Historic Saranac Lake

Follow along as we explore local history! Get a behind-the-scenes look at our work at the Saranac Laboratory Museum!

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Image of the Week

There is a lot going on here at Historic Saranac Lake, as we are just over a month away from the opening of the Trudeau Building! We're currently installing wallpaper, artifacts, and fun interactives to make the museum shine. In honor of this occasion, we're sharing a photograph of the Trudeau family's dog on the wall of Dr. Trudeau's cure porch. We used photographs like this one to guide our work on the building and help us understand how the family used the house.

The public opening day festivities will take place on Saturday, August 22, from 10AM - 5PM with free admission for all! Free ice cream courtesy of Stewart's Shops will be served from 12 - 2PM. Come explore our new exhibits, marvel at the transformation of the building, and learn amazing things about Saranac Lake history! See our website at historicsaranaclake.org for all the details. See you soon!

[Historic Saranac Lake Collection, 2023.11.67. Gift of the Trudeau Family.]

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5 Ws Wednesday

Historic Saranac Lake needs your help identifying the WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN, and/or WHY of this photo. This week's 5 Ws is a summery one! We want to see if anyone recognizes this woman. Her beachy photograph is part of a group of photographs abandoned at Kollecker's Kodak Shop, likely in the 1940s. Do you recognize her? Let us know by leaving a comment or sending us a message!

[Historic Saranac Lake Collection, 2024.2.154.]

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Image of the Week

Our new exhibit, "Saranac Lake: At the Wheel," opened last night in the John Black Room! This photograph of a Madden's delivery truck at Trudeau Institute is one of the many wonderful photographs and artifacts featured in the exhibit. The automobile transformed the Adirondacks, granting vacationers new mobility to explore the North Country. As cars replaced trains, a new landscape of roads, campsites, motels, and roadside businesses emerged, forever changing the Saranac Lake region. Saranac Lake: At the Wheel explores the milestone markers.

“This was the automobile, the great democratizer of American vacations and leisure.” — Phil Terrie, Contested Terrain

Drive in to check out this special exhibit anytime the museum is open, Tuesday-Saturday, 10AM-5PM!

[Historic Saranac Lake Collection, 2022.128.1. Gift of Heidi Holdereid and Bill Madden.]

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5 Ws Wednesday

Historic Saranac Lake needs your help identifying the WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN, and/or WHY of this photo. We had such good feedback on last week's mystery house (possibly the Eaton Cottage, formerly 189 Broadway), so let's try another! This photograph was part of a group of photos left behind at Kollecker's Kodak Shop sometime before the 1940s. The house has a very distinctive railing, and the sign on the porch reads, "Park View." Do you recognize it (or the woman?)? Let us know by leaving a comment or sending us a message!

[Historic Saranac Lake Collection, 2024.2.232.]

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We are thrilled to announce that the Trudeau Building Rehabilitation has received a 2026 Excellence in Historic Preservation Award from the Preservation League of NYS. Since 1984, the League's annual Excellence Awards program has shined a light on the people who make positive change through preservation — including exemplary restoration projects, indispensable publications, individual action, and organizational distinction.⁠ ⁠ 118 Main Street was the home and medical office of Dr. E. L. Trudeau, internationally renowned physician and scientist. Built in 1894, the building helps tell the story of Saranac Lake as a global center of tuberculosis research and treatment. Historic Saranac Lake spent five years carefully bringing the building back to life as it existed during Dr. Trudeau's lifetime, before his death in 1915. The building is now repurposed as a museum, serving to preserve and present the history and architecture of the region. Benefiting the culture and economy of the Saranac Lake region, the new museum serves as a model for other rural communities of revitalization through historic preservation.⁠ ⁠ Learn more about the project on our website.

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Image Of The Week

The Willard Hanmer Guideboat Race returns to Saranac Lake this weekend! This event has so much history; it has been held since 1962! The race is named in honor of master guideboat builder Willard Hanmer, who started working in his father's shop around 1910. ⁠

⁠ Guideboats are an integral part of local history too, as they were first built in the early 1800s and were a vital tool of the guides who worked in the area. Our collection is full of guideboat images throughout Saranac Lake history, and this one will be featured in one of our new exhibits in the Trudeau Building! Learn more about guideboats, Willard Hanmer, and more on our wiki.

Good luck to all of the racers this weekend--you're making history!⁠ ⁠ [Historic Saranac Lake Collection, 2022.83.144. Gift of Ann Pecora Diamond.]

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5 Ws Wednesday

Historic Saranac Lake needs your help identifying the WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN, and/or WHY of this photo. We can't help it - when the weather gets hot we like looking at snowy photos! This one caught our eye this week. The house is likely decorated for Winter Carnival sometime before 1920, but we don't know where it is! The photograph was taken by Mary Ives Baldwin, who documented her family's life in Saranac Lake. Do you recognize it? Let us know by leaving a comment or sending us a message!⁠

⁠ [Historic Saranac Lake Collection, 2023.48.121. Gift of Barbara Baldwin Knapp.]

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Museum Monday

Last week we paid a visit to John Brown Farm with our wonderful new intern Kate! The day's activities were hosted by the Northern New York Library Network and John Brown Lives! in order to bring area library, museum, and archival colleagues together to learn about John Brown and the work being done at the site. Thanks to Sandra Weber for sharing with us about her recent books, her research and love of libraries, and the amazing work of Mary Brown and the women in the Brown family. Staff from John Brown Lives! shared about their social justice work, including the traveling oral history project, Loving Our Country. We also got to hear en emotional song about Mary Brown, and have a sing-a-long to the classic, "John Brown's Body!" We could not have asked for a more beautiful day!⁠

⁠ Kate Knapp is spending the summer working with us through a fellowship provided by the Gardiner Foundation. She is working with visitors and learning about the behind the scenes work of the museum, while also doing research on Black history in the North Country, including the Gerritt Smith land grant families at Timbuctoo. This was a perfect visit to kick off her work and she learned a lot!

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Image Of The Week

This week Pendragon Theatre kicked off their first season in their new home on Church Street! In honor of this momentous occasion for our new neighbors, we've got theatre on the brain! This photograph shows patients (and probably the child of a staff member) at Trudeau Sanatorium putting on a play around 1948. The auditorium building at the Sanatorium was often host to plays, musical acts, and more.

This photograph belonged to Betty Kelly (later Gaffney), seen at far right with her hand on her hip. Betty came to Trudeau in 1947 after contracting tuberculosis during nursing school. In 2021, Betty shared her memories and photographs and paid a visit to the Sanatorium for the first time in more than 70 years (she was 95 years old at the time!).

Congratulations to our friends at Pendragon--break a leg!

[Historic Saranac Lake Collection, 2022.9.11. Gift of Betty Kelly Gaffney.]

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5 Ws Wednesday

Historic Saranac Lake needs your help identifying the WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN, and/or WHY of this photo. This photograph is part of an album kept by Game Warden Carl Prue in the 1930s and 40s. Prue worked all over Franklin County, so we don't know for sure where this was taken. Do you recognize this camp building? Let us know by leaving a comment or sending us a message!

[Historic Saranac Lake Collection, 2022.144.29. Gift of Phyliss and Jack Drury.]

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Image of the Week

This weekend the village will host all kinds of four-wheeled vehicles for Cruisin' 2026, and Historic Saranac Lake staff will be there to share more about the history of cars and driving in Saranac Lake! We will also open a car exhibit at the Saranac Laboratory Museum later this summer, so we're looking at automobiles in history to prepare!

This photograph shows William Schuster and four unidentified friends on a rough road to Meacham Lake on June 7, 1915. Schuster was a patient at the New York State Hospital for Incipient Tuberculosis in Ray Brook, and loved exploring the area and documenting it with his camera. While the roads and vehicles look a little different now, the fun of cruising around with your friends is the same! Come visit us at Cruisin' 2026 this weekend, and stay tuned for our car exhibit!

[Historic Saranac Lake Collection, 2021.1.71. Gift in Memory of Tarsilla and William Schuster.]

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5 Ws Wednesday

Historic Saranac Lake needs your help identifying the WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN, and/or WHY of this photo. In honor of last week's hot weather, let's cool off a little. This photograph is from the 1915 Winter Carnival, and we're trying to identify the woman in the dark outfit at left! We know that Norval Baptie is standing at center, with Kathleen Pope at his left. Do you know anything about the woman in the dark dress? Let us know by leaving a comment or sending us a message!

[Historic Saranac Lake Collection, 2009.10.4.75. Gift of Natalie Leduc.]

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Image Of The Week

It feels like summer's really here, so we've been thinking about boats! This postcard shows a wooden boat, most likely used by patients at Stony Wold Sanatorium on Lake Kushaqua. The sender of the card notes that they "never take such a large crowd, only ten girls go at a time." We bet everyone wanted to pile on for the photograph! Be safe out there on the water, and enjoy these beautiful days!⁠

Learn more about Stony Wold on our wiki. ⁠ [Historic Saranac Lake Collection, 2024.35.21. Gift of Phil Fitzpatrick.]

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5WsWednesday:

Historic Saranac Lake needs your help identifying the WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN, and/or WHY of this photo. This mystery photo of "grey ladies" was taken by Harold M. Eby, a Saranac Lake photographer, but otherwise we're stumped! It was likely taken sometime around WWII, but none of the women are identified. Do you recognize anyone in the photograph, or even the room where it was taken? Let us know by leaving a comment or sending us a message!⁠

⁠ [Historic Saranac Lake Collection.]

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We are thrilled to announce that we have been awarded a grant of $600,000 from the New York State Council on the Arts to support construction of an accessible entrance at the Saranac Laboratory Museum. This is the final phase of our project to expand our museum to become a two-building campus. The grant will support the installation of a handicap lift and foyer addition at the rear of the Saranac Laboratory. The new entrance will integrate the visitor experience across the museum campus and provide accessibility in all areas. The new addition will also serve as an improved museum store. Construction of the accessible laboratory addition is expected to begin soon. The project is expected to be completed by 2027.

The new museum exhibits in the Trudeau Building will open this August. All members of Historic Saranac Lake and those who have contributed to the museum expansion project at any level will be invited to the ribbon-cutting on August 15. A community-wide celebration will take place the following Saturday, August 22, when the doors to the Trudeau Building will be thrown open for a free Open House. Learn more about our projects and upcoming events on our website.

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We are sad to hear of the passing of our friend Tom Seymour. We always enjoyed seeing Tom’s friendly face at the museum and around the community. A skilled carpenter, Tom built the beautiful cabinets in the laboratory museum, replicas of the originals created in 1894. Tom's care and attention to the project brought the laboratory back to life when it first re-opened to the public in 2010. In recent years, Tom returned to build more cabinetry to host the Post Office Pharmacy collection. The museum wouldn’t be the special place it is today without Tom’s talent, dedication, and kindness. We extend our sincere condolences to Tom’s family and friends.⁠ ⁠ Read Tom's obituary in the Adirondack Daily Enterprise.

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Image Of The Week

Yesterday was World Bicycle Day, and we have a fun one to celebrate! This contraption was put together by Henry Ives Baldwin, sometime in the early 1900s. Henry loved to create all kinds of vehicles, whether bikes, motorcycles, or even small planes! His mother, Mary Ives Baldwin, often documented his projects with her camera. This photograph was taken in front of the Baldwin Family's home at 6 Church Street, now 94 Church. Enjoy riding your bike today, whether it comes with a wicker side chair or not!

[Historic Saranac Lake Collection, 2023.48.363. Gift of Barbara Baldwin Knapp.]