Cure cottages of Saranac Lake

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File:Saranac Lake Cure Cottage.jpg
The Noyes Cottage at 16 Helen Street is a classic example of a house that evolved from a single-family house to a private sanatorium.

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File:Park Ave Cure Cottage.jpg
A cure cottage in the Highland Park Historic District on Park Avenue
File:The Porcupine Cure Cottage.jpg
147 Park Avenue, called "The Porcupine" because it had so many good points. The "Cure Porches" are on the other side of the house. Presently a Bed and Breakfast.
File:The Christy Mathewson Cottage.jpg
The Christy Mathewson Cottage, 138 Park Avenue in Highland Park. Mathewson was one of the greatest baseball pitchers of his day.
File:Chapel and cottages - Adirondack Cottage Sanitarium.jpg
Chapel and cottages at the Adirondack Cottage Sanitarium, 1906

Between 1873 and 1945, Saranac Lake, New York, became a world-renowned center for the treatment of tuberculosis, using a treatment that involved exposing patients to as much fresh air as possible under conditions of complete bed-rest. In the process, a specific building type, the "cure cottage", developed, built by residents seeking to capitalize on the town's fame, by physicians, and often by the patients themselves. Many of these structures are extant, and their historic value has been recognized by listing on The National Register of Historic Places.[1]

Beginnings

Dr. Edward Livingston Trudeau (1848–1915), as a young man, watched his elder brother die of tuberculosis over a period of three months– at the time, the disease was incurable. He subsequently trained as a doctor, and, three years after completing his studies, was himself diagnosed with tuberculosis. Conventional thinking of the time called for a change of climate, and he went to live in the Adirondack Mountains, initially at Paul Smith's Hotel, spending as much time as possible in the open, and he subsequently regained his health. In 1876 he moved to Saranac Lake and established a medical practice among the sportsmen, guides and lumber camps of the region. In 1882, Trudeau read about Prussian Dr. Hermann Brehmer's success treating tuberculosis with the "rest cure" in cold, clear mountain air. Following this example, Trudeau founded the Adirondack Cottage Sanitarium in February, 1885. The first patients were two sisters who had been factory workers in New York City. They were treated in a one-room cottage named "Little Red", built for $350 on land donated by the guides and residents of the village. As the sanitorium grew, it would be supported at first by wealthy sportsmen that Trudeau had met at Paul Smith's, several of whom had built great camps on the nearby St. Regis Lakes.[1]

The requirement for fresh air lead Trudeau to avoid large institutional settings, feeling that a cottage-like structure would maximize the patient's exposure to light and air, and avoid the sanitation difficulties of a large institutional setting. Consequently, as the town's increasing fame drew more and more invalids, "cure cottages" began to spring up throughout the town. Many were created by simply adding glassed-in porches to existing houses. Others were built as cure cottages and/or apartment buildings, but all had "cure porches" with sliding glass windows, in which patients spent at least eight hours a day resting on special day beds or reclining chairs.

Growth

In 1887, when Robert Louis Stevenson came to Saranac Lake for treatment of what was then thought to be tuberculosis and stayed at what is now known as Stevenson Cottage, the town's fame grew substantially, and the arrival of the railroads, the New York Central and the Delaware and Hudson, in the village greatly eased access to the area. The discovery that tuberculosis was contagious further contributed to Saranac Lake's importance as a cure center, as many other venues in the Adirondacks began to turn "consumptives" away. As a result, the village grew rapidly, from 533 in 1880 to 1582 in 1890 to a peak of more than 6,000 by 1920.

Many who came to take the cure brought talents that were put to good use in the small town. William L. Coulter, for example, was an architect who found work designing cottages for wealthy clients, often to be used as cure cottages. He designed a house at 147 Park Avenue for Thomas Bailey Aldrich editor of the Atlantic Monthly in 1903 that wits dubbed "The Porcupine" because it had so many fine points. He also designed Camp Eagle Island and Prospect Point Camp, two Great Camps on Upper Saranac Lake.

A number of different types of institutions developed: boarding houses and cottages, for relatively ambulatory patients; cottages that didn't provide board, in which case meals would be provided by a nearby boarding cottage; "nursing cottages" for patients too weak to get around. In time, cottages came to specialize in distinct populations: there were cottages for Greeks, for Cubans, for blacks, and kosher boarding cottages for Jews. Some were organized by occupation: there were cottages that catered to circus people, for telephone workers, for the employees of the DuPont company, and for Endicott Johnson Shoes. The National Vaudeville Artists built the National Vaudeville Artists Hospital, which later became the Will Rogers Memorial Hospital, now a senior independent living community, Saranac Village at Will Rogers.

For those who could afford it, the best situation for a patient was to be able to live with one's own family. For these, a number of possibilities existed, ranging from a small cottage that could house the entire family, to large and luxurious houses built to accommodate the family and whatever patients might be part of it. One of the latter type was built for a Swiss baron for his invalid daughter, another by the founder of Stanley Tools. Those of lesser means frequently brought family members who earned a living by working in other sanatoria, or creating their own cure settings in rented accommodations.

During the World Wars

World War I caused another major increase in patients— the stress of war and the damage caused by mustard gas provided fertile ground for the tuberculosis bacillus. By 1921 there were 650 veterans living in Saranac Lake; later, the Veterans Administration opened Sunmount Veterans Hospital in nearby Tupper Lake.

When Norway was overrun by the Nazis early in World War II, many Norwegian merchant seamen who were at sea at the time chose to come to the United States; some of those were found to have tuberculosis, and perhaps as many as 500 came to live in Saranac Lake. They nearly all left after the war, but 16 had died, and are buried in a special section of Pine Ridge Cemetery; their graves are tended by prisoners at nearby Camp Gabriels, funded by an annual payment from the Norwegian government.

New treatments and cottage reuse

In 1944, an effective drug, streptomycin, was developed, and by the mid-1950s, sanatorium treatment of tuberculosis was nearly entirely supplanted by drug treatment, although the New York state-operated tuberculosis sanatorium in nearby Ray Brook (started in 1904) was not closed until the mid-1960s. Many of the cure cottages were converted into apartment houses, and some were torn down; some have been lovingly restored, and some badly renovated.

Notable residents

The National Register of Historic Places sites

Template:Side box Sixty-four of the hundreds of cure cottages still extant in Saranac Lake have been placed on the National Register of Historic Places. Still more are included in seven historic districts in the village.

width = 18% style="background-color:Template:Designation/color"| Landmark name width = 8% class="unsortable" style="background-color:Template:Designation/color"| Image style="background-color:Template:Designation/color"|Location width = 8% style="background-color:Template:Designation/color"|Town[2] class="unsortable" style="background-color:Template:Designation/color"| Summary[3]
Adirondack Cottage Sanitarium File:Gatehouse at the Adirondack Cottage Sanitorium.jpg Trudeau Rd.
Script error: No such module "Coordinates". 		St. Armand A tuberculosis sanitorium established in 1882 by Dr. Edward Livingston Trudeau, later called the Trudeau Sanitorium.
Dr. A. H. Allen Cottage File:Dr A H Allen Cottage, Saranac Lake, NY.jpg 11 Woodycrest Road
Script error: No such module "Coordinates". 		Harrietstown A 1909 Scopes and Feustmann-designed cure cottage.[4]
Ames Cottage File:Ames Cottage, Saranac Lake, NY.jpg 19 Church Street
Script error: No such module "Coordinates". 		Harrietstown A Queen Anne style cure cottage built about 1906.[5]
Baird Cottage File:Baird Cottage, Saranac Lake, NY.jpg Glenwood Rd.
Script error: No such module "Coordinates". 		Harrietstown A virtually intact cure cottage built in 1930, near the end of the cure cottage era.[6]
Barngalow File:Barngalow, Saranac Lake, NY.jpg 40 Cliff Road
Script error: No such module "Coordinates". 		Harrietstown A two-story cure cottage that was originally a barn, converted to residential use in 1910.
Bogie Cottage File:Bogie Cottage, Saranac Lake, NY.jpg 15 Franklin Avenue
Script error: No such module "Coordinates". 		North Elba A 1908, American Craftsman-inspired cure cottage
Camp Intermission File:Camp Intermission, Saranac Lake, NY.jpg Northwest Bay Rd.
Script error: No such module "Coordinates". 		Harrietstown A Great Camp built for theatrical agent William Morris, designed by William G. Distin[7]
Peyton Clark Cottage File:Clark-Peyton Cottage, Saranac Lake, NY.JPG 36 Rockledge Rd.
Script error: No such module "Coordinates". 		St. Armand A 1915 large, Tudor-style, <templatestyles src="Fraction/styles.css" />2+1⁄2-story cure cottage designed by William H. Scopes. The owner was a civil engineer whose wife had tuberculosis.
Church Street Historic District File:116 Main St. Saranac Lake, NY.jpg Roughly, Church St. from Main St. to St. Bernard St.
Script error: No such module "Coordinates". 		Harrietstown Twenty-seven buildings including three churches, a medical laboratory, ten homes, two libraries, six cure cottages, most built between the late 1870s and 1900.[8]
Colbath Cottage File:Colbath Cottage, Saranac Lake, NY.jpg 63 River St.
Script error: No such module "Coordinates". 		Harrietstown A Queen Anne-style cure cottage built about 1896.[9]
Cottage Row Historic District File:Gonzales Cottage, Saranac Lake, NY.jpg Roughly, Park Ave. N side from Rosemont Ave. to Catherine St.
Script error: No such module "Coordinates". 		Harrietstown Twenty-seven cure cottage built between 1900 and 1940.
Coulter Cottage File:Coulter Cottage, Saranac Lake, NY.jpg 82 Shepard Ave.
Script error: No such module "Coordinates". 		North Elba A <templatestyles src="Fraction/styles.css" />2+1⁄2-story cure cottage designed by William L. Coulter and built between 1897 and 1899 as his residence.
Cure Cottage at 43 Forest Hill Avenue 43 Forest Hill Avenue
Script error: No such module "Coordinates". 		Saranac Lake A two-story cure cottage built about 1912.
Denny Cottage File:Denny Cottage, Saranac Lake, NY.jpg 141 Bloomingdale Ave.
Script error: No such module "Coordinates". 		St. Armand A cure cottage built about 1910.
Distin Cottage File:Distin Cottage, Saranac Lake, NY.jpg 186 Kiwassa Rd.
Script error: No such module "Coordinates". 		Harrietstown A cure cottage designed by architect William G. Distin for his father, photographer William L. Distin, built between 1915 and 1925.
Drury Cottage File:Drury Cottage, Saranac Lake, NY.jpg 52 Bloomingdale Ave.
Script error: No such module "Coordinates". 		Harrietstown A cure cottage built c. 1912.
Ellenberger Cottage File:Ellenberger Cottage, Saranac Lake, NY.jpg 212 Broadway
Script error: No such module "Coordinates". 		Harrietstown A Queen Anne style cure cottage built before 1917.
Fallon Cottage Annex File:Fallon Cottage Annex, Saranac Lake, NY.jpg 83 Franklin St.
Script error: No such module "Coordinates". 		North Elba A 1901 cure cottage.[10]
Feisthamel-Edelberg Cottage File:Feisthamel-Edelberg Cottage, Saranac Lake, NY.jpg 203 Neil St.
Script error: No such module "Coordinates". 		Harrietstown An intact cure cottage built before 1915.
Feustmann Cottage File:Feustmann Cottage.jpg 83 Catherine St.
Script error: No such module "Coordinates". 		Harrietstown A private cure cottage designed by architect Maurice Feustmann for use by his own family.
Freer Cottage File:Freer Cottage, Saranac Lake, NY.jpg 267 Kiwassa St.
Script error: No such module "Coordinates". 		Harrietstown A largely intact private cure cottage built before 1925
E. L. Gray House File:E L Gray Cottage, Saranac Lake, NY.jpg 27 Helen St.
Script error: No such module "Coordinates". 		Harrietstown A cure cottage designed by Scopes and Feustmann, built between 1911 and 1913.
Hathaway Cottage File:Hathaway Cottage, Saranac Lake, NY.JPG 168 Charles St.
Script error: No such module "Coordinates". 		Harrietstown A largely intact American Craftsman cure cottage built about 1900.
Highland Park Historic District File:The Christy Mathewson Cottage.jpg Roughly, Park Ave. from Military Rd. to 170 Park Ave.
Script error: No such module "Coordinates". 		St. Armand Seventeen private, single-family homes built between 1896 and 1930; most include cure cottage features.
Helen Hill Historic District Prescott Place, Helen & Front Sts., Sheppard, Franklin & Clinton Aves.
Script error: No such module "Coordinates". 		St. Armand Includes nine previously listed cure cottages.
Hill Cottage File:Hill Cottage, Saranac Lake, NY.JPG 76 Franklin Ave.
Script error: No such module "Coordinates". 		North Elba A 1913 Craftsman-style cure cottage.
Hillside Lodge File:Hillside Lodge, Saranac Lake, NY.JPG Harrietstown Rd.
Script error: No such module "Coordinates". 		Harrietstown An intact cure cottage built about 1920.
The Homestead File:The Homestead, Saranac Lake, NY.jpg 17 Maple Hill
Script error: No such module "Coordinates". 		Harrietstown A boarding cure cottage built in 1890.
Hooey Cottage File:Hooey Cottage, Saranac Lake, NY.jpg 4 Prescott Pl.
Script error: No such module "Coordinates". 		Harrietstown A 1916 cure cottage.
Hopkins Cottage File:Hopkins Cottage, Saranac Lake, NY.jpg 58 Birch St.
Script error: No such module "Coordinates". 		Harrietstown A cure cottage built in 1923.
Jennings Cottage File:Jennings Cottage, Saranac Lake, NY.JPG 23 Marshall St.
Script error: No such module "Coordinates". 		Harrietstown An 1896 Bungalow-style cure cottage.
Johnson Cottage File:Johnson Cottage, Saranac Lake, NY.jpg 46 St. Bernard St.
Script error: No such module "Coordinates". 		Harrietstown A largely intact cure cottage built before 1896.
Kennedy Cottage File:Kennedy Cottage, Saranac Lake, NY.jpg 98 Shepard Ave.
Script error: No such module "Coordinates". 		North Elba An 1897 cure cottage that was used by the National Vaudeville Artists Philanthropic Association prior to the construction of the Will Rogers Hospital.
Lane Cottage File:Lane Cottage, Saranac Lake, NY.jpg 5 Rockledge Rd.
Script error: No such module "Coordinates". 		North Elba A 1923 cure cottage built by Edward Shaw for his wife, who had tuberculosis. The Shaws had two young children; fearing that they would contract TB from Mrs. Shaw, a separate house was built for them, nearby.
Larom Cottage File:Larom Cottage, Saranac Lake, NY.jpg 247 Park Ave.
Script error: No such module "Coordinates". 		Harrietstown A cure cottage built between 1905 and 1910.
Larom-Welles Cottage File:Larom Welles Cottage, Saranac Lake, NY.jpg 50 Cliff Road
Script error: No such module "Coordinates". 		Harrietstown A 1905, three-story, wood-frame cure cottage, built for the priest of St. Lukes Episcopal Church, later the home of Dr. Edward Welles, a pioneer in thoracic surgery, who practiced at the Adirondack Cottage Sanatorium.
Dr. Henry Leetch House File:Dr. Henry Leetch House, Saranac Lake, NY.jpg 12 Labrador Lane
Script error: No such module "Coordinates". 		North Elba A 1932 cure cottage designed by William L. Distin for Dr. Henry Leetch, who specialized in treating tuberculosis, and who had the disease himself.
Leis Block File:Leis Block, Saranac Lake, NY.jpg 12 Bloomingdale Ave.
Script error: No such module "Coordinates". 		Harrietstown A 1902 commercial building with apartments built with "cure porches", it originally housed Henry P. Leis pianos and a pharmacy on its first floor. The pharmacy at one time was named Terminal Pharmacy due to the fact that it was the bus stop. Later it was renamed Hoffman Pharmacy.
Leis Cottage File:Leis Cottage, Saranac Lake, NY.jpg 401 State Route 3
Script error: No such module "Coordinates". 		Harrietstown A private, shingled cure cottage built about 1906.
Lent Cottage File:Lent Cottage, Saranac Lake, NY.jpg 108 Franklin Ave.
Script error: No such module "Coordinates". 		North Elba An apartment house, built about 1920 as a cure cottage
Little Red File:Little Red of the Adirondack Cottage Sanitorium.jpg 154Algonquin Ave.
Script error: No such module "Coordinates". 		Harrietstown The original cure cottage of the Adirondack Cottage Sanitorium founded by Dr. Edward Livingston Trudeau.
Magill Cottage File:Magill Cottage, Saranac Lake, NY.JPG 74 Kiwassa Road
Script error: No such module "Coordinates". 		Harrietstown A cure cottage built about 1911.
Marquay Cottage File:Marquay Cottage, Saranac Lake, NY.jpg 67 Slater St.
Script error: No such module "Coordinates". 		North Elba A 1914, Queen Anne-style cure cottage built of rusticated cast-concrete blocks, with an octagonal corner tower.
Marvin Cottage File:Marvin Cottage, Saranac Lake, NY.jpg 113 Franklin St.
Script error: No such module "Coordinates". 		North Elba A cure cottage built about 1900.
McBean Cottage File:McBean Cottage, Saranac Lake, NY.jpg 192 Park Ave.
Script error: No such module "Coordinates". 		Harrietstown A Colonial Revival cure cottage with Craftsman-style touches, built between 1915 and 1925.
Morgan Cottage File:Morgan Cottage, Saranac Lake, NY.jpg 211 Park Ave.
Script error: No such module "Coordinates". 		Harrietstown A 1915 bungalow designed by Scopes and Feustmann as a cure cottage.
Musselman Cottage File:Musselman Cottage, Saranac Lake, NY.jpg 60 Kiwassa Road
Script error: No such module "Coordinates". 		Harrietstown A boardinghouse-style cure cottage built about 1907.
Noyes Cottage The Noyes Cottage at 16 Helen Street, Saranac Lake 35 Helen St.
Script error: No such module "Coordinates". 		Harrietstown A cure cottage built in 1898.
Partridge Cottage File:Partridge Cottage, Saranac Lake, NY.jpg 30 Clinton Avenue
Script error: No such module "Coordinates". 		North Elba A 1925 Colonial Revival apartment house, with three apartments used as a cure cottages for three families.
Pittenger Cottage File:Pittenger Cottage, Saranac Lake, NY.jpg 494 Forest Hill Ave.
Script error: No such module "Coordinates". 		North Elba A cure cottage with five cure porches, built about 1920.
Pomeroy Cottage File:Pomeroy Cottage, Saranac Lake, NY.jpg 55 Baker St.
Script error: No such module "Coordinates". 		Harrietstown A built about 1910, it may have been designed as a private cure cottage by William G. Distin.
Radwell Cottage File:Radwell Cottage, Saranac Lake, NY.jpg 178 Charles St.
Script error: No such module "Coordinates". 		Harrietstown An intact 1896 cure cottage.
Ryan Cottage File:Ryan Cottage, Saranac Lake, NY.jpg 29 Algonquin Ave.
Script error: No such module "Coordinates". 		Harrietstown An 1893 Queen Anne-style cure cottage.
Sarbanes Cottage File:Sarbanes Cottage, Saranac Lake, NY.jpg 129 Bloomingdale Ave.
Script error: No such module "Coordinates". 		Harrietstown A cure cottage built about 1930.
Orin Savage Cottage File:Orin Savage Cottage, Saranac Lake, NY.jpg 117 Olive St.
Script error: No such module "Coordinates". 		Harrietstown A cure cottage built about 1910.
Schrader-Griswold Cottage File:Schrader-Griswold Cottage, Saranac Lake, NY.jpg 116 Kiwassa Road
Script error: No such module "Coordinates". 		Harrietstown A 1906 Queen Anne-style cure cottage.
Seeley Cottage File:Seeley Cottage, Saranac Lake, NY.jpg 127 Olive St.
Script error: No such module "Coordinates". 		Harrietstown An intact cure cottage built in 1890.
Sloan Cottage File:Sloan Cottage, Saranac Lake, NY.jpg 31 View St.
Script error: No such module "Coordinates". 		Harrietstown A Coulter and Westhoff-designed single-family cure cottage built in 1907.
Smith Cottage File:Smith Cottage, Saranac Lake, NY.jpg 25 Jenkins St.
Script error: No such module "Coordinates". 		Harrietstown A cure cottage for a single patient built about 1903.
Stevenson Cottage File:Saranac Lake - Stevenson Cottage.jpg 44 Stevenson Ln.
Script error: No such module "Coordinates". 		St. Armand A cure cottage used by Robert Louis Stevenson in 1887.
Stonaker Cottage File:Stonaker Cottage, Saranac Lake, NY.JPG 92 Glenwood Drive
Script error: No such module "Coordinates". 		Harrietstown A private home built in 1916 for the president of Northern New York Telephone who used it as a cure cottage.
Stuckman Cottage File:Stuckman Cottage, Saranac Lake, NY.JPG 7 Fawn Street
Script error: No such module "Coordinates". 		North Elba A cure cottage built between 1897 and 1900.
Walker Cottage File:The Walker Cottage.jpg 134 Park Ave.
Script error: No such module "Coordinates". 		Harrietstown A 1904 Colonial Revival-style house that evolved into a cure cottage.[10]
Wilson Cottage File:Wilson Cottage, Saranac Lake, NY.jpg 21 William St.
Script error: No such module "Coordinates". 		Harrietstown An intact Queen Anne-style cure cottage.
Witherspoon Cottage File:Witherspoon Cottage, Saranac Lake, NY.JPG 164 Kiwassa Rd.
Script error: No such module "Coordinates". 		Harrietstown A boardinghouse-style cure cottage built in 1910.

Notes

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  1. ↑ a b Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  2. ↑ Note that the Village of Saranac Lake is divided between three towns, two of which, North Elba and St. Armond, are located in Essex County, while Harrietstown is in Franklin County.
  3. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  4. ↑ "National Register of Historic Places Registration: Dr. A. H. Allen Cottage" Template:Webarchive
  5. ↑ "National Register of Historic Places Registration: Ames Cottage" Template:Webarchive
  6. ↑ "National Register of Historic Places Registration: Baird Cottage" Template:Webarchive
  7. ↑ "National Register of Historic Places Registration: Camp Intermission" Template:Webarchive
  8. ↑ "National Register of Historic Places Registration: Church Street Historic District" Template:Webarchive
  9. ↑ "National Register of Historic Places Registration: Colbath Cottage" Template:Webarchive
  10. ↑ a b Gallos, Phillip L., Cure Cottages of Saranac Lake, Historic Saranac Lake, 1985, Template:ISBN.

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Sources

External links

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