Melody Island: From Mud Island to Little Tanglewood

How a Remote Lake Island Became New Hampshire's "Little Tanglewood"

Close your eyes and picture this: a warm Sunday evening on Lake Winnipesaukee, somewhere in the mid-1950s. Canoes and motorboats drift quietly in the shallows off a small island near Wolfeboro. From a bandshell tucked among the trees, the sound of chamber music floats across the water. The audience isn't seated in rows. They're floating.

That image, as vivid and unlikely as it sounds, is documented history. And it all happened on what was once called Mud Island.

From Mud Island to Melody: A Name Worth Fighting For

For most of its recorded history, the island went by names that didn't exactly inspire musical daydreams. Early maps and tax records list it as Big Mud Island, Varney Island, and Varney Island No. 1. In December of 1896, it was utilitarian enough that woodcutter William Fox and his crew were out there in near-freezing temperatures, keeping a boat channel open through encroaching ice just to harvest timber.

By 1903, the entire island was assessed for tax purposes at a grand total of $200, owned by one Charles B. Fox. The 1938 hurricane didn't improve its reputation much either, overturning a boathouse owned by E. M. Fifield and leaving him with a considerable cleanup job.

Mud Island, it seemed, was just mud island.

Then came Hedy Spielter and Jean "Jules" Epailly.

The Music School Arrives (1946)

On July 10, 1946, Spielter and Epailly purchased most of the island and immediately set about transforming it. By the summer of 1947, music students were already studying there. The camp they built was a serious operation: at least 16 small bunkhouses, a boathouse, a combined dining-and-music building, and, perhaps most remarkably, numerous pianos hauled out to this small island on New Hampshire's largest lake.

They also gave it a new name. Melody Island. Jules Epailly reportedly took the renaming seriously enough that a fellow named Nat Goodhue made a habit of calling it by its old name just to get a rise out of him. In a 1993 recollection, John Bridges recalled Goodhue deliberately using "Mud Island" to tease Epailly, who insisted on "Melody." History, thankfully, sided with Epailly.

Hedy Spielter was the practical engine behind the enterprise. Beyond teaching piano, she was buying supplies and cooking for the island community, stretching limited funds to keep the whole operation running. If you called the island's telephone during the day in 1953, a local newspaper suggested you keep trying: teaching and rehearsals might simply mean no one was free to pick up.

The Festival Is Born (1952) and "Little Tanglewood" Takes Shape

The New Hampshire Music Festival was founded in 1952, building on the school that Spielter and Epailly had already been running for five years. The two milestones are distinct but inseparable. The school came first; the festival formalized what the island had already become.

By 1953, the Granite State News was calling it "Little Tanglewood", a nod to the famous Berkshire festival in Massachusetts. Free Sunday-evening chamber concerts were being offered by 1956, and at peak season, approximately 42 musicians were in residence on this tiny island. When they weren't performing, accounts describe them playing chess in the dining hall and traveling between island and shore on a boat with an appropriately joyful name: the Go-Go.

The floating-audience concerts became the island's signature event. Concertgoers would gather in boats and canoes just offshore, listening to professional musicians and advanced students perform from the bandshell. It was an only-in-New-Hampshire kind of scene.

Stokowski Slept Here

In 1955, Leopold Stokowski paid the island a visit. The celebrated conductor's stay is recorded in local history, and it brought an unexpected consequence: aspiring musicians, apparently unable to resist the proximity to one of the world's most famous conductors, interrupted his time there with informal auditions. Several of them subsequently went on to work with him in Houston. The island had a habit of launching careers.

The Cottage Era (1961 and Beyond)

The music camp's run on Melody Island came to an end after a September 1961 sale, when the property was surveyed and divided into lots. What happened next is a piece of local real estate history worth pausing on.

text

C.M. Mixer Inc., the predecessor to Yankee Pedlar Realtors, handled the marketing of those newly created lots. A 1962 advertisement offered remaining parcels at $4,000 each, with electricity and telephone already in place on the island. It's a remarkable footnote: the same lineage of real estate professionals who now bring you listings like the ones below were the ones introducing Melody Island to a new generation of buyers more than sixty years ago.

What had been a communal retreat for classical musicians became, gradually, the private lakeside addresses we know today.

The New Hampshire Music Festival survived the transition and grew considerably. By its 70th-anniversary season in 2022, the festival's orchestra had grown to more than 75 professional musicians. To mark the occasion, the festival organized a brass-ensemble concert aboard a pontoon boat on Squam Lake, a deliberate callback to those early floating-audience performances on Lake Winnipesaukee. The island's spirit, it turns out, doesn't stay on the island.

Melody Island Today: A Rare Lake Winnipesaukee Address

The lots that sold for $4,000 in 1962 have appreciated just a little since then. Melody Island is now one of the more sought-after private-island addresses on the lake, and it's easy to understand why. The combination of history, privacy, and setting is genuinely rare.

2 Melody IslandActive

• Price: $3,999,000
• Beds: 3 | Baths: 3
• Square feet: 1,935
• Acreage: 0.76 acres
• Year built: 1940
• Waterfront: Lake Winnipesaukee

This property does something almost no other listing on Lake Winnipesaukee can claim: it spans the full width of Melody Island, with approximately 315 feet of waterfront on both sides. That means sunrises from one shore and sunsets from the other, with complete privacy in between. The 1940 construction puts the home's origins squarely within the music-camp era, giving it a quiet connection to the island's most storied chapter.

See Full Listing →

6 Melody IslandSold

• Sold for: $1,495,000
• Beds: 2 | Baths: 2
• Square feet: 1,681
• Acreage: 0.87 acres
• Year built: 2016
• Waterfront: Lake Winnipesaukee

Built in 2016, this custom Craftsman-style home brings a more contemporary sensibility to the island while fitting naturally into its setting. The southwest exposure delivers the kind of sunsets that make Lake Winnipesaukee famous, and the sandy walk-in beach and fire pit make the outdoor spaces just as compelling as the hardwood floors and gas fireplace inside.

See Full Listing →

Frequently Asked Questions

What was Melody Island called before it became Melody Island?

The island went by several names over the years, including Big Mud Island, Varney Island, and Varney Island No. 1. When Hedy Spielter and Jean "Jules" Epailly purchased it in 1946 and established their music camp, they renamed it Melody Island. The old name became something of a running joke among the musicians, with at least one regular visitor using "Mud Island" deliberately just to tease Epailly.

When was the New Hampshire Music Festival founded, and what does Melody Island have to do with it?

The New Hampshire Music Festival was officially founded in 1952, but its roots go back to 1946 when Spielter and Epailly bought the island and began operating a music school. Students were studying there by 1947. The festival grew out of that school and eventually became a major regional institution. By its 70th-anniversary season in 2022, the orchestra had grown to more than 75 professional musicians.

Did anyone famous ever visit Melody Island during its music camp years?

Yes. Leopold Stokowski, one of the most celebrated conductors of the 20th century, visited the island in 1955. The stay apparently became an impromptu audition opportunity, as musicians interrupted his time there to perform for him. Several of those musicians went on to work with Stokowski in Houston.

How much did lots on Melody Island sell for when the camp closed?

After the music camp operation concluded and the property was surveyed into lots following a September 1961 sale, a 1962 advertisement from C.M. Mixer Inc. (the predecessor to Yankee Pedlar Realtors) offered remaining lots at $4,000 each. Electricity and telephone service were already available. Today, Melody Island is one of the most sought-after private-island addresses on Lake Winnipesaukee, with current listings well above $1 million.

What made the Melody Island concerts so unusual for the time?

Beyond the quality of the musicians, the setting created something genuinely unique. Concertgoers would gather in boats and canoes just offshore and listen to performances from the island's bandshell across the water. Free Sunday-evening chamber concerts were offered as early as 1956, and the local press was calling the island "Little Tanglewood" by 1953, after the famous Massachusetts festival.

---

Curious about other properties on or near the lake? View all homes for sale →