circa1945
It all started way back then
1945
In her early 20s, Martha Schoelermann and a girlfriend decided to take a trip to Lake George. They ended up falling in love with the area. Upon her return to Long Island, she asked her father if he would come back to Lake George and look for property to buy.
1946
They made the move
In 1946, they purchased a 100-acre chicken farm for $8,000.
1947
Martha's is born
Martha married Carlton Freiberger and together they remodeled the existing farmhouse into a restaurant and later built a separate building for the restaurant and ice cream stand, Martha’s Dandee Crème.
1947
The original ice cream stand
The original ice cream stand.
1954
Storytown is built
In 1954 Charlie Wood bought the property across the street and built Storytown, now known as Great Escape.
1982
Martha's is sold to Roger & Lena Lafontaine
After more than three decades, Martha and Carlton Freiberger sold the business in 1982 to longtime customers Roger and Lena Lafontaine. The Lafontaine’s sold the business to Great Escape in 1999.
1999
Martha's is sold to The Great Escape
For ten years, Martha’s Dandee Cream was owned by Six Flags, one of the world’s largest owners and operators of amusement parks.
2009
Beth and Dennis LaFontaine purchase Martha’s from Six Flags in 2009
Beth and Dennis LaFontaine purchased Martha’s from Six Flags in 2009, putting the ice cream stand back into the hands of the family that owned it for almost two decades and for Lafontaine generations to come!
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Our Story
My wife Beth and I are so happy to be back to bring you the Martha’s ice cream stand the community came to know. Great ice cream with great service. We remember all the wonderful memories our family had here and are so excited to bring in a new generation of Lafontaine’s to carry on the Martha’s tradition.
Martha’s has always been known to be a gathering place for many. Whether it be the place the team came to after the game, or the place you shared a cone with your grandchildren, that special treat you saved for just you and the kids , or for dessert after dinner at a local restaurant. We are happy that we can be that place for you again. And if you never knew that Martha’s we are talking about, we invite you to come experience it yourself. Since opening day, we have been overjoyed to see the old familiar faces we served many years back, as well as all the new ones! It has been like coming home again for us and has shown our family what community really means.
We are glad to give that back to you, and with our four children, we will do our best to keep you coming back for more! Ask for me at the window…I look forward to serving you for years to come.
Dennis Lafontaine
Why The Rooster?
A landmark for more than 50 years on Route 9 between Lake George and Glens Falls, Martha’s is back in the hands of the second owners, the Lafontaine family. The site is a former chicken farm owned by the Harkness family. Its fame as a restaurant and later an ice cream stand started in the late 1930s.
Martha Schoelermann was from Long Island. As a young woman, she worked in the insurance business in Manhattan. She came to the Lake George region on vacation, fell in love with the area and the rest is local history. She went back home and convinced her family to help her purchase a property in Queensbury. Her friend, Carl Freiberger, followed her and she later married him.
Martha and Carl Freiberger opened a restaurant in the house that sits next to Martha’s ice cream stand today. She cooked in the house kitchen and seating for the patrons was on the large wrap-around porch. The Freiberger family, which included four children, lived upstairs in the house as well. Gale Freiberger, the youngest, is a summer hot dog vendor in City Park in downtown Glens Falls.
Behind the house were chicken coops that were part of the former Harkness chicken farm. Once the restaurant was established, the coops were razed and the Freibergers built 12 cabins for tourists, some of which still stand today behind the ice cream stand.
The restaurant in the house prospered and around 1956 Martha and Carl built a new restaurant next door. The ice cream stand was an afterthought, but it was built early on. Martha ran the restaurant and Carl the ice cream stand, and this was the beginning of Martha’s Dandee Creme. Martha’s family had been in the ice cream business for many years on Long Island, and she brought that knowledge to the new business.
One famous resident of the property was a rooster named Charlie. Probably a leftover from the chicken farm, Charlie would delight patrons of the restaurant by walking up and down the ledge outside of the windows. It was Charlie who inspired the huge rooster on the property’s sign.
In the late ’70s and early ’80s, the Lafontaine family from Connecticut vacationed at the Wakita Lodge, directly across from Martha’s. Dennis Lafontaine remembers going over to Martha’s for meals. While Martha and Carl Freiberger had built a successful business, health issues forced them into the decision to sell it.
In 1982, coming from a catering business, Roger and Lena Lafontaine bought Martha’s property and well-established business, and with their three children, Robert, Michelle, and Dennis, they operated the restaurant and ice cream stand for the next 17 years, serving the ice cream that Martha and Carl made famous. They lived in the house that was the original Martha’s restaurant and continued to operate the cabin colony, the restaurant, ice cream stand, and a motel they built later.
Under the Lafontaine ownership, the restaurant always offered breakfast and for a time, lunch and dinner. At the end of their ownership it was just open for breakfast. There is a worn patch of linoleum in front of the grill that Dennis Lafontaine, the current owner, claims he made, being the short order cook for many years, never missing a day’s work, even after he broke his leg one afternoon.
In the early 1990s, the Lafontaine boys built the large motel behind the restaurant. It replaced many of the cabins as the ice cream trade continued to thrive. The restaurant was open for breakfast and “The Grill” provided a food choices for customers when it opened in 1996. The choices were hamburgers, hot dogs, and other sandwiches plus fries, other sides and drinks. There was outside patio seating, and for dessert — ice cream next door.
Sometime in the late 1990s, the Great Escape’s parent company, Six Flags, began buying up properties on the west side of Route 9. In 1999 the Lafontaines decided to sell everything to the Great Escape and with a five-year “no compete” clause, the Lafontaines were out of the ice cream business, temporarily.
Family Flavor Returns to the Iconic Ice Cream Stand
Beth and Dennis LaFontaine purchased Martha’s from Six Flags in 2009, putting the ice cream stand back into the hands of the family that owned it for almost two decades and for Lafontaine generations to come!