Oak Lodge

Schreeder Pond is a central feature of Chatfield Hollow State Park, located in central southern Connecticut. It is an artificial pond 6.67 acres (2.70 ha) in size, created by CCC labor in 1934. A beach area on the right sides includes simply styled CCC-built bathhouses. Oak Lodge is located near the southern end of the pond on its west side. It is a rectangular single-story structure, with a fieldstone chimney, bellcast gabled roof, and exterior clad in novelty siding. Multilight wooden casement windows line its sides, and it has several entrances, each with a door made of vertical boards and fastened with wrought iron strap hinges. The interior of the building is a single large chamber with a kitchen area at one end. The roof trusses are exposed, there is a large stone fireplace, and other original features survive.^[3]

The lodge and other amenities were built in the 1930s as part of a planned development of recreational activities within Cockaponset State Forest. The pond, named for a state forest supervisor, was created by damming Chatfield Hollow Creek at the southern end. In building the lodge, the CCC benefited from the construction excellence of its masons, wrought-iron smiths, and woodworkers, and some of their best work is shown in Oak Lodge. ^[3] The property was covered in a 1985 Connecticut statewide study of 15 depression-era CCC, FERA, CWA, and WPA structures.^[1]

• National Register of Historic Places listings in Middlesex County, Connecticut