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.
Bogie Cottage is a historic cure cottage located at Saranac Lake, town of North Elba in Essex County, New York. It was built in 1908 and is a large, 2+1⁄2-story structure on a granite and fieldstone foundation in the American Craftsman style. It features a hipped roof, shed dormers, two cobblestone chimneys, and a verandah in addition to two levels of cure porches. The house was a registered sanatorium and operated as a boarding cottage at one time.
Fallon Cottage Annex is a historic cure cottage located at Saranac Lake, town of North Elba in Essex County, New York. It was built in 1901 and is a 2+1⁄2-story, shingled frame house on a coursed fieldstone foundation. It features a hipped roof with three cross gables, a small hipped roof dormer, and an octagonal turret or open cupola in the Queen Anne style. It has a ten-bay verandah, one-third of which is a separate cure porch. It was built as a single family residence and adapted for use as a cure cottage over time, operating as such after 1923.
Hill Cottage is a historic cure cottage located at Saranac Lake, town of Harrietstown in Essex and Franklin County, New York. It was built about 1913 and is a two to four story, shingled frame house on a stone foundation, with a jerkinhead gable roof and built into the side of a hill. It features an open first floor porch and second story cure porch on the front facade, four stories of cure porches in the rear, and prominent roof overhangs. It is in the American Craftsman style and designed specifically for use as a private sanatorium.
Peyton Clark Cottage, also known as "Woodthorpe," is a historic cure cottage located at Saranac Lake, town of St. Armand in Essex County, New York. It was built in 1915 and is a 2+1⁄2-story rectangular structure with stucco siding and a gable roof and trimmed with green wood in the Tudor Revival style. It features two over/under cure porches running along the entire south side. A 1971 fire destroyed five bedrooms and the roof.
Stevenson Cottage is a historic cure cottage located at Saranac Lake, town of St. Armand in Essex County, New York. It was built between 1865 and 1866 and is a 1+1⁄2-story, L-shaped wood-frame building on a fieldstone foundation with wood-frame siding. Built as a residence, it was later adapted for use as a cure cottage. Author Robert Louis Stevenson and his family occupied the west wing of the house from October 1887 to April 1888 while he was recovering from a lung ailment. The house was purchased in the 1920s by the Stevenson Society of America, which continues to operate it as a museum of the author's memorabilia.
Marquay Cottage is a historic cure cottage located at Saranac Lake, town of North Elba in Essex County, New York. It was built in 1914 and is a rectangular 2+1⁄2-story dwelling of rusticated cast-concrete blocks with a gable roof and cross-gables. It features an octagonal corner tower with a pyramidal roof in the Queen Anne style. It has a 12-by-6-foot cure porch.
Partridge Cottage is a historic apartment house and cure cottage located at Saranac Lake, town of North Elba in Essex County, New York. It was built in 1925 and is a three-story, dwelling surmounted by a metal roof with gables on all four sides. The south gable takes the form of a steeply pitched gambrel. It displays elements of the Colonial Revival style. It features a verandah that extends to a porte cochere and once had three apartments, one on each floor each with an eight feet by ten feet cure porch. Also on the property is a contributing garage. A basement apartment is believed to have been occupied by the owner.
Distin Cottage is a historic cure cottage located at Saranac Lake in the town of Harrietstown, Franklin County, New York. It was built about 1920 and is a two-story, "L" shaped wood frame single-family dwelling with Colonial Revival style details. It has a hipped roof with a clipped gable and dormers. It features a cure porch measuring 8 feet by 10 feet. It was designed by architect William G. Distin for his father, photographer William L. Distin.
Hooey Cottage is a historic, cure cottage located at Saranac Lake in the town of Harrietstown, Franklin County, New York. It was built in 1916 and is a 2+1⁄2-story dwelling, two- by four-bay, wood frame residence with a cross-gabled roof on a fieldstone foundation. It features a 2-story cure porch.
Hopkins Cottage is a historic cure cottage located at Saranac Lake in the town of Harrietstown, Franklin County, New York. It was built in 1923 and is a rectangular two-story three-bay structure, surmounted by a hipped roof. Each of the four upstairs bedrooms has its own cure porch measuring 8.5 feet by 12 feet. It was used as a private nursing establishment for tuberculosis patients until about 1940.
McBean Cottage is a historic cure cottage located at Saranac Lake in the town of Harrietstown, Franklin County, New York. It was built between 1915 and 1925 and is a 2+1⁄2-story, wood-frame structure on a fieldstone foundation. It is topped by a hipped roof with two hip-roofed dormers in the Colonial Revival style. It has American Craftsman details such as a cobblestone chimney, flared eaves, and wide overhangs with exposed rafters. It features two cure porches and a second-story sleeping porch.
Morgan Cottage is a historic cure cottage located at Saranac Lake in the town of St. Armand, Essex and Franklin County, New York. It was built between 1915 and 1916 and is a 1+1⁄2-story, wood-frame structure on a concrete foundation. The houses as cobblestone walls to the base of the first story windows and clapboards above. It takes a bungalow form with a broad gable roof, overhanging eaves, stone walls, and inset verandah at the front. It features an octagonal cure porch, 12 feet in diameter.
Sarbanes Cottage is a historic cure cottage located at Saranac Lake in the town of Harrietstown, Franklin County, New York. It was built in about 1930 and is a two-story, wood-frame duplex dwelling with stucco siding and a hipped roof, 40 feet square on a fieldstone foundation. The basement once held the Sarbanes family's candy factory.
Schrader-Griswold Cottage is a historic cure cottage located at Saranac Lake in the town of Harrietstown, Franklin County, New York. It was built around 1905 and is a 2+1⁄2-story, gable-roofed, wood frame dwelling with clapboard siding in the Queen Anne style. It features a 2-story cure porch on half of the front facade and a 1-story verandah continuing across front and around the side.
Seeley Cottage is a historic cure cottage located at Saranac Lake in the town of Harrietstown, Franklin County, New York. It was built about 1890 and is a 2+1⁄2-story, side-gable-roofed, wood frame dwelling on a raised basement with clapboard, aluminum, and asbestos siding. There is a sizable 2-story rear wing. It features a large open verandah with two sizable cure porches on top. It operated for many years as a private sanatorium.
Freer Cottage is a historic cure cottage located at Saranac Lake, Franklin County, New York. It was built about 1920 and modified in 1926–1928. It is a 1+1⁄2-story, wood-frame dwelling with a gambrel roof and 2-story addition in the Colonial Revival style. It features two cure porches. Also on the property is a contributing former garage.
Little Red is a historic cure cottage located at Saranac Lake, Franklin County, New York. It was built about 1885 and moved about 1890, 1920, and 1935. It is a small, rectangular, 14 feet by 18 feet, one room wood frame building covered by a jerkin head gable roof. Simple posts support a decorative gable roof over a small front porch. It was the original cure cottage of the Adirondack Cottage Sanitarium founded by Dr. Edward Livingston Trudeau and the second building of the institution.
Musselman Cottage is a historic cure cottage located at Saranac Lake, Franklin County, New York. It was built about 1907 and is a 2+1⁄2-story, frame single-family dwelling covered by a cross-gabled roof. It has a central block with two attached porches and rests on an uncoursed rubble foundation. It features an 8-by-8-foot, glazed cure porch above the verandah.
Helen Hill Historic District is a national historic district located at Saranac Lake, Essex County and Franklin County, New York. It encompasses 77 contributing buildings and 38 contributing structures in a predominantly residential section of Saranac Lake. It developed between about 1856 and 1954, and includes notable examples of Queen Anne, Colonial Revival, Tudor Revival, and Bungalow / American Craftsman style architecture. The district is characterized by many cottages retaining the "cure porches" that distinguished the area's early days as a sanitarium. Located in the district are the separately listed Bogie Cottage, Coulter Cottage, Fallon Cottage Annex, Hill Cottage, Hooey Cottage, Kennedy Cottage, Lent Cottage, Marvin Cottage, and Noyes Cottage. Other notable buildings include the Cure Cottage Museum and Mary Prescott Reception Hospital.
