Henry Seymour Dies

Henry Seymour, of No. 42 West Forty-sixth Street, died suddenly on Tuesday, at Sourdnahunk Camp, in Maine, where he had gone ten days before on a fishing trip. His health had not been good for several months. Mr. Seymour was born in Batavia, N.Y., but had resided in New York city nearly all his life. He was for many years an active member of the Produce Exchange, and for the last twenty years had been in charge of the insurance department of the New York Life Insurance and Trust Company. He was a member of the Manhattan Chess Club and the Society of Colonial Wars. He was unmarried. [1906?]

Seymour Point Ice Box Rolls

SEYMOUR POINT, FOURTH LAKE

OLD FORGE, N.Y.

Ice Box Rolls

Pour 2 cups boiling water over
2 heaping tbls. lard
1 tsp. salt
1/2 cup sugar
2 yeast cakes dissolved
2 eggs beaten
8 cups flour gradually
Stand over night in ice box
Make into rolls & stand 3 hrs.
Half of this recipe makes 30 rolls.

Finest Hotels, Purest Air, and Most Comfort

Welcome, Winter

Snow has finally started to accumulate around the house, and undulating ribbons of ice are forming atop the various small bays around the lake. For now, the main body of the lake continues to resist dropping temperatures and frozen precipitation, its current still marching on. Having wavered now for several weeks, it seems that the environment around us has plunged into Winter at last.

It's at these times that I sometimes like to think of the season we've just left behind, as a kind of farewell. This picture was taken during a warm and languid Fall evening several weeks ago. Welcome, Winter.

New York State, 1796

Verplanck Colvin's Geodetic Field Book

Surveyor Verplanck Colvin (1847-1920) created more than 440 field books between 1872 and 1900 to complete a survey of the Adirondack wilderness of New York. This volume shows the area of Blue Mountain Lake in Hamilton County. Colvin began surveying the Adirondacks in 1865. In 1872, the Board of Regents appointed him supervisor of the State Survey and established a Commission of State Parks to study the idea of an Adirondack Park. By 1880, Colvin had completed the most thorough survey of the Adirondacks ever done. He continued work as state surveyor for the next twenty-eight years. While doing his surveys, he also gave speeches to promote the establishment of the Adirondack Park. The Adirondack wilderness area was designated part of a State Forest Preserve in 1885, and as the Adirondack Park in 1892. This book is on loan to the New York State Archives from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, Division of Real Property Services.

Guide to the Adirondacks

Why the Adirondacks?

Of late, some of our posts have spurred divergent reactions and a fair amount of debate. We have been accused of living in a fantasy world. We have been called transients. Some have gone "on record" as supporting our lifestyle, which they deem "alternative." All of this has led us to believe that perhaps we should write down why we started this blog in the first place and, by extension, why we set out to build a house in the Adirondacks.

During Memorial Day weekend ten years ago, I set foot inside the Blue Line for the first time. I had just met someone who had been going to Fourth Lake since his earliest memory, the third generation of his family to do so. In fact, one of the first topics we ever discussed was the Adirondacks and his family's place there. To be honest, I was ambivalent. I had moved to New York City several years before, full of all the hopes and aspirations that propel young people to that island of possibility, and New York granted me much of what I sought. Unforgettable experiences. Knowledge the like of which I could only have imagined a few short years before. The sense that I was living in a true center of the world, participating in living history. For me, New York was a kind of promised land. In spite of my misgivings, I accepted his invitation to visit the family camp.

It was like nothing I'd ever seen before. By then I had already traveled or lived in Europe, Latin America, parts of North Africa and the Middle East. I had seen ancient sites and beautiful vistas that burn in my memory to this day. I had been in Berlin as the Wall was being dismantled. But this was different. It was sheer wilderness commingled with the genius of civilization. Structures unique to the world, hewn, it seemed, from the very earth itself. It was all so gentle, just as it was violent. Impenetrable fog would slowly give way to the most dazzling light, even more beautiful than that of the Aegean. It was a place that demanded that one live in the moment, simply because the unfathomable beauty of that moment could vanish in the blink of an eye. It was nature, culture, history, hope and failure converging in the same place. Still, I was merely smitten and not yet in love.

I kept coming back over the years and slowly began to grasp the rhythm of the place. The house began to take on a life all its own, a personality just as complex as the environment that surrounded it. I couldn't help but feel that the place was sizing me up, judging if I was up to the task of committing a lifetime to it. It was the first to judge that I was a transient. Days of unending rain, punctuated by only the slightest glimmer of gloaming light just before sunset. Fleeing from terrible biting insects, only to come upon the most graceful of herons hovering just above the surface of the lake. It was all maddening, but I also found myself falling in love.

Five years ago, 9/11 happened. I saw the second plane hit the second tower. I heard the talk of people jumping from the highest floors. The avenues were emptied of all traffic, populated only by the occasional emergency vehicle. An endless current of people walked uptown, and I walked with them, away from a solid wall of black smoke more forbidding than the angriest thunderstorm I had ever seen. Never had such a beautiful day turned so ugly. I was numb, thinking only that I had to avoid all famous landmarks in case more destruction was on its way. My promised land had been ripped from me. Forever. In the terrible months that followed, New York was less an island of possibility than it was a prison of trauma. I wondered if this was really the kind of history I wanted to live through. If I do live in a fantasy world, this experience informs that fantasy more than any other.

And so we built our house, and we write this blog. We write because we truly believe that the Adirondacks are unique to the world. That its legacy and the genius of its generations past and present are things worth celebrating and preserving. That it is a place where one moment and place in time can be a universe unto itself, if only one stops to look and listen. It is the place that took a transient like me and stopped me in my tracks.

Old Forge Hardware 1960's

The Old Forge Hardware Co. is probably the only really worthwhile place to shop in Old Forge. We walk around town often, looking for a place to browse and something to buy for the house. We always end up at the Hardware, with its long aisles of interesting goods, puzzles and tools and pack baskets. Kitchen tools. Everything. It is a quirky place, less so than it used to be, unfortunately, but still a place with a history and a certain charm and lots of character.

Adirondack League Club Lodge

Rickety Rackety Railroad, H.M. Beach

Memories of Cohasset

I remember taking walks to Cohasset during my childhood, after dinner, to buy candy from the little store in that charming inn on Fourth Lake. Now, Cohasset has become what so many other of the old, great hotels of the Adirondacks have become - private homes. The old hotel was demolished, killed, really. Now there are a bunch of small and unremarkable houses on the point where the majestic old hotel once stood.

An article from the Syracuse newspaper from June 1929:

COHASSET ON FOURTH LAKE, BEAUTY SPOT
Consists of Hotel and Group of Small Cottages

Old Forge, June 1 - High on a wooded knoll overlooking the beautiful south shore of Fourth Lake stands Cohasset. Surrounded by towering pines and birches, the cool depths of the forest are brought to the very verandas. Below the grove surrounding the hotel, a wide sand beach circles the point jutting out into the lake, offering a romp or lounging place where one is enchanted by the sparkle of the crystal water in the sunlight.

Cohasset consists of a main hotel and a number of modern cottages all placed within communicating distance and connected by enticing paths through the woods and along the shore of the lake. The lower floor of the main building is flanked by broad verandas whereon one may find quiet seclusion in a shaded nook or join the happy family of guests bound together through the mutual enjoyment of the inspiring natural beauties.

Cottage life at Cohasset offers an ideal vacation for a family with children or a group wishing to stay by themselves. The buildings are clean and attractive, with big open fireplaces and the conveniences of the main hotel.

Cohasset is reached by two trains daily from Utica and two trains daily from Montreal to Thendara, then taking either a train or a taxicab to Old Forge, which makes connections with the steamboat up the lake. Motorists may go by State road from Utica to Old Forge with a good shore road leading from there to the camp, seven miles distance.

Zebra, by John Derian Decoupage, New York

June 1966: Historic Albedor Lodge Sold

Historic Albedor Lodge, originally the estate of Col. and Mrs. E.A. Simmons of the New York publishing firm Simmons-Boardman Co. has recently been purchased by Dr. and Mrs. Harold T. Frendt of Jim Thorpe, Pa.

The spacious Adirondack-style lodge, with an exterior of native stone and western spruce clapboards, has been a landmark of Fourth Lake since [1930]. A crew of 70 men worked a year and a half to erect the main house and its eleven out-buildings, including a huge two story boathouse. The Douglas Fir supporting timbers were shipped all the way from the west coast via the Panama Canal to Baltimore and thence by rail to Eagle Bay. Throughout the lodge, the wood ceiling and wall paneling was hand rubbed to a satin-smooth finish. A hundred tons of slate was used to roof the buildings.

The name Albedor was derived from the names of the Simmons' daughters: Aline, Betty and Dorothy.

Mary's Gift Shop, Inlet, New York

Inlet, New York Circa 1925

Inlet, situated on the eastern terminus of navigation of the Fulton Chain of Lakes, is the center of the resort section of the Central Adirondacks, stress is laid on the fact that when the hardy pioneers left that section for fresher fields they made their way to this part of the woods which had never been visited by white men. Nat Foster, one of the beloved characters of the Fulton region had headquarters at the head of Fourth Lake where this village now stands, using it as a half-way house when on his way to Raquette Lake and other lakes of the north. When Robert Fulton first visited this wonderful chain of lakes which now bears his name, he little dreamed that this strip of wild woods and water would later be one of the foremost resort centers of the State. Inlet abounds with points of interest, Rocky Mountain, Black Bear Mountain, Bald Mountain and many other high peaks where hardy hikers may enjoy mountain climbing, are all within a short distance of the village. The Eighth Lake excursion attracts hundreds each season. The Seventh Lake and Limekiln Lake waters are filled with trout and bass, and so much state land surrounds the lakes that they look as primitive as a century ago. Hotels, garages, stores, restaurants, gift shop, in fact everything which the tourist or camper may desire are to be found in this enterprising little mountain village. And last but not least, one finds here the real old time Adirondack pioneer and guide. Those lovable mountain characters, quaint in their ideas and rich in the tales of the early days, can tell stories of the woods so vivid that the listener can almost smell the smoke of the camp fire, and impress him with the fact that the great outdoors breeds men of broadened minds and rare honesty. Good roads from all parts of the State lead to Inlet. A new concrete road leads along the northerly shore of the chain of lakes through Eagle Bay to Inlet. Improved dirt roads are found to Limekiln, Seventh and Raquette Lakes and other points of interest. The boat trip through the Fulton Chain of Lakes is an outstanding feature of a Summer vacation as well as the Blue Mountain Lake excursion; all being easily made in a few hours from Inlet. No Summer itinerary is complete without some of these numerous jaunts through nature's great wonderland, with Inlet as a starting point.

From Inlet Chamber of Commerce Brochure, circa 1925

Eliza Vanderbilt Webb and Dr. William Seward Webb

Neverland

Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch, in Los Olivos, California has fallen into disrepair since Mr. Jackson's departure from the United States last year. New pictures recently published on the web show the once pristine grounds now covered with dead grass, wilting flowers and general lifelessness. This has gotten me thinking about the massive undertaking of keeping up an Adirondack property. It is really a full time job. The trees alone keep us busy -- constantly falling, dying, needing to be cut and removed. New trees need to be planted to replace the old, fallen ones. And then, there is the history to preserve. An old wood shed that needs a new roof, a dock to be rebuilt. It is a never ending labor of love. The challenge -- one of them -- is to rebuild and replace in keeping with the original. The roofing material should be cedar shakes, not new 30 year roofing. The posts must be real, bark-on trees, cut in winter to preserve the bark. And to what end, all of this Adirondack preservation? Is it worth the effort and expense or should we just bid farewell to a lost era and enjoy what's left?

Another View of Bald Mountain House

Dr. William Seward Webb & Eliza Vanderbilt Webb

Eliza Vanderbilt Webb (center) and Dr. William Seward Webb (far right) and family are pictured here. Mrs. Webb was a member of the wealthy Vanderbilt family and Dr. Webb used her substantial fortune to promote his railroad and other businesses in the Adirondacks. The Webbs were, around 1893, the owners of the land that eventually became Seymour Point and later Penwood, Lots 40, 41, 42 and 43 within Herkimer County, Town of Webb.