EXPLORING THE ADIRONDACKS:

AN ARCHITECTURAL TOUR OF A GREAT RUSTIC TRADITION
COMING IN SEPTEMBER 2009

For one week in September 2009, tour private and public camps of the Adirondacks, led by experts in the field of architectural history and preservation, and local historians. Our tour includes meals and accommodations and dining at the Minnowbrook Conference Center in Blue Mountain Lake, and the Crowne Plaza in Lake Placid.

If not always unique, resort architecture in the Adirondacks does possess distinctive architectural characteristics that have become closely associated with a regional rustic style. The phenomenon most identified is the "camp," a loosely used term denoting a single-family residential compound as well as a recreational center for an organized group. "Camp" in the Adirondacks has been used much like "cottage" in Newport: a term of understatement, referring to a grand residence. However, ever since the term began to be applied to summer residences over a century ago, "camp" has meant anything its owners choose to so name.

Numerous camps possess a feature that separates them from most other forms of residential building in the United States – they are comprised of several buildings, divided more or less according to function. The archetypal configuration on an ambitious scale is to have one building devoted to gathering places for family and guests, sometimes called a lodge or hall; another for meals, cooking, and storage; a third for family quarters; others for guest quarters; recreational use; and others to house service functions and staff. The buildings are typically designed and decorated using a variety of native, rustic materials such as stone, logs, bark, wood shingles, and other wooden ornament so that the buildings seem to grow out of their forested landscape. This approach to design and site planning had aesthetic appeal because it allowed a complex to impart casualness in its layout and to have its components at a scale that seemed natural and in harmony with the environs. Perhaps more importantly, if fire occurred in one space, separation improved the chances that others would survive.

Day 1

Arrival and pick-up at Albany Airport - welcome and introductions

Day 2

Adirondack Museum – Here we will be given an introductory lecture by museum curators on the rustic tradition in the Adirondacks and see the Museum.

Camp Sagamore – Constructed between 1897 and 1899, Sagamore was the last and most ambitious of William West Durant’s camp building ventures, sequestered on its own lake amid a preserve of over 1500 acres.

Camp Uncas – Created between 1893 and 1895, Camp Uncas represents a decisive turning point in Durant’s career, when he undertook the development of enormous compounds, set in complete isolation. Like Sagamore, Uncas was situated on a preserve of approximately 1500 acres, with its own lake.

Day 3

Big Moose Lake – This portion of the tour will explore the distinctive vertical half-log constructed architecture on Big Moose Lake, including the work of Henry Covey, his son Earl, and the Martin family. We will visit Big Moose Chapel and Manse, The Waldheim, Covewood Lodge, and Brown Gables.

Day 4

Pine Knot – A Durant-designed camp, Pine Knot was in a state of more or less continual change, which can be divided into three primary campaigns: 1876-1877; 1879-1882; and 1889-1892.

St. Williams on Long Point – Built by Durant in 1890 to meet the needs of his Catholic workers, St. William’s is located on the opposite side of the Long Point peninsula that Camp Pine Knot housed Durant’s family.

W.W. Durant cruise on Raquette Lake – After visiting Pine Knot and St. William’s enjoy an afternoon lunch and narrated cruise on Raquette Lake.

Day 5

Tupper Lake – Hemlock Ledge was designed by Julian Clarence Levi and built in 1906-1907 for Harry Levy, a distiller, and his wife Jeannette of Cincinnati, Ohio; details of the design and construction were kept in diaries that Levi kept. He also designed the next door camp for Sidney Pritz, a friend of Harry Levy and a fellow distiller from Cincinnati. We will also look at a more recently built camp, a contemporary interpretation of the rustic tradition.

Beth Joseph Synagogue – The exterior of the 1905-1906 Beth Joseph Synagogue, the only surviving early synagogue in the region, was outwardly articulated with Romanesque Revival features more typical of architectural fashion fifty years earlier, when the first great wave of Jewish immigrants began to arrive in northeastern American cities.

Day 6

White Pine Camp – Situated on the eastern end of Osgood Pond, White Pine Camp served as President Calvin Coolidge’s 1926 Summer White House.

Prospect Point – Designed in 1904 by William L. Coulter, the first resident architect to establish a practice in the Adirondack region, for the Lewisohns, a prominent merchant family.

Eagle Island – Designed by William L. Coulter in 1903 for Levi Parson Morton, a banker by profession, who also served as Vice President of the United States, under President Benjamin Harrison (1889-1893), and later became the thirty-second governor of New York State from 1894 to 1896.

Day 7

The Uplands – Built between c. 1907-1910 for Joseph Tilden Alling, the house is comprised of several connected buildings, the principal one of which contains an enormous all-purpose living hall at ground level.

Ausable Club – Opening in July 1890 as the St. Huberts Inn, the property was purchased in 1906 by the Adirondack Mountain Reserve for the Ausable Club, and over the nine ensuing decades, has remained the nerve center of the club. Among the hundreds of mountain resort hotels built in the United States during the late nineteenth century, this is a very rare example that stands largely in its original state.

Departure

---

For registration information please contact the Adirondack Architectural Heritage office at info@aarch.org

Mail this form with your payment to:
Adirondack Architectural Heritage
1790 Main Street
Civic Center Suite 37
Keeseville, NY 12944

 

Adirondack Architectural Heritage

AARCH is the non-profit, historic preservation organization for the Adirondack Park. We offer marvelous day-long guided tours to the most intriguing places in the region, including its Great Camps, industrial and military sites, diverse communities and institutions.