Cure Cottages of Saranac Lake


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.

Beginnings

Dr. Edward Livingston Trudeau, 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.
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

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 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

Sixty-four of the hundreds of cure cottages still extant in Saranac Lake have been placed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Landmark nameImageLocationTownSummary
Adirondack Cottage SanitariumTrudeau Rd.
St. ArmandA tuberculosis sanitorium established in 1882 by Dr. Edward Livingston Trudeau, later called the Trudeau Sanitorium.
Dr. A. H. Allen Cottage11 Woodycrest Road
HarrietstownA 1909 Scopes and Feustmann-designed cure cottage.
Ames Cottage19 Church Street
HarrietstownA Queen Anne style cure cottage built about 1906.
Baird CottageGlenwood Rd.
HarrietstownA virtually intact cure cottage built in 1930, near the end of the cure cottage era.
Barngalow40 Cliff Road
HarrietstownA two-story cure cottage that was originally a barn, converted to residential use in 1910.
Bogie Cottage15 Franklin Avenue
North ElbaA 1908, American Craftsman-inspired cure cottage
Camp IntermissionNorthwest Bay Rd.
HarrietstownA Great Camp built for theatrical agent William Morris, designed by William G. Distin
Peyton Clark Cottage36 Rockledge Rd.
St. ArmandA 1915 large, Tudor-style, 2 and 1/2 story cure cottage designed by William H. Scopes. The owner was a civil engineer whose wife had tuberculosis.
Church Street Historic DistrictRoughly, Church St. from Main St. to St. Bernard St.
HarrietstownTwenty-seven buildings including three churches, a medical laboratory, ten homes, two libraries, six cure cottages, most built between the late 1870s and 1900.
Colbath Cottage63 River St.
HarrietstownA Queen Anne-style cure cottage built about 1896.
Cottage Row Historic DistrictRoughly, Park Ave. N side from Rosemont Ave. to Catherine St.
HarrietstownTwenty-seven cure cottage built between 1900 and 1940.
Coulter Cottage82 Shepard Ave.
North ElbaA two and 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 Avenue43 Forest Hill Avenue
Saranac LakeA two-story cure cottage built about 1912.
Denny Cottage141 Bloomingdale Ave.
St. ArmandA cure cottage built about 1910.
Distin Cottage186 Kiwassa Rd.
HarrietstownA cure cottage designed by architect William G. Distin for his father, photographer William L. Distin, built between 1915 and 1925.
Drury Cottage52 Bloomingdale Ave.
HarrietstownA cure cottage built c. 1912.
Ellenberger Cottage212 Broadway
HarrietstownA Queen Anne style cure cottage built before 1917.
Fallon Cottage Annex83 Franklin St.
North ElbaA 1901 cure cottage.
Feisthamel-Edelberg Cottage203 Neil St.
HarrietstownAn intact cure cottage built before 1915.
Feustmann Cottage83 Catherine St.
HarrietstownA private cure cottage designed by architect Maurice Feustmann for use by his own family.
Freer Cottage267 Kiwassa St.
HarrietstownA largely intact private cure cottage built before 1925
E. L. Gray House27 Helen St.
HarrietstownA cure cottage designed by Scopes and Feustmann, built between 1911 and 1913.
Hathaway Cottage168 Charles St.
HarrietstownA largely intact American Craftsman cure cottage built about 1900.
Highland Park Historic DistrictRoughly, Park Ave. from Military Rd. to 170 Park Ave.
St. ArmandSeventeen private, single-family homes built between 1896 and 1930; most include cure cottage features.
Helen Hill Historic DistrictPrescott Place, Helen & Front Sts., Sheppard, Franklin & Clinton Aves.
St. ArmandIncludes nine previously listed cure cottages.
Hill Cottage76 Franklin Ave.
North ElbaA 1913 Craftsman-style cure cottage.
Hillside LodgeHarrietstown Rd.
HarrietstownAn intact cure cottage built about 1920.
The Homestead17 Maple Hill
HarrietstownA boarding cure cottage built in 1890.
Hooey Cottage4 Prescott Pl.
HarrietstownA 1916 cure cottage.
Hopkins Cottage58 Birch St.
HarrietstownA cure cottage built in 1923.
Jennings Cottage23 Marshall St.
HarrietstownAn 1896 Bungalow-style cure cottage.
Johnson Cottage46 St. Bernard St.
HarrietstownA largely intact cure cottage built before 1896.
Kennedy Cottage98 Shepard Ave.
North ElbaAn 1897 cure cottage that was used by the National Vaudeville Artists Philanthropic Association prior to the construction of the Will Rogers Hospital.
Lane Cottage5 Rockledge Rd.
North ElbaA 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 Cottage247 Park Ave.
HarrietstownA cure cottage built between 1905 and 1910.
Larom-Welles Cottage50 Cliff Road
HarrietstownA 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 House12 Labrador Lane
North ElbaA 1932 cure cottage designed by William L. Distin for Dr. Henry Leetch, who specialized in treating tuberculosis, and who had the disease himself.
Leis Block12 Bloomingdale Ave.
HarrietstownA 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 Cottage401 State Route 3
HarrietstownA private, shingled cure cottage built about 1906.
Lent Cottage108 Franklin Ave.
North ElbaAn apartment house, built about 1920 as a cure cottage
Little Red154Algonquin Ave.
HarrietstownThe original cure cottage of the Adirondack Cottage Sanitorium founded by Dr. Edward Livingston Trudeau.
Magill Cottage74 Kiwassa Road
HarrietstownA cure cottage built about 1911.
Marquay Cottage67 Slater St.
North ElbaA 1914, Queen Anne-style cure cottage built of rusticated cast-concrete blocks, with an octagonal corner tower.
Marvin Cottage113 Franklin St.
North ElbaA cure cottage built about 1900.
McBean Cottage192 Park Ave.
HarrietstownA Colonial Revival cure cottage with Craftsman-style touches, built between 1915 and 1925.
Morgan Cottage211 Park Ave.
HarrietstownA 1915 bungalow designed by Scopes and Feustmann as a cure cottage.
Musselman Cottage60 Kiwassa Road
HarrietstownA boardinghouse-style cure cottage built about 1907.
Noyes Cottage35 Helen St.
HarrietstownA cure cottage built in 1898.
Partridge Cottage30 Clinton Avenue
North ElbaA 1925 Colonial Revival apartment house, with three apartments used as a cure cottages for three families.
Pittenger Cottage494 Forest Hill Ave.
North ElbaA cure cottage with five cure porches, built about 1920.
Pomeroy Cottage55 Baker St.
HarrietstownA built about 1910, it may have been designed as a private cure cottage by William G. Distin.
Radwell Cottage178 Charles St.
HarrietstownAn intact 1896 cure cottage.
Ryan Cottage29 Algonquin Ave.
HarrietstownAn 1893 Queen Anne-style cure cottage.
Sarbanes Cottage129 Bloomingdale Ave.
HarrietstownA cure cottage built about 1930.
Orin Savage Cottage117 Olive St.
HarrietstownA cure cottage built about 1910.
Schrader-Griswold Cottage116 Kiwassa Road
HarrietstownA 1906 Queen Anne-style cure cottage.
Seeley Cottage127 Olive St.
HarrietstownAn intact cure cottage built in 1890.
Sloan Cottage31 View St.
HarrietstownA Coulter and Westhoff-designed single-family cure cottage built in 1907.
Smith Cottage25 Jenkins St.
HarrietstownA cure cottage for a single patient built about 1903.
Stevenson Cottage44 Stevenson Ln.
St. ArmandA cure cottage used by Robert Louis Stevenson in 1887.
Stonaker Cottage92 Glenwood Drive
HarrietstownA private home built in 1916 for the president of Northern New York Telephone who used it as a cure cottage.
Stuckman Cottage7 Fawn Street
North ElbaA cure cottage built between 1897 and 1900.
Walker Cottage134 Park Ave.
HarrietstownA 1904 Colonial Revival-style house that evolved into a cure cottage.
Wilson Cottage21 William St.
HarrietstownAn intact Queen Anne-style cure cottage.
Witherspoon Cottage164 Kiwassa Rd.
HarrietstownA boardinghouse-style cure cottage built in 1910.