History, Natural History & the Arts
A log camp opposite Three Brothers Island at Lake George, whose original core was built in 1928 for a niece of George Foster Peabody, will be disassembled, removed and replaced by a contemporary mansion.
The Town of Bolton’s Planning Board approved the new owner’s request to replace the camp in a March meeting. [Read more…] about Historic Lake George Camp Being Replaced with Mansion
If you’ve always been drawn to the timeless beauty of driftwood, you’ll surely appreciate the exquisite elegance of Hope Falls (in northern Fulton County, NY) artist Caitlin Roben’s driftwood sculptures. Roben’s work embodies the alluring mystique that beachcombers and river walkers alike savor when they stumble upon a piece of aged wood, worn smooth by the forces of nature.
A lifelong driftwood scavenger, Roben grew up on the banks of the Mohawk River in Glenville, Schenectady County. “With access to the water from my parents’ house, I was always collecting interesting pieces. Going out and searching for driftwood is fun and definitely part of the inspiration for my artistic process,” she said. [Read more…] about Driftwood Sculptor Caitlin Roben’s Artistic Evolution
In 2020, DEC issued a draft unit management plan (UMP) for Debar Mountain Wild Forest in the Adirondack Park, which included the removal of Debar Pond Lodge in the town of Duane, Franklin County, and the construction of a 41-acre day use picnic, pavilion, and display area to be reclassified Intensive Use. [Read more…] about At Debar Pond Lodge DEC Must Do A Better Job
In this episode of the ADK Talks podcast Erin Tobin, Executive Director of Adirondack Architectural Heritage (AARCH), uncovers unique and fascinating stories hidden in the Adirondacks’ historic architecture. [Read more…] about Adirondack Architectural Heritage: Preserving Place
At the end of July, the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) released a Draft Scope for the Debar Mountain Complex in the northern Adirondack Park, including the historic Debar Pond Lodge. [Read more…] about Preservationists Hope To Save Historic Adirondack Camp
This summer, Adirondack Experience (ADKX), The Museum on Blue Mountain Lake, invites visitors to immerse themselves in the beauty, craftsmanship, and enduring legacy of rustic design with its new temporary exhibition, “Natural Beauty: The Art of Rustic Furniture.” [Read more…] about Natural Beauty: The Art of Rustic Furniture
The Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation (State Parks) has announced the most recent recommendations by the New York State Board for Historic Preservation to add 20 properties and districts to the State and National Registers of Historic Places.
The nominations include John Steinbeck’s writing cottage in Sag Harbor; Cluett, Peabody buildings in Troy; Lake George’s Mohican Point; a small surviving commercial historic district on Seneca Street in Buffalo; the architecturally significant post Vatican II St. Peter’s Church in Manhattan; the home of prominent Black community leaders George and Theodora Bragg in Elmira; as well as additional documentation of LGBT history for the Louis N. Jaffe Art Theater Building in New York City. [Read more…] about State Parks Announces 20 Nominations for State and National Registers of Historic Places
The latest episode of the ADK Talks podcast uncovers the rich history of the iconic Adirondack Great Camp Sagamore, once the private getaway of the Vanderbilt family in Raquette Lake, and explores the intriguing blend of luxury and nature, shaping a unique legacy of rustic elegance in Upstate New York. [Read more…] about Great Camp Sagamore: The Gilded Age Meets the Great Outdoors
The Silver Bay YMCA campus on Lake George is an important grouping of Adirondack vernacular resort structures situated in a spectacular natural setting. Hepbron Hall, formerly known as Forest Lodge, represents an architectural style that captures early Adirondack rustic construction.
It is one of 32 significant buildings on the campus, built by a succession of owners between 1880-1925 and reflecting regional architectural influences in terms of their rustic style design features, scale, and native construction materials. [Read more…] about Under Threat: Silver Bay YMCA’s Rustic Hepbron Hall
The tourism fostered at Saratoga Springs by the mineral waters and baths spawned the spectacle of thoroughbred racing during the nineteenth century and also a clubhouse which operated as a casino. They were exciting diversions for those visiting to take the “water cure.”
With so many tourists at the numerous hotels and boarding houses by virtue of the convenient rail connections, another attraction of sorts was fostered, Indian Encampments which functioned much like carnivals. [Read more…] about Saratoga Springs’ Indian Encampments
Ten years ago, when Bob Wemple was hired to fix up an old general store in the town of Providence, Saratoga County hamlet of Barkersville, he had no idea that he and his wife, Sue, would soon be operating that quaint storefront as a business of their very own: Antiques at Packer’s Pond.
The store, which dates back to 1893, is part of the Packer Farm and Barkersville Store, a historic site which includes a 19th century farmhouse, the store, two barns, an old mill pond, dam, and waterfall. [Read more…] about Variety Abounds at Antiques by Packer’s Pond in Saratoga County
A new bathhouse, lifeguard station, and playground were recently unveiled at Stony Brook State Park near Dansville, Steuben County, NY.
During the announcement of the completion of these upgrades, new investments were announced to improve parking lots, update tennis courts, and build a new park office. The upcoming renovations are expected to be complete in 2025. [Read more…] about Stony Brook State Park Renovations Complete, More Announced
The Johnson’s Family Farm Store and Café in Northville, NY, on Great Sacandaga Lake in Northern Fulton County, is the place to go for an impressive selection of fresh, homegrown produce, nutritious home-cooked foods, a delectable bakery, distinctive merchandise, rustic charm, and friendly service. [Read more…] about Johnson’s Family Farm Store & Café in Northville
If you’ve never visited The William Coffey Studio & Gallery in Northville in the northern part of the town of Northampton in Fulton County, NY, you’re missing out on a chance to see the very best of north country talent, ranging from Coffey’s own contemporary rustic furniture and gallery director Mark Wood’s unique chandeliers and stained glass lamps to sculpture, paintings, basketry, photography, and more, all created by local artists. [Read more…] about An Intersection of Rustic & Contemporary Arts in Northville
About 18 years ago, Lorraine Lambiase and Sheila Flanagan left corporate law careers in California to pursue their two true passions — cheese-making and animals — on a rustic farm in Upstate New York.
Upon arriving at Nettle Meadow Farm in Adirondack town of Thurman (in northern Warren County) with their four dogs and four goats, the women never imagined that their new home would so quickly evolve into a rescue facility for elderly, neglected, and differently-abled animals. [Read more…] about The Hitching Post & Kemp Sanctuary at Nettle Meadow Farm
For the past 20 years – but increasingly over the past three years – state legislators, local and regional government officials, state agencies, environmental and economic development groups, and others have deliberated over the future of Debar Pond Lodge, which was built in about 1940.
The 10-bedroom lodge and support buildings are located on New York State “Forever Wild” Forest Preserve land in the Northern Adirondack Park town of Duane, Franklin County, and are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. [Read more…] about Debar Pond Lodge: History & Controversy
In the spring of 1989, the Adirondack working class received an alarming wake-up call in the unlikely form of Robin Leach. The Adirondacks, according to the garrulous host of Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, were a hidden jewel just waiting to be discovered by travelers with a taste for wilderness and the purchasing power to claim a slice of nature-at-its-moneyed-best for their very own. The show had even gone so far as to list the remote and rugged mountains as an “upcoming hot spot for jet-setters” in its “Guide to the World’s Best Places.”
Leach’s prediction had been well borne out by the mid-1990s. “Rough It Like A Rockefeller,” proclaimed one strapline in the travel section of the Wall Street Journal, while an article in Vanity Fair encouraged readers to go “camp hopping in the haute Adirondacks” and Travel and Leisure billed it as a place where “the notion of escape endures.” Such articles, liberally sprinkled with posh photographic layouts depicting the rich at play in tastefully rustic lodges nestled on the shores of gleaming silver lakes, recommended such accommodations as The Point in Lake Placid, where guests could take in the clean mountain air for a mere $1300 a night.
Beemers had been traded for sport utility vehicles, and the Adirondacks, it appeared, had become an exclusive retreat for well-heeled consumers seeking respite from their taxing cosmopolitan lives in the newly fashionable wilderness. [Read more…] about Adirondack Gentrification: Seasonal Development & The Rent Sink (Part 5)
The NYS Adirondack Park Agency (APA) and Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) are holding a joint public comment period on plans to tear down a rustic 1940s Adirondack camp at the north end of Debar Pond that is listed on the State and National Registers of Historic Places.
The camp commands a view of DeBar Pond and the adjacent mountains which frame the water. The main lodge is a rambling two-story rustic building by architect Saranac Lake architect William Distin. The site also includes a guide/caretaker house, and several barns and outbuildings. [Read more…] about State Proposes Removal of Historic DeBar Lodge Great Camp For Day Use Area
The Club Camp is often mentioned as the first permanent structure built on Big Moose Lake in the Adirondacks. The word permanent is rather ironic as this hunting and fishing establishment had a relatively short history of just 28 years. Today the camp’s origins, visitors, and sad end seem largely forgotten. [Read more…] about The Union Club’s Camp on Big Moose Lake
The Club Camp is often mentioned as the first permanent structure built on Big Moose Lake in the Adirondacks. The word permanent is rather ironic because this hunting and fishing establishment had a relatively short history of just 28 years. Today the camp’s origins, visitors, and sad end seem largely forgotten.
According to Joseph F. Grady’s The Adirondacks: Fulton Chain-Big Moose Region (1933), the Club Camp was constructed in 1878 at the request of several sportsmen from New York City who had been spending summers on the lake in previous years.
At the time, Big Moose, near Old Forge, NY, was difficult to reach — the railroad would not arrive in the area until 1892. Before 1878, only lean-tos or shanties were available on Big Moose, notably that of businessman William “Billy” Dutton, which was built in 1876, and that of guide Jack Sheppard which was set up around the same time. [Read more…] about A Short History of Club Camp on Big Moose Lake
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