Prospect Point Camp

Last updated
Prospect Point Camp
Prospect Point Camp, Upper Saranac Lake, New York.jpg
Prospect Point Camp from Upper Saranac Lake
Nearest city Saranac Inn, New York
Built1903
Architect William L. Coulter
MPS Great Camps of the Adirondacks TR
NRHP reference No. 86002947 [1]
Added to NRHPNovember 7, 1986
Prospect Point boathouse Prospect Point Camp boathouse, Upper Saranac Lake, New York.jpg
Prospect Point boathouse

Prospect Point Camp (now known as Saranac Village - A Young Life Camp) is an Adirondack Great Camp notable for its unusual chalets inspired by hunting lodges. William L. Coulter's design is a significant example of the Adirondack Rustic style. It is located on a bluff overlooking the northern reaches of Upper Saranac Lake, near Eagle Island Camp and Moss Ledge, two other Coulter designs. Its grand scale is typical of the opulent camps of the area in the great camp era. The camp was built for New York copper magnate and financier Adolph Lewisohn.

Contents

In a departure from the tendency of camps to be sheltered in the woods, Prospect Point Camp towers over its shoreline, approached by several broad flights of steps from the water. The main lodge is a three-story chalet with a half-timbered effect, with birch bark filling the role usually played by brick or stucco. Birch bark is also used as a ceiling treatment between the beams. Interior walls were finished with local spruce, but also with southern pine, stained green or tan. The boathouse was the largest on the lake. The camp had a gasoline-powered generator, and telephones throughout.

In the 1940s, the camp was sold, and had a brief career as a lodge, Sekon in the Pines. It was sold again in 1951, and used as a summer camp for young Jewish girls. In 1969, it was purchased by Young Life, a Christian non-denominational ministry based in Colorado Springs, Colorado, who use it for one-week-long educational camping sessions. Saranac Village celebrated its 50th anniversary of Young Life camping in August 2020.

The camp was included in a multiple property submission of 10 camps for listing on the National Register of Historic Places, and was itself listed in 1986. [2]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Saranac Lake, New York</span> Village in New York, United States

Saranac Lake is a village in the state of New York, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 4,887, making it the largest community by population in the Adirondack Park. The village is named after Upper, Middle and Lower Saranac lakes, which are nearby.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adirondack Park</span> Part of Forest Preserve in Northeastern U.S.

The Adirondack Park is a multi-use park in northeastern New York protecting the Adirondack Mountains. The park was established in 1892 for "the free use of all the people for their health and pleasure", and for watershed protection. At 6.1 million acres, it is the largest park in the contiguous United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Great Camp Sagamore</span> United States historic place

Great Camp Sagamore is one of several historic Great Camps located in the Adirondack Mountains of northern New York State.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul Smiths, New York</span> Census-designated place in New York, United States

Paul Smiths is a hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) in the town of Brighton in Franklin County, New York, United States. It is located on Lower Saint Regis Lake in the Adirondacks, 12 miles (19 km) northwest of Saranac Lake, located at 44°26' North 74°15' West. The population of the CDP was 671 at the 2010 census.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eagle Island Camp</span> United States historic place

Eagle Island Camp, also known as Camp Eagle Island or simply EIC, is a youth summer camp and former Girl Scout camp in Franklin County, New York, located on Eagle Island on Upper Saranac Lake in New York's Adirondack region. The site is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Santanoni Preserve</span> United States historic place

The Santanoni Preserve was once a private estate of approximately 13,000 acres (53 km2) in the Adirondack Mountains, and now is the property of the State of New York, at Newcomb, New York.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Great Camps</span>

The Great Camps of the Adirondack Mountains refers to the grandiose family compounds of cabins that were built in the latter half of the nineteenth century on lakes in the Adirondacks such as Spitfire Lake and Rainbow Lake. The camps were summer homes for the wealthy, where they could relax, host or attend parties, and enjoy the wilderness. In time, however, this was accomplished without leaving the comforts of civilization behind; some great camps even contained a bowling alley or movie theatre.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adirondack Architecture</span>

Adirondack Architecture refers to the rugged architectural style generally associated with the Great Camps within the Adirondack Mountains area in New York. The builders of these camps used native building materials and sited their buildings within an irregular wooded landscape. These camps for the wealthy were built to provide a primitive, rustic appearance while avoiding the problems of in-shipping materials from elsewhere.

Lake Clear is a hamlet and a lake in Franklin County, New York, United States. The area is named for 940-acre (3.8 km2) Lake Clear, part of the original Seven Carries canoe route. It is located in the town of Harrietstown.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Camp Pine Knot</span> United States historic place

Camp Pine Knot, also known as Huntington Memorial Camp, on Raquette Lake in the Adirondack Mountains of New York State, was built by William West Durant. Begun in 1877, it was the first of the "Adirondack Great Camps" and epitomizes the "Great Camp" architectural style. Elements of that style include log and native stonework construction, decorative rustic items of branches and twigs, and layout as a compound of separated structures. It is located on the southwest tip of Long Point, a two-mile long point extending into Raquette Lake, in the Town of Long Lake in Hamilton County, New York.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Camp Uncas</span> United States historic place

Camp Uncas is an Adirondack Great Camp, the second built by William West Durant for his own use. It lies on the shore of 110-acre (45 ha) Lake Mohegan, near Great Camp Sagamore, and was completed in two years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Knollwood Club</span>

Knollwood Club is an Adirondack Great Camp on Shingle Bay, Lower Saranac Lake, near the village of Saranac Lake, New York, USA. It was built in 1899–1900 by William L. Coulter, who had previously created a major addition to Alfred G. Vanderbilt's Sagamore Camp. The "club" consisted of a boathouse, "casino", and six identical 2+12-story shingle cottages, which were distinguished by unique twig work facades.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lower Saranac Lake</span>

Lower Saranac Lake is one of three connected lakes, part of the Saranac River, near the village of Saranac Lake in the Adirondacks in northern New York. With Middle Saranac Lake and Upper Saranac Lake, a 17-mile (27 km) paddle with only one portage is possible. The Saranac Lake Islands Public Campground provides 87 campsites on inlands in Lower and Middle Saranac Lake. In addition to the Saranac River, it is fed by nearby Lake Colby, Fish Creek, and Lilly Pad Pond. Lower Saranac Lake is located in the town of Harrietstown, New York. The lake, along with both Upper and Middle Saranac Lakes, is also part of the 740-mile Northern Forest Canoe Trail, which begins in Old Forge, NY and ends in Fort Kent, ME.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Upper Saranac Lake</span> Lake in New York, United States

Upper Saranac Lake is one of three connected lakes, part of the Saranac River, in the towns of Santa Clara and Harrietstown, near the village of Saranac Lake in the Adirondacks in northern New York. Upper Saranac Lake is the sixth largest lake in the Adirondacks. With Middle Saranac Lake and Lower Saranac Lake, a 17-mile (27 km) paddle with only one carry is possible. There are 20 primitive campsites accessible by boat available on a first-come basis. Upper Saranac Lake is also known as Sin-ha-lo-nen-ne-pus.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Echo Camp</span> United States historic place

Echo Camp is an Adirondack Great Camp on the tip of Long Point adjacent to Camp Pine Knot on Raquette Lake. It was used as a private girls' camp from the mid-1940s to the mid-1980s. It was sold in 1986, and is now a privately owned summer residence.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Moss Ledge</span> United States historic place

Moss Ledge is an Adirondack Great Camp designed by William L. Coulter in 1898 for Isabel Ballantine of New York City. Ballantine was the granddaughter of Newark beer baron, John Holmes Ballantine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cure cottages of Saranac Lake</span> Historic tuberculosis treatment centers in New York

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William L. Coulter</span> American architect

William Lincoln Coulter (1865–1907) was an American architect who came to Saranac Lake, New York, in the spring of 1896 in an effort to cure his tuberculosis, and stayed to design some of the finest Adirondack Great Camps and Cure Cottages in the area. Among the camps he designed were Knollwood Club, Camp Eagle Island and Prospect Point Camp; Camp Eagle Island has been designated a US National Historic Landmark. In Saranac Lake, in 1903, he designed a house at 147 Park Avenue for Thomas Bailey Aldrich, editor of the Atlantic Monthly, that wits dubbed "The Porcupine" because it had so many fine points and belonged to a "quill pusher". He also designed the Coulter Cottage, built between 1897 and 1899.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William G. Distin</span> American architect

William G. Distin (1884–1970), an architect of Saranac Lake, New York, was an early associate of Great Camp designer William L. Coulter who went on to design a number of Adirondack Great Camps.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adirondack Cottage Sanitarium</span> United States historic place

The Adirondack Cottage Sanitarium was a tuberculosis sanatorium established in Saranac Lake, New York in 1885 by Dr. Edward Livingston Trudeau. After Trudeau's death in 1915, the institution's name was changed to the Trudeau Sanatorium, following changes in conventional usage. It was listed under the latter name on the National Register of Historic Places in 1995.

References

  1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service. January 23, 2007.
  2. Gobrecht, Larry E. (July 1986). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination: Great Camps of the Adirondacks" (pdf). National Park Service.{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)

Sources