EDITOR’S NOTE: This story was originally published on Richland Source in 2016.
MANSFIELD — When the streams of Toby’s Run were ponded into the body of water called North Lake in 1888, a new sporting pastime was born in Mansfield: the opportunity to go boating.
Through the following generations the lake had a whole fleet of rowboats, and for more than 50 years the rowboats had a home: the North Lake boathouse.
In the summer months it provided mooring for all the rental boats that rowed in and out of its big barn doors facing the lake, and in the winter it served as safe haven for ice skaters who could glide right in and rest for a few moments by the fire.
The boathouse was built sometime in the decade before 1920, and it lasted until the end of the 1970s.