Cullen Spencer’s & Edwin Pratt’s ‘Pleasure Grounds’ opened in 1869 as a picnic grove overlooking Lake Erie in northeast Ohio. Wealthy families from Pittsburgh and Cleveland came by train to enjoy the cool breezes, wide beaches, home-cooked meals and modest accommodations of farmhouses, hotels, inns and summer cottages. The Resort became known
as Geneva-on-the-Lake—GOTL.
The automobile made this Lake Erie paradise accessible to steel-town families from the Ohio and Mahoning valleys; by the 1920s, the hamlet was hosting 3,000 to 5,000 visitors a day, and incorporation became necessary. Two large dance halls, midways, a golf course, restaurants and beautiful beaches kept the working class returning to “The Lake” even during the most difficult of economic times. After Prohibition ended, myriad bars gave guests more reasons to make GOTL their party town.
Hard times came upon The Resort following the riot of 1965, Lake Erie environmental issues and decline of The Resort’s trademark beautiful beaches. But the town was just hibernating and came back even stronger in the new millennium, thanks to The Lodge & Conference Center, the nostalgia factor and The Resort’s place in Ohio’s Wine Country.
“Pleasure Grounds” is a celebration of the people and stories of Ohio’s first summer resort town. Journalist and documentary photographer/filmmaker Carl E. Feather, weaves first-person interviews with historical research to tell the story of a unique American treasure: Geneva-on-the-Lake, Ohio!