When inspiration strikes, the North Elba Historical Society writes a piece digging into a facet of the history of the Town of North Elba. You can generally find these commentaries posted below and in the Lake Placid News.
An Adirondack Travel Guide
By: Carla Eilo It is always exciting walking into a library or favorite bookstore and perusing the travel section. You can research an area's best day trips, learn about great hotels, and see pictures of some of the attractions. Opening up a travel guide from the late 1800s is just as exciting, especially when it is one describing all of the sights from our neck of the woods. Peeking through "Wallace's Guide to the Adirondacks," you learn about that same detailed information and picture what it was like to plan a vacation 100 years ago. In 1894 author Edwin [...]
Exploring our collections: The Portable Pantry
By: Carla Eilo 2019 With the History Museum being closed for the season, we are excited to plan a new Lake Placid timeline exhibit for the 2016 season. This exhibit will be featured in the space best known to visitors as the General Store. The General Store exhibit shares so many of the domestic items in our collection, ranging from cookware, medicines, and personal items. I enjoy learning about these everyday items that were used. What was fashionable? What made people's lives easier? What do we still use? As the staff is preparing for the new exhibit by moving and [...]
Victor Herbert and “Toyland”
By: Carla Eilo Amid the many yuletide festivities that take place, there are any number of concerts, plays and gatherings filled with holiday music and performances. Whether you find yourself at one of these events or hear music being piped in through shop speakers, there are several seasonal standards that we have all come to expect to hear at least once, if not many times. Perhaps without realizing it, there are a couple of songs we hear this time of year that have made it into holiday compilations and were composed by one of Lake Placid's summer residents. "Toyland" [...]
Holidays at the Lake Placid Club
Christmas and New Year’s at the Lake Placid Club was an especially lively and festive time. The first Christmas celebrations occurred in 1907 when the winter clubhouse and its stone fireplaces were draped in evergreens, Christmas balls and mistletoe. A grand Christmas tree stood in the library with beautiful candles that lit up the room. Christmas Eve began with the search for the yule log led by the Master of Merry Disports and Christmas Day began with carols sung inside the clubhouse and outside by the cottages. David Ackerman’s Lake Placid Club, An Illustrated History, recounts the New Year’s Eve festivities (note [...]
Seymour Dunn Golf Club Shop
By: Carla Eilo If you read our article from last month, you know I have been busy learning the history of the town and organizing and familiarizing myself with the Historical Society's broad museum collection. As I meet new people in Lake Placid, I quickly find that they are excited to tell me about their family history and their connection to the community. What makes a historical society special is the museum collections that come from different families, who tell their stories about their time spent in Lake Placid. As I look through the photos, scrapbooks, and personal objects from [...]
The WCTU Horse Fountain
By Beverley P. Reid, Historian It is just an ordinary black, cast-iron fountain but it has quite a story. It begins at the end of the 19th. century. A ladies group known as “Women’s Christian Temperance Union” was organized to rid the Village of Lake Placid from the evils of drink. However, the odds were against them and it appeared they gave up on the gentlemen and decided to help the horses. At that time there was an old wooden trough situated at the top of “Mill Hill” to refresh the beasts after their long haul up the hill from [...]