Chittenden County Lakeshore on Lake Champlain VT

Working your way north towards Chittenden County, the first lakeshore town that you come to is Charlotte, VT. This town is the home of one of my personal favorite summer lakeshore community: Thompsons’ Point. The land that is Thompson’s Point is still owned by the Town of Charlotte and leased for 20 year terms to the individual "camp" owners. There are no year round homes allowed by the terms of the leases and community water system is turned off by Thanksgiving and back on in May to insure that the rules are adhered to. The south side of the point has original homes that were built back in the 1800’s when Thompson’s Point Rd ended at the town steamer dock were the old post office and tavern turned camps still stand today. The North shore was developed during the 1920’s to the 1950’s and tends to have more modest structures with more abrupt and hard to access shorelines. Roughly a half dozen camps are made available for sale on either the North or South Shore areas and the prices range from $500,000 to over $1,000,000 depending on size and shoreline quality. While that may be a lot of money for only seasonal use, those who have experienced the magical environment of this summer community from another time, do not question the value.
I have rented various camps by the week from their owners in past summers and still hold fond family memories from those treasured but all too brief stays. My favorite is the Annual Forth of July Parade complete with hand pulled red wagons, participants of all ages banging pots and carrying on as they march to the old steamer dock for an appropriate speech delivered by one of the "Old Timers" followed by rousing version of the National Anthem. Good clean fun!!