Newfound Sands · Bungalo Village
A century on the west shore — from farmland to Hiland Park, Bungalo Village, and Newfound Sands.
Before the 1920s
The land that became the cottage colony was farmland across the road from the lake — remembered locally as the old Kimball farm.

1920s
W. F. Darling of Bristol builds a colony of housekeeping cottages on the west shore. First known as Hiland Park, it lets guests rent a cottage by the week or the season, cook their own meals, and take in the lake view from their own porch — a friendly alternative to the grand hotels then ringing the lake. His letterhead — carrying his own portrait — calls it “Tourists’ Mecca, Campers’ Delight, Sportsmen’s Paradise.”



1927
By 1927 the colony bears its distinctive name — the sales brochure, marked “Copyright 1927,” spells it Bungalo-Village — and Darling mounts a campaign to sell it: a broadside crowns the west shore “The ‘Miami’ of New Hampshire,” and letters to prospective partners promise fifteen percent a year. No buyer takes the whole, and the village keeps renting cottages — cards postmarked into 1931 still invite guests to “send for illustrated booklet.”





1934 → mid-century
In 1934 the village passes from the Darlings to the Hewitts: an April envelope still reads “Darling’s Bungalo Village,” while an August card is signed “R. S. Hewitt, Prop.” Mr. & Mrs. Hewitt — “Managing Owners” — run it year-round: in winter the Community Key by the road becomes the Bungalo Ski Lodge, with heated cabins, family-style meals, dancing by the huge fireplace, and the only ski trail in Bristol.




ca. 1935–1945
Tichnor Brothers of Boston and Curt Teich of Chicago print linen-texture postcards of the village — the shore road, the cottages by number, the beach. A card postmarked in 1939 describes it: “Bungalo Village, on the west shore of Newfound Lake, has thirty-eight cozy, well equipped bungalows, and main lodge, commanding a fine view of lake and mountains.”







Mid-century
Through the postwar decades, Bungalo Village operates as a classic rental colony: guests bring their own linens, families return the same week every summer, and evenings center on the beach, the porches, the dining room, and the rec hall.



1961–1979
In 1961 the village — which had passed from the Hewitts by way of the Nelson family — is bought by Bob and Marjorie Parsons. Their postcard of the era puts it plainly: “The ideal vacation spot for the entire family. Cozy housekeeping cottages accommodating from 2 to 9 persons. Reasonable rates. Your Hosts: Bob and Marjorie Parsons.”



1979–2004
Douglas and Madeline Thompson buy the colony in 1979 and keep the rental-village tradition going for a quarter century — the last owners to run Bungalo Village as a summer cottage colony, advertising its cozy bungalows (and their raccoon mascot) to a new generation of lake families.



2004
After roughly eight decades as a rental compound, Bungalo Village is sold, and the individual cottages are offered for sale to permanent owners — the first time in the colony’s history the cottages are individually owned.
2005
The colony becomes Newfound Sands, a shorefront condominium of thirty-four individually owned cottages. The main lodge — namesake landmark of the old village — still stands, and the beach remains shared, as it has been for a century.
Today
A century after Darling laid out his cottages, Newfound Sands remains what it has always been: a simple, friendly summer village on one of the clearest lakes in New England — in every season.


From the Album
Seven mini-albums of postcards, brochures, and snapshots — from the farm years to the village today.