William C. Demorest

William C. Demorest had a camp on Loon Lake from 1877 or earlier.

---

Adirondack Daily Enterprise, July 20, 1955

 Ivories Will Tickle Viewers Of Antique

An 1877 Steinway, once the pride of the 1903 St. Louis Exposition, will be a featured attraction among the many antiques to be displayed on Aug. 2 at the opening of the three-day Fifth Annual Adirondack Antiques Show and Sale.

The piano was bought in 1877 by William C. Demorest, of New York City. Two months later he shipped it north to his Adirondack camp at Loon Lake, where he spent the Summers. Adirondack natives had grown accustomed to the elaborate style of the Summer camps that rose on the shores of their mountain lakes in the seven- ties. They knew few camp owners, however, who, at Summer's end, would entrust a Steinway to the sub-zero rigors of an Adirondack Winter, or to the pitch-lowering damp of an Adirondack Spring.

Since 1877, the Demorest piano has weathered all the subsequent northern Winters, except for one brief and colorful interruption at the St. Louis Exposition. There, Mr. Demorest, known popularly as The Baking Powder King, sponsored an exhibit for his business firm.

Before her death in 1920, Mrs. Demorest presented the Steinway to Mrs. Cleo Rieck, whose home is in Bloomingdale, and whose husband had been caretaker of the Demorest camp. It stands there now, a charming and quaint example of the ornate taste of its day. The years and changing tastes have taken their toll of its gold tracings, brocade backed fretwork and rococo style. They have not dimmed the lustre of its rosewood case nor the vibrant beauty of its tone.

According to Mrs. Francis B. Trudeau Jr., co-chairman with Mrs, Roger Tubby of the Antiques Sale, the Steinway will be on view in the foyer of the Harrietstown Town Hall on Aug. 2. On that day, the doors will open at 11 a, m., to show tables spread with gleaming porcelain and crystal, fine old furniture, antique Jewelry, colored glass and all the other fascinating accompaniments of the Adirondack Antiques Sale.

This annual event is sponsored by the Women's Auxiliary for the Saranac Lake General Hospital.

 

(While this news account says that he was known as the Baking Powder King, there were others to whom the phrase applied.)