An Adirondack Landmark is Sold

The Old Forge Hardware, a local landmark for over one hundred years in Old Forge, has been sold.  The imposing building and its annexes has been a major fixture in the Old Forge and Adirondack communities for my entire life, and much longer than that.  It is a family business owned by Linda and Sarah Cohen and was recently sold to Terry and Erica Wilcox Murray. This weekend, I walked through the rambling, worn and charming space with its collections and creaking floors.  I was the only customer there; the painfully cold wind whipped outside. The town seemed empty.  The Cohens will stay on and work with the new owners for now.  We wish Terry and Erica the best as they take on this new and big challenge -- to preserve a real Adirondack landmark and to keep it going in the spirit in which it has been run all these many years.

Historic Preservation on First Lake Pond

The Hemmer Cottage on the shores of First Lake Pond in Old Forge, has been restored to its original beauty. The cottage was moved from its site and transported to a new site donated by Sarah and Linda Cohen. The cottage has been reshingled in hemlock bark by local builder Mike Marleau. It is an example of local interest in historic preservation and stands as a successful example of a community working together to save a part of its own past from demolition or decay. There are more historic buildings in the park that need attention and funds to ensure their continued survival. The Adirondack Architectural Heritage group is doing some of the work to help ensure that historic preservation and awareness of these treasures continues to be a part of life in the park.

Good Adirondack Advice at the OF Hardware

This sign hangs in the Old Forge Harware. The OFH is certainly the best place to shop and spend a rainy day in Old Forge. It's a truly old fashioned general store, with ancient wood floors that creak as you walk across them, and a surprise around every corner. We like to visit the store often to talk with our favorite sales person, Jimmy, who mans the front cash register faithfully. He knows everything in the store and everything about anything to do with building, hardware, maintenance and Adirondack lore. So it's an experience not only about buying cool stuff, but about visiting with friends. Sarah Cohen and her sister Linda Cohen, the owners of the store, founded by their great-grandfather (I think), Moses Cohen. It is a family owned store in an era of bland, concrete, impersonal "super" stores, like Wal-Mart and Target. In some respects, it reminds me of a little old sandwich shop that died a long, slow death in Ann Arbor, Michigan, called Drake's. Drake's was the same when my parents attended the University of Michigan as it was when I did so, many years later. But, in the end, it could not stand up to Starbuck's and the other faster, more efficient places that take credit cards and have websites. But the Old Forge Hardware is still kicking. We hope it doesn't suffer the fate of Drake's and that it continues to serve and entertain visitors for many years into the Adirondack future.

President Benjamin Harrison's Adirondack Lodge

President Benjamin Harrison was an avid outdoorsman and loved the Adirondacks. He purchased a piece of property on Second Lake in the Fulton Chain of lakes near Old Forge and built a true Adirondack lodge, which appears in a photo at right. The President's home fell into disrepair in later years. It was most recently owned by Sarah Cohen and her sister Linda Cohen, whose family founded the venerable Old Forge Hardware store generations before. The house was known as the Harrison House or Berkeley Lodge. The Cohen sisters recently sold the lodge as well as the adjoining estate where they grew up, Pine Acres. The new owners restored Harrison House successfully in 2005.