Main Street

Main Street runs north from its junction with Lake Street and Kiwassa Road at the Lake Flower dam. It bends to the east at its intersection with Broadway, and continues a block past Church Street, where it becomes Dugway Road shortly before ending at Pine Street. It is one of the earliest streets in the village.

More photographs here.

class="wikitable" DIS 1933, See 16 Main Street F. M. Bull's Drugs|\n|-\n|20 Main Street||Site vacant since 1958||

|

DIS 1913,

Torn down for the LaPan Highway.

Also 22 Main

Cady Sporting Goods

|\n|-\n

24 Main Street

Also 26 Main||Site vacant since 1958||

|

Torn down for the LaPan Highway.

[[2]]|\n|-\n|Crosses the George LaPan Highway (West, after 1957), River Street (East)|\n|-\n|25 - 29 Main Street||38 Main Street||

||The first brick building in Saranac Lake.|\n|-\n|27 Main Street|| ||Utting's Groceries||SLD1906|\n|-\n|28 Main Street||39 Main Street||

|

SLD1906, SLD1908, DIS 1911

(destroyed), [[3]]|\n|-\n|30 Main Street||39 Main Street||

|| |\n|-\n|31 Main Street|| ||Mrs. Carter Cottage 2||DIS 1912|\n|-\n|33 Main Street|| ||Saranac Lake Hardware Apartments||DIS 1933|\n|-\n|34 Main Street||43 Main Street||

||was 34-36, /Rice Furniture|\n|-\n|35/37 Main Street||42 Main Street||Kendall's Grocery,
Albany Market,
||SLD1906, DIS 1912
third business building
on east side of Main, torn down in 1945?|\n|-\n|36 Main Street
See 34 Main Street||43 Main Street||Magill residence (1910)|

Slater Cottage (DIS 1911),

was 34-36

Cure Cottages, p. 67|\n|-\n|38 Main Street||49 Main Street||

||was 38-40, |\n|-\n|39 Main Street|| ||Ryan's Livery,
Harris Cottage||SLD1906, DIS 1913|\n|-\n|41 Main Street|| ||Edelberg's Furs,
Munn Brothers||SLD1906|\n|-\n|41 1/2 Main Street|| ||Crakow Cottage||DIS 1929|\n|-\n|42 Main Street||51 Main Street||

||was 42-44, , A. Goldsmith & Son, E.L. Finnegan's Shoes|\n|-\n|43 Main Street||48 Main Street||

||Waterhole, Cure Cottages, p. 105, 106|\n|-\n

44 Main Street

See 42 Main Street||51 Main Street||A. Goldsmith Cottage||DIS 1911|\n|-\n

45 Main Street

Was 45-49||52 Main Street||

|

Artists Guild,

Edelberg's Furs,

Hogan Block,

Nutter's Shoe Store|\n|-\n|46 Main Street||55 Main Street||

||The Book Store|\n|-\n|48 Main Street||57 Main Street||

||Cure Cottages, p. 61|\n|-\n

49 Main Street

See 45 Main Street||52 Main Street||Charlie Green's Market||SLD1906|\n|-\n

50 Main Street

See 48 Main Street||59 Main Street||50 Main Street||Altman's (1924-32), Emily Durell's Gifts, Roby's Gifts, Little Joe's|\n|-\n|51 Main Street||Now part of the Sears parking lot||51 Main Street||Pot Shop|\n|-\n|52 Main Street||61 Main Street||

|

SLD1906, SLD1908

Gibney's Market,

Post Office Pharmacy|\n|-\n

53 Main Street

was 65-67||62 Main Street||

|

DIS 1911

Sears parking lot,

[[4]], Cure Cottages, p. 9 & 105|\n|-\n|53 1/2 Main Street||Site vacant, 2009||53 1/2 Main Street (behind Linwood)||DIS|\n|-\n|54 Main Street||63-65 Main Street||

||was 54-56-58, |\n|-\n|55 1/2 Main Street||Site vacant, 2009||Perez Cottage (behind Newberry's)||DIS 1930|\n|-\n

56 Main Street

See 54 Main Street||63 Main Street||Donaldson Block||SLD1908, NYC1915
Cure Cottages, p. 63
|\n|-\n

58 Main Street

See 54 Main Street|| ||Distin's Studio||SLD1906|\n|-\n

60 Main Street

See 54 Main Street||67 Main Street|

File:60 Main St.

Reuben Reynolds Cottage

|| Adirondack National Bank (destroyed)|\n|-\n|61-65 Main Street||66 Main Street||

||[[5]]|\n|-\n|62 Main Street||67 Main Street||

|

SLD1908

was 62-64, 60-64 |\n|-\n|63 Main Street||Main Street||Alfred A. Moody
Insurance|| |\n|-\n

64 Main Street

See 62 Main Street||67 Main Street||64 Main Street
(Haase Block)||DIS|\n|-\n|65/67 Main Street||66 Main Street||

|

Later Sears, now Wholesale Furniture,

67 Main was (apparently) the site of the Bijou Theatre.|\n|-\n

68 Main Street

was 68-70||69 Main Street||

|

Reuben Reynolds

Trudeau|\n|-\n|69 Main Street||74 Main Street||

|

DIS

Later Meyers Drugs; Downhill Grill

Cure Cottages, p. 66|\n|-\n|68 1/2 Main Street||75 Main Street||

||SLD1910-11|\n|-\n|70 Main Street||75 Main Street||

Humidor|| |\n|-\n|71 Main Street was 71-79||76 Main Street||

|| |\n|-\n|74 Main Street was 74-76||77 Main Street||

||DIS 1912|\n|-\n|77 Main Street||79 Main Street||Endicott-Johnson Shoes||See 71 Main Street|\n|-\n|78 Main Street was 78-80||79 Main Street||

|

DIS 1911

Finnigan's|\n|-\n|82 Main Street||81 Main Street||

|| |\n|-\n|84 Main Street||85 Main Street||

|| |\n|-\n|83 Main Street was 83-85||86 Main Street||

|| |\n|-\n|Intersection with Broadway (West)|\n|-\n|89 Main Street||90 Main Street||

||E. J. Kennedy's|\n|-\n|Passes Academy Street (Southeast)|\n|-\n|90 Main Street||Berkeley Square||

||DIS 1928-1952 (burned)|\n|-\n|94 Main Street||97 Main Street||

|

Blue Gentian/Corvo's, Cure Cottages, p. 107, E. L. Finnegan's Shoe and Clothing Store,

Community Store|\n|-\n|96/98 Main Street||Vest Pocket Park||

||Originally the home of W.F. Roberts [[6]]|\n|-\n|100 Main Street||109 Main Street||

||(demolished- now site of the expanded Library) [[7]], [[8]]|\n|-\n|102 Main Street||109 Main Street||

|| |\n|-\n|95 - 101 Main Street||100 Main Street||

||DIS 1952-54|\n|-\n|99 - 103 Main Street|| ||

|| |\n|-\n|104 Main Street||115 Main Street||

|

DIS 1911,

[[9]]|\n|-\n|105 Main Street||118 Main Street||

|

[[10]][[11]](burned),

[[12]]|\n|-\n|108 Main Street||121 Main Street||

|| |\n|-\n|110 Main Street||now roadway||Werle Town House||Address of the Werle Town House before it was moved to Church Street|\n|-\n|Crosses Church Street|\n|-\n|112 Main Street, changed to 110 when Church St. was extended||129 Main Street||

||JOL1931, SLA1935, PHR1930, NYC1915, [[13]], [[14]]|\n|-\n|112 Main Street||.||112 Main Street||no longer exists. DIS; |\n|-\n|116 Main Street||133 Main Street||

||DIS 1911|\n|-\n|117 Main Street||Main Street||

|| St. Luke's Parish House|\n|-\n|118 Main Street||139 Main Street||

||DIS|\n|-\n|121 Main Street||142 Main Street||

|| |\n|-\n|123 Main Street||148 Main Street||

||NYC1915|\n|-\n|132 Main Street|| ||

|| |\n|-\n|141 Main Street||.||141 Main Street||DIS|\n|-\n|144 Main Street||191 Main Street||144 Main Street||TBSBC, NYC1915|\n|-\n|150 Main Street||197 Main Street||Tanzini Cottage||TBSBC 1930|\n|-\n|152 Main Street||199 Main Street||Tanzini Cottage 2||DIS 1930|\n|-\n|163 Main Street||.||Rodwell Cottage 2||DIS 1911|\n|-\n|Ends at Pine Street|\n</tbody>

None

The text below is from a caption published for the picture above at right by the Watertown Times in 1948. For information on the caption, see Old Saranac Lake photographs

SARANAC LAKE ABOUT 1900—Looking up Main street from the Berkely Hotel, a photographer, thought to be George Baldwin or William Adams, captured an early morning scene from the top balcony of the Berkeley Hotel on Berkeley Square.

The building on the extreme right served the village as its post office for many years. Today it houses the Horton Flower shop. The horse and buggy in front of the building is the Trudeau Sanatorium bus which carried people and supplies to and from the famous sanatorium. The house and buggy bus has been succeeded by a new station wagon in 1948.

The long white building on the left, the Lute Evans cottage, was one of the first tourist homes in Saranac Lake and for many years the late John D. Rockefeller, Sr., stayed in the Evans House during summer vacations. Next to the postoffice is the original Kendall pharmacy. Built by Dr. Frank E. Kendall in 1893 after he left the employ of F. M. Bull who operated the first pharmacy at 18 Main street. Still the Kendall pharmacy the building has been remodeled and modernized.

The cottage beside the Kendall building today houses the T. F. Finnigan Clothing company. The two houses that follow and face on Main street were known as the Rube and Rant Reynolds houses. They were used for many years as tourist houses and today serve as the site for many buildings including the Adirondack Enterprise the Adirondack National Bank and Trust company, the Federal Savings and Loan and others.

In the rear left center of the building can be seen the original Harrietstown town hall which was replaced by the modern town hall after fire razed it in 1926. The original site of the Adirondack Daily Enterprise, the fire allegedly started somewhere in the shop of the newspaper late in the evening. The publisher of the paper, John S Ridenour, printed the paper in Malone while his equipment was being salvaged.

Along with completely destroying town records and the newspaper office, the fire also destroyed much property belonging to the Odd Fellows lodge who also held their meetings in the building.

Watertown Daily Times, 1939 ¹

Highlight of the Saranac Lake celebration of July 4, 1892, was the firemen's parade pictured above [left]. The photograph was taken from a point on Main street now the site of Riverside park. The fire team is racing in a direction away from Berkeley Square and is passing the old town hall. Berkeley Square cannot be seen as Main street turns to the right just before the Square.

The wooden town hall of this picture was completely destroyed in 1927 by fire. It was later replaced by the imposing brick structure of today. In 1892 there was no town clock in the town hall tower. Today there is one.

At the left foreground is the residence of Judge Seaver A. Miller. The entire length of Main street has been changed by construction of modern buildings and the extension of the business section to the neighborhood of the town hall. Then, as now, Berkeley Square was the center of the shopping district.

In the background may be seen one of the many surrounding mountains overlooking the village.

visible at right in background, late 1930s/early 1940s. Photo property of Dan Bodah.

visible in background, late 1930s/early 1940s. Photo property of Dan Bodah.

Adirondack Daily Enterprise, August 25, 1954

Our Town

By Eddie Vogt

There Have Been Some Changes Made ...

The last time I sent a telegram I realized that when I first came up here—back in the late thirties —that the Western Union Office was in Berkeley Square, where the C.C. Commo Shop is now. There also was a Postal Telegraph and, if I recall, it was in the store now occupied by Charlotte's Little Shop. Next to that (where Meyer's Drug Store is now) was the Grand Union and farther down Main street (along about where Mike and Sandy are now) was the Albany Market. Across the street (G. Carver Rice) was Walton and Tousley, and where the Ayres Real Estate Agency is now was E. L. Finnegan's Shoe and Clothing Store. (Right?) I don't know what brought this on. I guess towns change like people's faces and there probably are a lot more that I would think of if I could concentrate. Right now I'm trying to remember what stood on the present site of the Thompson Building. Maybe someone can help me out.

The [York Public Library Digital Collections]

See also: 1997 Streetscapes

Footnotes

1. For more information on this photograph and caption, see Old Saranac Lake photographs