Blog Archives - HISTORIC SARANAC LAKE

HISTORIC SARANAC LAKE

On the Seventh Day of Saranac Lake-mas...

12/31/2019

On the seventh day of Saranac Lake-mas, your museum gave to you... kids a-swimming on Lake Flower! The lake was formed in 1827 when Pliny Miller built the first dam across the Saranac River to power a sawmill.

To learn more about the history of Lake Flower, including the origin of its name, visit our wiki: https://localwiki.org/hsl/Lake_Flower

[Historic Saranac Lake Collection, courtesy of Peter MacIntyre.]

On the Sixth Day of Saranac Lake-mas...

12/30/2019

On the sixth day of Saranac Lake-mas, your museum gave to you... tuberculosis patients a-laying in the fresh air! TB patients like these women at Ray Brook Sanatorium would spend their days on porches resting and taking in the fresh air.
To learn more about the process of “curing,” visit our wiki: https://localwiki.org/hsl/Curing
We’re halfway there - what will you learn in the next six days of Saranac Lake-mas?
[Patients at Ray Brook, c. 1928. Historic Saranac Lake Collection, TCR 124, courtesy of Ben Fruhlinger.]

On the fifth day of Saranac Lake-mas...

12/29/2019

On the fifth day of Saranac Lake-mas, your museum gave to you... golden (ok--silver) medals! In the 1932 Olympics, the Red Devils, a bobsled team from Saranac Lake took home the silver medal in the four-man bobsled! The team consisted of Henry Homburger, Percy Bryant, Francis Stevens, and Edmund Horton.

Pictured are The Saranac Lake Red Devils, Ed Horton (right), and the Stevens brothers. The other two Stevens brothers, Curtis and Hubert won gold for two-man bob.

To learn more about Saranac Lake in the Olympics visit our wiki: https://localwiki.org/hsl/Olympic_Winter_Games

[Photograph courtesy of Natalie Leduc.]

On the Fourth Day of Saranac Lake-mas...

12/28/2019

On the fourth day of Saranac Lake-mas, your museum gave to you... a calling card! This card was sent to Maude Liscomb, Francis Berger Trudeau's patient and friend, while FBT was serving as Captain of the Medical Reserve Corps of the Army in 1918. FBT (pictured above) was the son of Dr. E.L. Trudeau and continued his work with tuberculosis patients in Saranac Lake.

To learn more about FBT, visit our wiki: https://localwiki.org/hsl/Francis_Berger_Trudeau

[Calling card, Historic Saranac Lake Collection, TCR 363, Courtesy of Janet Swentusky. Photograph of FBT, Historic Saranac Lake Collection, TCR 581, Courtesy of the Trudeau Family.]

On the Third Day of Saranac Lake-mas...

12/27/2019

On the third day of Saranac Lake-mas, your museum gave to you... French Hill! French Hill is one of the earliest neighborhoods in Saranac Lake, and encompasses east-west streets McClelland, James, Charles, Prospect Avenue, McIntyre, Neil, and Olive Streets and Arnold Drive; and north-south streets Hope, Fairview Avenue, William, Virginia, and McComb. It is about forty acres in extent. In this 1902 photograph, Prospect Avenue runs up from Broadway to McComb Street.

To learn more about French Hill and its history, visit our wiki.

On the Second Day of Saranac Lake-mas...

12/26/2019

On the second day of Saranac Lake-mas, your museum gave to you... Turtle Pond! The Turtle Pond Lodge is pictured here nestled under a blanket of snow.

What will days 3-12 bring?!

To learn more about Turtle Pond, visit our wiki: https://localwiki.org/hsl/Turtle_Pond

[HSL Collection]

On the First Day of Saranac Lake-mas...

12/25/2019

On the first day of Saranac Lake-mas, your museum gave to you... a partridge in a Berkeley Square tree! Okay, maybe there's no partridge, but it's a beautiful sight!

We'll be counting down the twelve days of Saranac Lake-mas with bits of Saranac Lake history, so stay tuned for the next 11 days...

Learn more about the history of Main Street, Broadway, and Berkeley Square on our wiki.

[Photograph of a Christmas tree in the intersection of Main Street and Broadway at Berkeley Square, courtesy of the Adirondack Room at the Saranac Lake Free Library.]

REDC Awards Announced!

12/19/2019

Good news! Today we learned that we have been awarded a Regional Economic Development NYSCA grant to support a new staff position!

The grant of $19,900 each year for two years will allow us to hire a Membership and Grant Manager. This new staff will be a great help as we rehabilitate the Trudeau Building and expand to become a two-building museum campus in the heart of downtown that presents the rich history of the Saranac Lake area through interactive exhibits!

See our website to find out more about the project!

See the full list of grant recipients to learn more about the other projects funded.

Museum Monday: Sam Senseney

12/9/2019

This Museum Monday, we're sharing another story from our Annual Meeting. This one came from our Oral History Coordinator, Kayt:

"A few months ago I had the opportunity to interview Denny and Erlene Senseney. They came to Saranac Lake to see Will Rogers; Denny’s father, Sam Senseney, had taken the cure at Will Rogers Memorial Hospital. While at Saranac Village at Will Rogers, they happened to hear about the museum and came to pay us a visit. We were lucky to get to talk to them while they were here, and ended up sitting down for a last-minute oral history interview!
While curing Sam learned ceramic and leather work. When he returned home to Kansas, Sam brought these new skills with him. He got a job at a TB Sanatorium teaching patients the ceramic and leatherworking skills he learned here in Saranac Lake!"

You can hear a snippet of Denny and Erlene's interview here.

[Photograph of Sam Senseney, courtesy of Denny Senseney]

Snowglobe Saranac Laboratory

12/6/2019

It’s beginning to look a lot like a Christmas around the Saranac Laboratory Museum! We’re excited to light up downtown Saranac Lake tonight, and we hope you’ll come pay us a visit this holiday season.

Historic Saranac Lake at the Saranac Laboratory Museum
89 Church Street, Suite 2, Saranac Lake, New York 12983
(518) 891-4606 - mail@historicsaranaclake.org

Join our mailing list

Historic Saranac Lake is funded in part by:

the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature;
a Humanities New York SHARP Grant with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the federal American Rescue Plan Act;
an Essex County Arts Council Cultural Assistance Program Grant supported by the Essex County Board of Supervisors.

Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this website do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

© 2023 Historic Saranac Lake. All Rights Reserved. Historic photographs from Historic Saranac Lake Collection, unless otherwise noted. Copy and reuse restrictions apply.