In 1894, using savings from his job as a fireman at a nearby spool mill, Burton Marlboro Packard bought a parcel of land at the mouth of Big Wilson Stream, at the head of Sebec Lake, on which stood the old Lake House, a barn, outhouse, and bowling alley. The seven-room Lake House operated sporadically for perhaps as many as 29 to 35 years before the Packards bought it. In 1865, William Blethen and George Gilman of Dover either took over the Lake House or added to it or built a hotel and named it Lake House. Charles E. Crockett was the proprietor in 1883 and Captain A.G. Crockett and his wife Sarah assumed ownership in 1887.

However, the house was little used between 1882 and 1889, and appears to have closed by 1894 when the Crocketts sold to Burton Marlborough Packard. Packard, a Searsport shipbuilder, moved to Willimantic to work in the spool mill.  He built a string of cabins to accommodate sportsmen who took to the Maine woods and waters in pursuit of grouse and deer, salmon and lake trout. His guest numbers were sufficient enough for him to start adding sleeping cabins to the complex in 1899.