Not sure which postcard you want to send for National Postcard Week? How about an entire book of Saranac Lake scenes?! This folio of 18 postcards includes scenes of skiing, dogsledding, and boating, as well as images of Hotel Saranac, Saranac Inn, downtown Saranac Lake, Lower Saranac Lake, and Fish Creek Campground (among others!). It was printed in 1938, and cost 1.5 cents to mail.

There’s lots of Saranac Lake area history to explore on our wiki, so take a trip over and search for your favorite subjects!

[Historic Saranac Lake Collection, TCR # 269]

Today’s sunshine and blue skies reminded us of this next National Postcard Week pick! This linen postcard shows a scene of summer fun at the Saranac Inn. This large, luxurious hotel was originally built as the Prospect House in 1864 at the northern end of Upper Saranac Lake. The Prospect House was a small hotel that accommodated 15 guests. Eventually it grew to fit 100 guests, and in 1886 was purchased by an investment group headed by Dr. Samuel B. Ward, who renamed it Saranac Inn and renovated and enlarged the hotel.

In 1916 the hotel was purchased by the owner of the Harrington Hotel in Washington, DC, who completely rebuilt the structure, adding two stories, elevators, and a private bath in each room. It underwent further enlargement in the 1920s, and noted Saranac Lake architect William G. Distin was responsible for much of the design work. At its height, between the enlarged main hotel and the many lakeside cottages and platform tents favored by some guests, it could accommodate a thousand guests.

Unfortunately, after the Great Depression, the hotel’s business suffered and ownership changed hands many times. It was eventually sold off piecemeal at auction, and in the mid-1970s, the main hotel was disassembled for salvage. Finally, on June 17, 1978, a spectacular seven-hour fire destroyed what was left. A small collection of cottages that grew up around the Inn (the first dozen were built by the Inn owners) still exists today.

In its heyday, the Saranac Inn played host to Presidents Grover Cleveland (on his honeymoon!) and Chester A. Arthur, as well as New York Governors Charles Evan Hughes and Al Smith. To read more about the extensive history of this luxury hotel, see more photograph, and read letters sent from the Saranac Inn, visit our wiki!

The first full week of May is National Postcard Week, so what better way to celebrate than by sharing interesting postcards from our collection? We'll start off today with one of our home base here at Historic Saranac Lake, the Saranac Laboratory! It looks a little different in this c. 1910s postcard than it does today.
This portion of the building was built in 1894 for Dr. Edward L. Trudeau after a fire in his at-home laboratory burned down the whole building. It was designed by his cousin, J. Lawrence Aspinwall, who was also the architect of Baker Memorial Chapel at Trudeau Sanatorium, among others. Learn more about the history of the building by visiting our wiki, and stay tuned all week as we share more of our favorite postcards!
[Historic Saranac Lake Collection, TCR # 157]

April is Occupational Therapy Month, and our Art of the Cure Exhibit opens in just two months! Did you know that the Scholfield Memorial Workshop at Trudeau Sanatorium may have been the first time that occupational therapy was used for mentally well patients? Dr. Lawrason Brown implemented the use of occupational therapy for TB patients at Trudeau Sanatorium, and patients had the opportunity to study a range of handicrafts from leatherwork, bookbinding, photography, basket-weaving, decorative work, and more!

The Scholfield Memorial Workshop was built in 1909 as a gift of Mrs. Walter L. Goodwin. It was named for Herbert L. Scholfield, a patient and skilled craftsperson. In this image, patients in the Workshop practice weaving as part of their treatment at the Sanatorium.

In “Portrait of Healing,” Victoria Rhinehart described the possible origins of occupational therapy as such: “The true origin of occupational therapy remains open for some dispute. Numerous sources credit Dr. Brown for its birth at the Adirondack Cottage Sanitarium in 1904. A more accurate statement would be to credit Dr. Brown, certainly as the first who created the concept of outdoor occupational therapy, and likely the first to utilize occupational therapy with tuberculosis patients, and perhaps the first to use occupational therapy with patients who were mentally well. The actual origin of using this type of therapy on a patient population came well before Dr. Brown's time. . . . Susan E. Tracy, who organized occupational therapy classes in her training school for nurses at the Adams Nervine Asylum in 1906, was considered to be the first occupational therapist. However, as the work of Dr. Brown, with his occupational therapy experiment with tuberculosis patients in 1903 to 1904, predates the work of Susan Tracy and others, there is some merit to sources that credit Brown with the birth of modern occupational therapy.”

To learn more about the Workshop, visit our wiki!

And be sure to stay tuned for more on our upcoming special exhibit, Art of the Cure, which highlights TB patient artists, writers, musicians, architects, and more! Art of the Cure will open in late June 2019.