By Bill Pumford, Image from the ROWHS Collection
TITLE: UNCLE TOM’S CABIN AT LAKE ARROWHEAD: One of the perhaps lesser-known structures in Lake Arrowhead is Uncle Tom’s Cabin. It’s thought to have been built in 1930 to be used as a duck hunting lodge. It was certainly close enough to Lake Arrowhead, and with the building boom not yet underway the lodge was ideally situated. This structure was about 6500 square feet situated on a little more than one half an acre. It was never clear how the property became known as Uncle Tom’s Cabin. This week’s image is of a postcard of Uncle Tom’s Cabin mailed from Lake Arrowhead in June 1940. The postcard is particularly interesting in that the correspondence on the back refers to MGM shooting a movie in the area. Historian Russ Keller discovered that in June of 1940 MGM was in Lake Arrowhead shooting the movie The Dulcy starring Ann Sothern and Roland Young. Later, Uncle Tom’s Cabin became a commercial lodge known locally as The Lodge where rooms were rented. In 1936 the property was managed by Robert Honey, a well-known photographer of Lake Arrowhead and the surrounding areas. Mr. Honey had a long resume which included a stint as the Police Chief of Lake Arrowhead in the 1940s and a taxi driver in the 1950s. In 1937 the Woman’s Club of Lake Arrowhead met at Uncle Tom’s Cabin where Mrs. Rew and Mrs. Crowder provided hostess duties. In the 1940s Uncle Tom’s Cabin was purchased by Ernest Groschle, who was a local realtor. Mr. Groschle used one of the rooms as a real estate office. For more than 20 years the property has been a bed and breakfast and has been very popular. It is located on the other side of the street from the Stater Brothers supermarket in the Village.