Maitland and Karen Peters
On a perfect Labor Day in 1984, a friend of ours asked me to come up and look at a property in Milanville that he was considering buying and he wanted my opinion. We were living in Manhattan and had never been to Pennsylvania. He was considering buying the beautiful old schoolhouse near the river in Milanville. I told him, that if he didn’t buy it, I would!
So he bought it!
Karen had always dreamed of having a lake house and said why don’t we see if there are any lake properties in the area since we are already here. So we went to a realtor in Honesdale and he said he had one secluded lot on a secluded lake but being from Manhattan we wanted to be where the “action” was! We said NO we want a quiet escape from the cacophony of NYC!
He took us here to Duck Harbor Pond! We walked down the little driveway to the lake where the whole property was covered in thick bushes and trees. We stood on the water’s edge looking at the lake and the beautiful farm across the way on this perfect autumn day and with tears in my eyes I said to Karen, “we are going to buy this property today and have it for the rest of our lives!”
That was 40 years ago!
We were newly married; Karen was singing all over the world as an opera singer and I was the new chair of the voice department at Manhattan School of Music. We bought the property that day and we’ve been coming up ever since. We quickly built a little, tiny cabin on the property with a simple wood stove, no running water, septic or electricity and named it The Eager Beaver Estate! We came up on weekends whenever we could to be with the beavers, eagles and blue herons!
We loved it so much.
Preston and Olympia grew up coming to the lake to water ski, tube, catch sunnies and have campfires with s’mores. We brought all of our friends up to stay in this tiny little house, some who have bought lots next to us and we had some of the greatest times in our lives! Our kids fell in love with this place and still can’t wait to come up any time they can.
Over the years we slowly enlarged our little cabin and now it is a beautiful, unique place on the lake where we have retired. We have met so many wonderful people on the lake and I think that everybody is happy because it’s such a beautiful place and everyone enjoys their lives here!
During covid, we all ended up living and working here at the lake. When the ice came off the lake that April, Preston took the paddle board down the lake and met his soulmate and beautiful bride to be Amanda Sroka who was sitting on her dock. They will be married up here this August! We believe there is no more beautiful place in the world, and we now spend our days watching the magnificent sunsets, the fish jump, the eagles dive down to catch those fish, the majestic blue herons and our beavers paddling by. It truly is PARADISE.
I am now known as “Captain Fun” and if you see me Air Chairing on my Hydro Foil behind our pontoon boat…please wave, cheer me on and PRAY!
