Glenbrook & Lake Shore House

My monthly history meeting was in Glenbrook at a member’s home, Lake Shore House. It’s too bad she has such a horrible view from her front yard.🤣

Born of the Comstock

Glenbrook played a critical role in the Comstock Lode, providing lumber for mines and mills. Logs around Lake Tahoe were barged or floated to its four sawmills, producing twenty-five million feet of sawed wood yearly. 

Carson and Tahoe Lumber and Fluming Company transported lumber from Lake Tahoe to the Comstock. Between 1872 and 1898 the company moved 750 million board feet of lumber. In 1875, they built the Lake Tahoe Railway. Two Baldwin engines, Glenbrook and Tahoe, pulled six cars of lumber. 

Glenbrook

The town of Glenbrook supported the lumber and tourist industry.  In the warm summer months, 400 called Glenbrook home. The town included stores, a bowling alley, and a billiard hall. Glenbrook had two hotels, including the Lake Shore Hotel. The fine hotel included a dance hall, boats for fishing, and trips on Lake Tahoe. 

Samuel Clemens, known as Mark Twain, may have been the most famous person to lay claim to lumber around Glenbrook. *See author’s note

As Twain pens in Roughing It, instead of working hard, he and his partners preferred fishing and relaxing on the beautiful lake with the “The fairest picture the whole earth affords.” The partners also enjoyed camping. On one trip, Twain set on the shore bread, bacon, and coffee and started a fire. Returning to the boat for a frying pan, his companion alerted him to the rapidly growing inferno. The men watched the devastation from the safety of their boat, forgetting their hunger. 

Logging declined in the 1880s and ended by the turn of the century. In 1896, the SS Tahoe steamer owned by Duane Bliss arrived at Glenbrook. Once inhabited by mill workers and tourists, Glenbrook became a haven for the wealthiest Americans. 

Lake Shore House

Capt. Augustus W. Pray built Lake Shore House as a planing mill in 1863. John Muir, Ulysses S. Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes and even Mark Twain are said to have visited. It was relocated in 1870 to its current location, where it served as a boarding house.

Lake Shore House is one of Lake Tahoe’s oldest standing historic hotels. It has been beautifully restored and converted into a single-family home. The front porch faces Lake Tahoe, and a private beach is adjacent to the Glenbrook Pier.

Glenbrook Inn

Guests enjoyed the Glenbrook Inn between 1906 and 1975. The main structure included a front desk, dining room and post office. The second floor was a large dance hall. Guests stayed in cabins adjacent to the Inn.

Glenbrook Cemetery

Ready to move to Glenbrook?

I might call my real estate agent and look at a summer home in Glenbrook. One is listed for only $35 million.

I wonder if the historic Shakespeare Ranch is still on the market. It includes a chef’s kitchen, staging kitchen, entertainment barn, 25 bedrooms, 25 bathrooms, and 40,000 sq feet, which is a very reasonable price at $98 million!!!!

*Authors note. Where Mark Twain laid claim to lumber and started his infamous fire is debated. Many historians believe it was near Glenbrook, and the mill mentioned in Roughing It was Pray’s Mill. Others think the location was farther northwest. All base their opinions on Twain’s writings, known for tall tales. Historians and federal and state agencies have argued. Unless we can ask Mr. Tawain, it will likely remain a mystery.  

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