This is the largest, most comprehensive collection in existence of images depicting the history of Lake Placid, consisting of the 333 historic slides compiled by the late public historian Mary MacKenzie, digitally restored by Lee Manchester. TO PURCHASE A BOUND, PRINT EDITION, GO TO http://stores.lulu.com/marymackenzie

1. The village

3. 1890 postcard showing view from Signal Hill looking toward village
219

4. The view down Mirror Lake, ca. 1890
220

5. Another view down Mirror Lake, ca. 1890
221

6. Boating on Mirror Lake, ca. 1900
222

7. A small group of business buildings that once stood at the intersection
of Main Street and Mirror Lake Drive at the base of Saranac Avenue,
shot around 1920. The lot is now a small village park.
223

8. The same small complex, from the lake. The first of these buildings, on
the right, was built between 1898 and 1909. In 1920, that building housed
a beauty supply shop, Maison de Venus. A small produce shop, the
Tampa Fruit Co., was opened in 1919 in the building on the left end.
224

9. Upper village, at turn off Main Street onto Saranac Avenue, 1903
225

10. Main Street coach, 1900
226

11. Lake Placid Transfer Company coach, 1907
227

12. Old Town Clock
Livery (current
address 2541
Main Street). In
1903, the Devlin
Block of shops
and apartments
was built on this
site.
228

13. Paving Main Street with brick, 1921
229

14. Building Hillcrest Avenue
230

15. Ready to pave with brick, 1921
231

16. Main Street … paved!
232

17. Although street paving was completed in 1921, that didn’t mean snow
didn’t still muck up the streets of Lake Placid. (Photo dated 1926)
233

18. Early snow roller
234

19. Brownell shooting gallery, 1895 [later, Kaiser Photo]
235

20. The top of Main Street, 1901 — Brownell & Kaiser Photo on right
236

21. Henry Kaiser’s photo shop, ca. 1903
237

22. Henry Kaiser and Mrs. W.W. Brownell
238

23. Main Street boardwalk; Lake Placid Public Library in background
239

24. Lake Placid Public Library, 1903
240

25. Program for the
Happy Hour
Theater, built in
1911 [current
street address,
2523 Main Street]
— expanded in
the 1920s — now
The Wanda, an
apartment
building
241

26. First North Elba Town Hall, 1910; built 1908
242

27. Theater in old Town Hall, 1910
243

28. Old Town Hall after fire, Feb. 11, 1915
244

29. Lake Placid Military Band posing in front of the new Town Hall
245

31. Newman

33. The dam and sawmill on Mill Pond, 1885, which drove the development of what
many thought of as a separate village to the south of Lake Placid — Newman.
249

34. Horatio
Hinckley,
builder of the
house (in the
early 1840s)
later occupied
by Anna
Newman
(1875) at
Heaven Hill.
250

35. Anna Newman’s house at Heaven Hill, 1885
251

36. Anna Newman
252

37. G.G. White general store, corner of Station Street and Mill Hill road, 1886
253

38. Opera House, corner of Station Street, bottom of Mill Hill, 1900
254

39. Left, blacksmith shop (later, an IGA grocery store, now closed);
right, Raeoil Building (now Downhill Grill), bottom of Mill Hill, ca. 1900
255

40. George Chellis house, next to Lamb Lumber, ca. 1900
256

41. Cummings boarding house, later W. Wells building, top of Mill Hill
257

42. Mill Pond, 1900
258

43. Mill Hill, 1905 (note electric lines). Large building is
Weston, Bull & Mihill, above the Raeoil Building
259

45. Placid Lake

47. View of Paradox Bay from Mount Whitney
263

48. Yacht Club
264

49. Boating at Undercliff, 1895
265

50. Up the lake, 1903
266

51. The Carry (from Placid to Mirror lake), 1903
267

52. Sailboat, 1903
268

53. The Doris

55. The Stevens House hotel atop Signal Hill had a large and well-stocked boathouse on
Placid Lake’s Paradox Bay. Of distinct advantage to them was the busy little fleet of
pleasure boats owned and operated by a third brother, Henry Stevens, whose Ida,
Nereid and grand old Doris plied the lake waters to the delight of tourists.
271

56. The launching of the Doris from the Stevens House boathouse in 1898.
272

57. The Doris cruising on Placid Lake, ca. 1900.
273

58. The crew of the Doris, ca. 1912.
274

59. The Doris, ca. 1910.
275

61. Early churches

63. “Father” Cyrus
Comstock, a
Congregationalist
circuit rider who
served North
Elba’s First
Colony, along
with every other
settlement in
early Essex
County. He came
to the
Adirondacks in
1810, settling in
Lewis. He is
reputedly the
inventor of the
Comstock wagon.
He died in 1853
and is buried in
the Lewis
cemetery.
279

64. Worship services were held in various places in early North Elba —
Osgood’s Inn, the Little Red School — until 1875, when the Union
Church was built. It was familiarly known as the White Church.
280

65. Another shot of the Old White Church, then located on
the corner of Church Street and Old Military Road.
281

66. After the Baptist (1882) and Methodist Episcopal (1888) churches built their
own worship houses in the developing village of Lake Placid, the White
Church building was used by various congregations until shortly after 1915.
282

67. The Lake Placid Grange, which formed in 1908, bought the White Church building
in 1929. After the Grange dissolved, the building stood empty for years. It was
bought in 1988 by Trinity Chapel, an independent congregation, and moved to its
present site, directly behind the Jewish cemetery on Old Military Road.
283

68. The Adirondack Baptist Church was built in 1882. Its site is next to the municipal
parking lot, directly across Main Street from the former Bank of Lake Placid
(now an NBT Bank branch). It was torn down in the 1950s to make way for a
new Nazarene church, which was abandoned in the early 2000s.
284

69. Another shot of the Baptist church, from behind, looking out
over Mirror Lake. The building was torn down about 1953.
285

70. Rev. Otis Dike, pastor of the Baptist church from 1898 to 1918, standing on the steps of the church.
The Baptist parsonage, built in 1888 next door to and behind the church (to the north), later became
the parsonage of a Nazarene church built in 1956. The Nazarene parsonage was sold along with the
church in 2005 to the Adirondack Museum; the parsonage was demolished in 2006.
286

71. The first Methodist Episcopal church building was a wooden
frame structure that was dedicated on Aug. 23, 1888.
287

72. Another shot of the Methodist church building, taken around 1900. The old
wooden building was sold and moved to School Street on Nov. 2, 1923, to
make way for the construction of the current building, built of stone. At this
writing (in 2008), the old building serves as a sports bar called “Wise Guys.”
288

73. In front of the old Methodist church after Sunday services, ca. 1914.
289

74. The tree outside
the old Methodist
church building
was decorated
with lights at
Christmastime.
“The Methodist
tree” stood there
for many years,
until it started
dying and had to
be removed in
2005.
290

75. Lake Placid’s first Catholic church, St. Agnes, was built in 1896. The current address of that
location is 2487 Main Street. The building was desanctified in 1905 when the second St.
Agnes was opened on Saranac Avenue at the church’s current location. The steeple was
removed from the former sanctuary on Main Street in 1906 after it became a hardware store.
291

76. St. Eustace-by-the-Lakes Episcopal Church, ca.1901. The building, completed in
the early spring of 1900, stood on Placid Lake; the location is now the lower lawn
of George and Ruth Hart’s Signal Hill home. The building was later dismantled
and rebuilt on Main Street. The new building was dedicated on June 19, 1927.
292

77. The Episcopal Parish House, built in 1901. Its current address is
2515 Main Street. The Parish House served as a community center
for the new village, not just for Episcopalians but for everyone.
293

78. Interior, Episcopal Parish Hall
294

79. Camp Irondequoit (“Where the Waves Breathe and Die”), built on the East Lake around 1900
by the Rev. W.W. Moir, the Episcopal minister also responsible for building the Parish House.
Camp Irondequoit provided spiritual and physical recreation for boys. (Photo W.F. Cheesman)
295

80. St. Hubert’s Episcopal Church, Sentinel Road, Newman. Designed by architect William
G. Distin, it was built in 1902. It was sold to the Pilgrim Holiness congregation in 1927.
The building burned on Feb. 10, 1954, but was rebuilt upon similar design features.
296

81. Schools

83. Christmas card showing Little Red Schoolhouse at the Newman Road site
299

84. Lake Placid Union School class picture, June 14, 1899
300

85. Lake Placid “wooden high school,” ca. 1915
301

87. Roads

89. Cascade Road stagecoach, 1870
305

90. Mrs. MacKenzie identified this as a 19th century photo of the Cascade Road. Ed Palen,
however, believes that it shows the road coming out of Elizabethtown, about half-way
toward Keene. Palen says, “The peak on the right is called Pitch-off, as is the more
famous Pitch-off in Cascade Pass. That must be where the confusion came from.”
306

91. Wilmington Road, winter
307

92. Wilmington Road, 1903
308

93. John Brown

95. The headstone of John Brown’s grandfather, a Revolutionary War veteran, was brought to North
Elba by his grandson. “Our” John Brown’s death, however, and that of his son Oliver, are recorded
on the lower part of the grandfather’s stone. Today, this marker is enclosed in a glass housing.
311

96. Two portraits of Gerrit Smith, the benefactor of North Elba’s black colony. John Brown first
came to North Elba in 1849 to help this colony of free-born African-American tradesmen,
almost all of them born in the state of New York, as they tried their hands at farming.
312

97. North Elba’s
Thompson family
became closely
tied to that of
John Brown, both
by marriage and
by their mutual
hatred of slavery.
This is a photo of
Dauphin
Thompson, killed
at age 21 on John
Brown’s raid at
Harper’s Ferry.
313

98. Henry Thompson,
John Brown’s
son-in-law, was
wounded in the
Kansas “Free
State” skirmishes,
but he did not
participate in the
Harper’s Ferry
raid. Henry built
John Brown’s
house for his
family, which
stands today at
the John Brown
Farm State
Historic Site.
314

99. William
Thompson was
slaughtered by a
mob after being
taken captive at
Harper’s Ferry.
315

100. Labeled “Isabell
and Watson
Brown,” this
photo shows
Belle Thompson
Brown, widow of
John Brown’s son
Watson, and her
son, Frederick W.
Brown, better
known as Freddy.
Freddy died of
diphtheria at the
age of 4 and is
buried in the
North Elba
Cemetery.
316

101. John Brown’s house in North Elba, ca. 1880.
317

102. Two more photos taken around 1880.
318

103. In this 1899 photo at the Brown cemetery, 12 more of the men killed
in the Harper’s Ferry raid are being reburied alongside their leader.
319

105. Moving pictures

107. Set for “Out of the Snows.” In February 1920, the Selznick Company shot “Out of
the Snows” on Lake Placid in the lee of Pulpit Rock, with Whiteface as a backdrop.
In this dramatic framework, the ship “Pole Star” lies marooned in “Arctic” ice.
323

108. After the burning of the “Pole Star” in “Out of the Snows.”
324

109. On the set of “Janice Meredith,” by far the most legendary film made at Placid. A famous
Revolutionary War tale, it starred the delectable Marion Davies, close companion of William
Randolph Hearst, and was produced by Cosmopolitan to the tune of a million dollars.
325

111. Farming

113. Farm on Adirondack Lodge Road, 1878
329

114. Buck and Star, members of an ox team
330

115. Bennett farm, Cascade Road, 1880
331

116. Old Ware farm
332

117. Farm on Old Military Road opposite North Elba Cemetery
333

119. Lake Placid Club

121. Albert Billings’ farmhouse on the east side of Mirror Lake, built in the 1870s, was sold to
John Fraser in the later 1880s. Fraser operated it as a boardinghouse, which he called
“Bonnieblink,” visible on the far side of the lake, at center, in this 1890 photograph.
337

122. In 1895, Melvil Dewey leased Bonnieblink for the summer as part of
his new Placid Park Club. The following February, he bought
Bonnieblink. Following expansions, it became the Lakeside clubhouse.
338

123. Melvil Dewey,
creator of the
Lake Placid Club
339

124. A hand-tinted postcard, 1905
340

125. The Lake Placid Club boathouse
341

126. The Iroquois Council Fire, an annual end-of-summer
LPC ritual, was held each Labor Day weekend.
342

127. The Lake Placid Club’s “Morningside” campus, on the eastern shore of Mirror Lake, ca. 1905.
343

128. The Lake Placid Club’s Mohawk clubhouse, located on the south side of the
Wilmington Road. Built around 1850 by Roswell Thompson, it was acquired in the
late 1890s by the Isham family, who operated it as the Placid Heights Inn. The
building was purchased by the Club in January 1906, and was immediately enlarged.
344

129. Circa 1906.
345

130. The LPC’s Stanley Steamer at the Lake Placid Club Chicken Farm.
346

131. Placid at war

133. World War I draftees
349

134. WWI Welcome Home parade, July 4, 1919
350

135. More WWI Welcome Home festivities, July 4, 1919
351

136. New York Gov. Thomas Dewey, second from left, front, visits Lake Placid during the Army
occupation, 1944; also in photo are Willis Wells, Deo Colburn, Mayor Luke Perkins
352

137. New York Gov. Thomas Dewey, center, and Luke Perkins, riding shotgun
353

139. Miscellaneous personages

141. Polly and Thomas
Brewster, parents
of Benjamin
Brewster, one of
the two original
settlers of the
village of Lake
Placid. They are
buried in the
North Elba
Cemetery.
357

142. In 1850, John
Thompson was
elected as the first
supervisor of the
new North Elba
township.
358

143. Jerod Taylor
Rosman, better
known as Jed,
seated on the
steps of the
Adirondak Loj.
Rosman became
very well-known
in North Elba
during his reign
as head guide at
the Loj from 1920
to 1936. His
specialty was
Mount Marcy and
Indian Pass. As a
conservationist,
Rosman took
great pride in
reforestation
projects around
Heart Lake.
359

144. Calvin Coolidge visiting Saranac Lake, 1926
360

145. George Stevens,
younger brother
and partner of
John Stevens,
proprietors of the
Stevens House.
George Stevens
was also the
founding
president of the
Bank of Lake
Placid.
361

147. Miscellaneous

149. “Camping in the Adirondacks,” 1870
365

150. Lake Placid
guides, late 19th
century
366

151. 1906 three-panel postcard: St. Agnes Catholic
Church (No. 2), the Doris, and the Lake Placid Inn
367

152. Fred Fortune’s camp at the end of Bear Cub Road was once a speakeasy called “The Bear
Cub.” It’s not certain whether the road was named for the watering hole, or vice versa.
368

153. Unidentified child, 1890s
369

154. Staff of the (Lake Placid) Mountain Mirror, predecessor of the Lake Placid News. The first
issue was published Dec. 8, 1893, but the paper didn’t last for much longer than a year.
370

155. Polo team, late 1920s
371