View source for Whitman Cottage



[[File:Whitman Cottage.jpg|left|thumb|Whitman Cottage ]] [[File:Jack Donohue.jpg|right|thumb|1927 |Canaras]][[Canaras|None]]''| ]]'''Address:''' [[Woodruff%20Street|Woodruff Street]]

'''Old Address:''' 50 Woodruff Street

'''Year built:''' C. 1894-1896

'''Other names:''' [[Tolbert|Tolbert]] apartments, 1982; <span style="">an outpatient facility for [[St.%20Joseph's%20Addiction%20Treatment%20and%20Recovery%20Center|St. Joseph's]], 2010; [[Trestle%20Street|Trestle Street]], 2019, a studio for music and art (see Adirondack Daily Enterprise, October 16, 2019, for a front-page story)

'''Other information:''' The Whitman Cottage was built (at least in part) between 1894 and 1896 on land that was originally part of the Eleanor Neal Lot.

In November, 1855, Captain [[Pliny%20Miller|Pliny Miller]] gave a 100-acre parcel to his daughter [[Eleanor%20Miller%20Neal|Eleanor]], wife of [[Alanson%20B.%20Neal|Alanson B. Neal]].

In May, 1884, George E. and Lydia E. Johnson paid Julia Miller $400 for a six acre wedge of Eleanor Neal's original lot. They in turn sold one-fifth of one acre to Edwin and Mattie Johnson for $75 in January, 1894, upon which the Johnsons likely built at least a part of the house that later occupied the site. In September 1896, less than three years later, they sold the same piece of property to George and Harriet Randall for $600.

Henry M. and Mary L. Prime of Keeseville paid the Randalls $900 for the house in April, 1900; and they sold it to [[Etta%20J.%20Whitman|Etta J. Whitman]] about 12 years later. Etta Whitman was the first owner to operate the house as a private sanatorium. She ran it as a boarding cottage until November 1920, when she sold it to Margaret Merrill, who also used it for a boarding cottage. It was probably Etta Whitman who added the cure porches; and she may have added the entire larger east-west wing of the house.

Margaret Merrill sold the Whitman Cottage to Rocco and Angiolina Laraio in October 1921, who had bought it for investment purposes. They paid $6000 and sold it five months later to [[Elizabeth%20Tolbert|Elizabeth Tolbert]] for $7400. In 1922 the bill of sale listed hospital beds and porch cots.

Mrs. Tolbert, whose husband Chester was a barber, operated the Whitman Cottage as a rooming house. In 1925 Mr. and Mrs. Tolbert and their son John occupied the house along with fifteen lodgers — ten men and five women. Only one of these was a patient: 21-year-old John McBride who was here from Ireland with his cook, Anne McCran.

In 1982 [[John%20P.%20Tolbert|John P. Tolbert]] owned the house, which had been converted to apartments. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Mr. Tolbert kept a horse in the stable behind the house. Hitched to a sulky or light carriage, he drove picturesquely on Park Avenue, evoking the quieter lifestyle of an earlier day.

In 2010 the Whitman Cottage is unrecognizable; it was gutted and almost completely rebuilt in its conversion to an outpatient facility for St. Joseph's.

'''Sources:'''
* [[Philip%20L.%20Gallos|Philip L. Gallos]], unpublished ms., 1982.
* Deed research
* Testimony of John P. Tolbert, 1982.
* Recollection of [[Mary%20Hotaling|Mary Hotaling]], 2010.

[Black and white photo in Historic Saranac Lake files.]