught.” Just a short carriage ride away, travelers could find small springs — some tapped by farm families for their own use, others feeding modest health resorts, where the taste of the water hinted at unseen minerals working their magic.
The draw was as much about escape as cure. A businessman from Newark might spend mornings in a spring-fed bath, afternoons fishing in Naomi’s still waters, and evenings on a porch listening to the whip-poor-will’s call. In an era when urban air was choked with coal smoke and the pace of life was quickening, the mountains and their waters offered a slow, deliberate kind of healing. Whether or not the iron or sulfur truly cured rheumatism or “nervous exhaustion,” visitors went home sun-browned, rested, and convinced that the cure had worked.
We would like to introduce you first to Thomas Miller. In 1882, Thomas Thompson Miller, from Easton, PA, purchased 550 acres in the vicinity of Tompkinsville, part of Tobyhanna Township in the Pocono region, and named the property Naomi Pines. More on the name later. The Poconos were becoming a frontier of health, recreation, and retreat for people from nearby cities such as Philadelphia, Easton, and New York. The region’s dense white pines and birches, cool summers, and bracing air were already drawing health seekers and vacationers. For a man from Easton, a growing, smoky industrial town, this tract represented both an escape and an opportunity. And Thomas Miller loved to fish.
Franklin Comfort Miller, Thomas Miller’s son, was a Pennsylvania businessman who had built his fortune in the jewelry business in New Jersey in the 1890s, while also supporting his father’s wholesale hardware business back in Easton. Frank, along with his brother Rufus, would dam the Tunkhannock Creek to create what was first named Miller Lake, and later became Naomi, Lake a pure, glacial-fed lake ideal for harvesting ice in winter and attracting summer visitors. Seeing more than just a commercial venture, Miller envisioned a resort where city dwellers could swap coal smoke for pine-scented breezes.
To anchor this dream, Frank built off his father’s original home, building the Naomi Pines House, a grand boarding house & hotel that welcomed guests with broad verandas, hearty meals, and views of his sparkling new lake. In summer, visitors swam, rowed, and sailed; in winter, they watched ice cut in great blocks and loaded onto railcars bound for distant cities. Just a short carriage ride away, small mineral springs offered the traditional “cures,” blending seamlessly with the lake’s own reputation as a tonic for body and spirit.
By the early 1900s, while Franky continued to focus on the naomi pines boarding house and the ice company, Naomi Lake had transformed from an industrial ice pond into a healthful mountain retreat and thriving resort community, a quieter but equally restorative stop on the Northeast’s healing circuit, thanks to Franklin C. Miller’s vision and the welcoming doors of his Naomi Pines House. But brother Rufus was busy as well, bringing the Pocono area into the religious retreat, school, and camping mecca of the northeast.
Sadly, the Naomi Pines House burned down on Saturday, January 31, 1948. The flames began in the hotel’s dining room sometime between 7 am and 8 am under circumstances that were never fully determined. Within minutes, the 2½-story wooden structure was engulfed. Despite the efforts of the Pocono Pines Fire Company, summoned as quickly as possible, the firefighters arrived too late to save the 16-bedroom hostelry. By the time the blaze had run its course, nothing remained but the foundation and smoldering ruins.
The Wilkes-Barre Turnpike, constructed along what was known as the Sullivan Trail (a separate story), was a stagecoach route that provided public transportation across the Pocono Plateau. Then the railroad arrived, first for the transfer of coal and lumber freight, and the mountain retreat escape would soon follow. At first, travelers would take the train to Pocono Summit, then take a jitney to Naomi Pines’ house. Then, a short rail spur, not part of the DL&W, was opened by the Wilkes-Barre & Eastern Railroad serving local stops including Naomi Pines (Lake Naomi) and Pocono Lake.
Local stations along the route included: Naomi Pines (Lake Naomi), Pocono Lake, Crescent Lake, Wagners, Tannersville, Reeders, Bartonsville, and Stroudsburg.
Naomi Pines station was a combination depot built in 1893, later expanded in 1913 using modified boxcars to handle growing seasonal traffic.
The Wilkes‑Barre & Eastern Railroad operated from 1892 to 1939 as a subsidiary of the New York, Susquehanna & Western (NYS&W). It served as a shorter single-track route carrying anthracite coal, ice, timber, and tourists from northeastern Pennsylvania to New Jersey ports. A small station, “Naomi Pines” was used mostly for freight. The Railroad passed within 100 feet of the Naomi Pines House, and often the conductors would even stop and pick huckleberries near the tracks. It was noted that children from the Naomi Pines House would put pennies on the tracks and watch as the trains went over and flattened them out!
The straight-line distance from Miller Lane to the old station site comes to roughly a 1.5-mile carriage ride back in the day. In the early 1900s, travel to Pocono Summit or from NYC to Stroudsburg/Naomi Lake took about 3 to 3.5 hours and approximately 5 hours from Philadelphia with transfers through Allentown or Bethlehem. The Naomi Station in the photo was built in 1912, an upgrade that added storage cars to the stop.
The grand lodges and assembly houses, once bustling with visitors arriving in crisp linen and straw hats, began to empty. Some burned, others were dismantled, and many faded into memory, relics of a time when summers were spent in the same cottage, among the same neighbors, year after year. The very mobility that had brought people to the mountains now scattered them. By mid-century, the era of the Pocono Pines resort had given way to a patchwork of private homes, modest motels, and year-round residents, marking the end of a genteel chapter in the region’s history, shaped first by rail and then redeveloped by the wheel.
Beginning in the 1960s and accelerating through the late 20th century, a new vision took hold. Rather than restoring the old resort model, developers and long-time residents embraced the idea of a private, year-round lake community —one that preserves the area’s natural beauty while offering modern amenities. Thus was born the Lake Naomi Club, a self-governed haven where families could own homes while also enjoying the shared resources of a resort, including private beaches, tennis courts, nature trails, a community center, and even a heated lakeside pool, once unthinkable in the days of ice blocks.
In 1902, Frank Miller had his engineer, Marshal Young, the same person who designed the dam back in 1894, lay out a plan of lots on the south side of Naomi Lake known as Plotting No. 1, which extended just west of the Naomi Pines R.R. Station to below the railroad crossing in the village, consisting of 330 lots and several roads. All lots were then south of the Railroad (now Route 940), with old 940, or Sullivan Road, in the center, and Park Avenue south of that, and McCauley north of Sullivan Road.
The first lot sold on that plot was on November 15, 1902, to Sarah W. Eliknton; the next, September 18, 1903, to Penelope Pennell, Mrs. Samuel Dunn’s mother, who built her cottage in 1904 (now owned by Mrs. McCaffrey); and the third one, June 2, 1904, to Lemual Whitaker.
Today, Lake Naomi and the Pocono Pines area stand as a symbol of continuity and change. The lake that once fueled ice deliveries now hosts sunfish sailboats and paddleboards. The communal spirit of the early 1900s is a memory, only now it’s upheld by homeowners’ associations rather than religious groups or seasonal resort managers. From humble industrial beginnings to Gilded Age escape to modern recreational enclave, Lake Naomi reflects the layered story of Pocono Pines itself: a place where nature has always drawn people in, even as the reasons have evolved with the times. Take a look back at how the area evolved with these grand destinations that are mostly a memory today.
The Laurel Inn was one of the first resort hotels in the Pocono Pines region, the Laurel Inn opening in the late 1800s. While not as widely remembered as the Pocono Pines Inn or Pocono Crest that followed later, the Laurel Inn was very much part of the tight-knit network of family-run lodging houses that catered to vacationers escaping the heat and hustle of the cities for the clean air, serene lakes, and pine forests of Monroe County.
Around 1870, local entrepreneur Isaac Stauffer converted one of his lumber holdings into a rustic boarding house, which he named the Laurel Inn. Surrounded by thick stands of mountain laurel and within walking distance of the then-newly enlarged Pocono Lake (later Lake Naomi), it advertises “fine trout & bass fishing, broad verandas and pure mountain air.”
At the time it opened, the Laurel Inn boasted over 100 guest accommodations, equipped with steam heat and modern conveniences unusual in rural Pennsylvania at the time. Guests would travel by stagecoaches at first, later supplanted by railroad access, which brought guests from nearby towns. A dedicated spur, Laurel Inn Road, linked the property to the main regional routes.
Despite its early success, by the 1920s and 1930s, the Laurel Inn faced new competition from emerging grand resorts, such as the Pocono Manor and the Pocono Pines Inn. The once-bustling hotel was gradually converted to seasonal rentals and eventually dismantled by the late 1940s. Route 423 was historically referred to as Laurel Inn Road in early 20th-century maps. A county historical marker for lumber magnate Isaac Stauffer, “King of the Poconos” and builder of the Laurel Inn, stands at the intersection of Kipp Avenue and Old Route 940.
Long before Lake Naomi became a modern recreational enclave, the Presbyterian Assembly Lodge stood as one of the first institutional pillars of Pocono Pines. Thanks to the efforts of Rufus W. Miller, around 1902, the Presbyterian Church began developing the area as a summer religious and recreational retreat, part of a broader national movement to bring faith-based renewal to the fresh air and cool mountain breezes of the Poconos. The Assembly Lodge, built by 1910, was the beating heart of this effort.
The lodge was part of what was initially known as the Pocono Pines Assembly Association, a Presbyterian-affiliated organization modeled after the successful Chautauqua Movement in New York. The Chautauqua movement was a late 19th- and early 20th-century religious and educational initiative rooted in Protestant traditions, including Methodists, Presbyterians, Congregationalists, and Lutherans, that promoted lifelong learning, moral uplift, and cultural enrichment through lectures, music, and Christian fellowship in retreat-like settings. These assemblies combined religious devotion with intellectual growth, outdoor recreation, and cultural enrichment, fostering a well-rounded experience. The Pocono location was particularly appealing to churchgoers from Philadelphia and New Jersey seeking respite from the summer heat.
As the summer community grew, Rufus Miller and his family helped encourage the formation of the Pocono Pines Assembly, rooted in Christian values, cultural enrichment, and lifelong learning. The Assembly’s lakeside gatherings, including its now-legendary Vesper services at sunset, were often held on or near land the Millers developed and maintained. Trails were cleared, shoreline platforms were leveled, and docks were opened, quiet gestures of support that enabled the Assembly to flourish.
A choir, assembled from summer guests and locals alike, would begin to sing familiar hymns: “Day is Dying in the West” or “Abide with Me.” Their voices, accompanied by a pump organ or string quartet, drifted across the lake, echoing off the surrounding trees. Boaters often paused mid-lake, their canoes bobbing gently, so they could listen from the water. It was said that even the loons would fall silent during the most solemn prayers.
Built in the early 1900s, likely between 1905 and 1908, the Pocono Pines Inn emerged as a response to the booming resort culture that was developing around Lake Naomi and the greater Pocono Pines area. The region, once renowned for logging and ice harvesting, had rapidly transformed into a seasonal retreat for city dwellers seeking clean air, cool nights, and spiritual rejuvenation. As the Pocono Pines Assembly gained popularity and religious retreats brought more families each summer, demand for gracious accommodations swelled. The Pocono Pines Inn answered that call.
The Pocono Pines Inn, originally built in approximately 1904 as the Pocono Pines Assembly Lodge, served as the flagship hotel and meeting hall for the Pocono Pines Assembly and Summer Schools, founded through the efforts of Rev. Dr. Rufus W. Miller and others from Philadelphia. The four-story frame structure, with broad porches, occupied a prominent site between Mount Pocono and Wilkes-Barre, surrounded by the summer homes of prominent Philadelphians and New Yorkers.
By the early 1920s, the U.S. government had leased the Inn through the Federal Veterans Bureau, converting it into the Pocono Pines Part-Time Vocational Training School for disabled World War I veterans, many suffering from lung damage and other ailments caused by wartime gas exposure. The building served as a dormitory, administrative center, and hospital facility.
On April 29, 1924, disaster struck. A cigarette tossed from an upstairs window landed on the shingled roof of the porch outside the dining room annex. Similar careless acts had caused three previous small fires since the government lease began, but this time the flames gained momentum before being discovered. About twenty disabled veterans quickly formed a bucket brigade despite their physical conditions, while a telephone operator called for help. Fire crews from Mount Pocono, aided by State Forest Fire Warden Joseph Miller of Fern Ridge, fought the blaze as sparks repeatedly ignited nearby woods.
The main Inn building was completely destroyed along with its power house, pump house, and storage shed. Losses were estimated at $150,000, with insurance covering slightly more than half of the amount. The nearby “Great Lodge” and the smaller Casino hotel were saved. All occupants escaped unharmed, and most veterans had already been scheduled for relocation as the government lease was due to expire the following month.
In 1923, Lutheran church leaders from metropolitan New York and New Jersey began envisioning a retreat where children and families could escape urban life and immerse themselves in Christian fellowship. Their vision took shape on May 12, 1926, when the Lutheran Conference and Camp Association purchased more than 1,300 acres of wooded land in Pocono Pines, Pennsylvania, where the Pocono Pines Assembly and Summer School once stood, which was later repurposed by the U.S. Government as a rehabilitation center for World War I veterans that burned down in 1926.
In August 1926, a deal was finalized with the Miller estate for the sale and transfer of Rufus Miller’s property in Pocono Pines to the Lutheran Conference and Camp Association (LCCA) for a planned Pocono Mountain community promoted by New York and Philadelphia Lutherans. The agreement, managed by the Stroudsburg Realty Company, added $22,000 worth of land to the project. Lutherland already had 1,700 lots leased for 99 years, with leaseholders required to build homes. Plans included a 400-student missionary training college, a nearly 200-acre lake formed by damming Beaver Creek, and a vision to match Stroudsburg in building count within three years. The development encompassed 1,456 acres, combining Miller’s 116 acres, 300 acres from the former Pocono Pines Assembly, and 1,040 acres from Frank Meckes. Lutherland aimed to operate as a self-sufficient city with its own governance and finances.
It’s very likely “Lutherland” was inspired by names like Wonderland or Neverland, suggesting a magical, playful place like Disneyland. Some oral traditions even suggest that the name might have originated from a child’s mispronunciation or reinterpretation of “Wonderland,” which was eventually adopted affectionately by the owners. Lutheran vacationers from 2,000 congregations came to enjoy the resort’s hotels, lake, youth camps, and family cottages on a sprawling estate. A bit of a mystery name for a place that lived on in memory more than maps, but we’ll keep digging.
While the Lutheran Conference and Camp Association managed the property as a religious retreat centered on Christian education and fellowship, as financial challenges arose in the years that followed, the camp was gradually opened to the general public in an effort to remain viable. This shift marked a transition from its spiritual mission to a broader, more commercial focus. To reflect this new direction and appeal to vacationers seeking leisure in the Poconos, the property was rebranded as “Pocono Crest,” a name chosen to evoke the image of a traditional resort destination rather than a church-affiliated retreat.
Life at Pocono Crest unfolded with a gentle rhythm. Guests would still wake up to fresh mountain air and the sound of birdsong, often beginning the day with breakfast on wide porches overlooking the lake. Children darted through the fields to the swimming docks or took part in arts and crafts while parents relaxed, played tennis, or explored nearby golf courses, including the esteemed Pocono Manor championship course. Horseback riding, boating, and campfires filled the days, while evenings brought talent shows, bingo nights, and communal dinners that felt more like family reunions than resort dining.
Families enjoyed trail rides through the woods and along Lake Naomi, creating memories in the saddle that defined summer in the Poconos. Though the stables are long gone, their legacy lives on in the stories of those who first rode beneath the pines. Trails would run all through the 2,700 acre property but a favorite ride would always take the horses down to the lake for a nice cool drink before returning to the stables.
As the 70s wore on, the rise of interstate highways and air travel changed the face of American vacationing. Small resorts like Lutherland, once the backbone of the Pocono Pines summer economy, began to close as families sought more distant adventures. By the 1980s, Lutherland’s buildings had aged, and its heyday had passed. The land was eventually sold and developed into part of the growing Lake Naomi residential community.
By the late 1950s, Valparaiso University (a private Lutheran institution in Indiana) acquired the property. Control shifted away from the university around 1969, marking the end of the Valparaiso era. Then, in 1969, the land was sold to Susque Corporation, which operated the resort. In 1972, Susque Corporation defaulted on the property, prompting Philadelphia National Bank to take title through foreclosure proceedings. The once-grand buildings of Lutherland/The Crest were gradually demolished through the late 1970s and early 1980s.
As air travel and changing leisure trends shifted vacation habits, Pocono Crest, like many of its neighboring resorts, gradually faded into history. The last guests at Pocono Crest likely stayed in the late 1970s or very early 1980s, shortly before the resort went bankrupt and was dismantled. According to a collector’s blog on defunct Pocono resorts, “Pocono Crest Resort went bankrupt and was demolished in the 80s.” The grand facilities of Lutherland met their final demise through demolition in the late 1970s and 1980s, when the property was sold to Deer Run Corp. in 1982 for development.
Today, no signs remain to mark where Lutherland/Pocono Crest once stood. No placard, no remaining structures. By the early 1980s, all the non-residential structures had been demolished. Yet for those who were lucky enough to spend childhood there, it lives on in memory. Echoes of its past can be found in fading photo albums, penciled notes on postcards, and quiet smiles that surface when someone says, “Do you remember Lutherland?” The site is home to Pinecrest Lake Golf & Country Club.
But the golden era of Pocono Pines would prove to be fleeting. As the 20th century progressed, a new force of modernity emerged from the hills: the automobile. What the stagecoach and railroad had once united, the car began to decentralize. No longer tethered to train timetables or resort enclaves, travelers embraced the freedom of the open road. Families bypassed the long-established summer colonies in favor of day trips and far-flung destinations, while the exclusive charm of the lakefront hotels began to wane under the pressures of changing tastes and broader accessibility.
In 1963, Logan Steele and his family purchased what was reported to be 2,760 acres surrounding Lake Naomi, significantly expanding the existing resort footprint. This acquisition marked a significant turning point in the area’s history, as Steele began transforming it into what would become the modern, amenity-rich Lake Naomi Club. That’s another story for another time.
If you’re new to the Lake Naomi area and Pocono Pines, many of these places have been destroyed by fire, demolished, or just absorbed back into the fabric of the pine forests. But for a moment in time, Pococo Pines was the “be-all” travel destination of the golden age in America.
Our interactive map showcases locations, photos, and brief descriptions of landmarks of Lake Naomi’s history. Click the box in the upper right to expand the map, click on icons, zoom in and out, and let us know if there’s anything to add or correct.
The 1 1/2 hour video of a historical presentation about life before Lake Naomi Club with presentations by John Alexander, Maida Kaltenthaler, and Trudi Denlinger. Hosted by Bruce Denlinger and sponsored by the Lake Naomi Activities Committee.
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