People and communities
Pioneer Sportsmen: owning a building on somebody else’s land
Documented history · Sources compared
A hunting club’s move shows how the state’s purchase of the Wharton estate affected people already using its buildings.
The building and the ground were different property
Guy Thompson’s account, based on conversations and correspondence with Edward Batten, explains that the club owned its Sandy Ridge building while the Wharton estate owned the land. After the state purchase, the club was told to leave and could move the structure or let it be demolished. This remains an attributed recollection until checked against the lease and state correspondence. Guy Thompson’s interview and photograph account.
Photographs show the assembled clubhouse
The Batten collection’s exterior photograph shows a taller central building with lower additions on both sides. A separate album image labeled 1947 places a hunting party beside vehicles. The photographs show a social group and a changing structure, but cannot by themselves establish the terms of ownership. Clubhouse photograph; Album photograph.
The club built again
Thompson dates purchase of a new parcel from Mark and Francis Alloway to January 16, 1958. He says the members built a cinderblock clubhouse themselves. The institutional move survived in family photographs and later interviews, even after the original building disappeared. Guy Thompson’s interview and photograph account.
Sources and research limits
Thompson’s posts and two reproduced photographs were inspected. The original deed and eviction correspondence were not. Later fire-cause allegations are omitted; no ruin-location directions are supplied.