×

You Know What …? (local history), by Howard Riley

Library adds 37,000th book

Just returned from a long weekend trip and nothing to write about to fill this revered space but You Know What? Enterprise stories from the archives of the Adirondack Room of the Saranac Lake Free Library just seem to fall into my hands as I paw through my meticulous files. Our village is ...

Saint André Bessette — Montreal

I mentioned in last week’s column that my parents knew Brother André when he visited the farm in Gabriels owned by the Order of the Sisters of Mercy. It was managed by my father Dennis, and along with my five siblings, we were all born in that farm house. Brother André’s visits ...

‘Mullen’ and ‘groceries’ are synonymous

Back in the 1940s, when my Mom needed a few things at the grocery store, I would just scoot up from our home at 5 Pine St. to Mullen’s Cash Store, located at the corner of Bloomingdale Avenue and Church Street Extension. It was owned and operated by Percy Mullen and I believe it was his ...

Hacking, gangsters, mistakes

Wondering how I would lead into a story of a mistake I made in my column of Saturday, March 8 about Legs Diamond, Bert LaFountain, et al, a letter arrives from my friend Mark Wilson, solving that problem. The mistake was my recalling a much-told story that Gabriels speakeasy owner Bert ...

When Trudeau Sanitorium got its name

Trudeau was the lead story in this tattered copy of The Enterprise about the meeting of the Adirondack Cottage Board of Trustees held in New York City. - Give my regards to Broadway (The Enterprise, September 1976) - Excerpts from a story by Bill McLaughlin: ''Saranac Lake in 1909 was ...

Legs Diamond in Saranac Lake

There have been many stories over the years about the visits to Saranac Lake of John Moran aka Legs Diamond, one of the leading men of the gangster world. My colleague at the Enterprise, Bill McLaughlin, could capture the nuance of those secret visits better than anyone. His brother Eddie, ...