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Big fire at Durgan’s Night Club

When my friend Lisa McKenna-Walker, real estate mover and shaker and entrepreneur, gave me a copy of the Nov. 19, 1996 Enterprise I was very pleased to receive it … then I thought, gee, 1996, is that too recent to call 1996 news “history?”

Well, hello … in exactly 28 days that “recent” newspaper will be 20 years old … so thank you, Lisa.

The lead story was all about the fire at Club 86. If that building could talk it could tell hundreds of stories about hundreds of locals who celebrated weddings, anniversaries, birthdays, business dinners and Thanksgiving eve celebrations sponsored by the Saranac Lake Volunteer Fire Department. Our parents, Dennis and Elizabeth Keegan Riley celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary at Durgan’s.

Without any special event to celebrate it was packed on weekends for dinner and dancing; the most popular road house in the region, the best food and the best dance bands.

The building is now owned by Christopher Tissot of Tissot Construction Inc.; at the time of the fire the building was owned by Mark Piro of Saranac Lake and had been vacant for many years. Mr. Tissot actually had the property under a purchase contract when the fire happened.

The fire was discovered about 12:30 in the afternoon by Bob Lefler, an insurance inspector, who saw the smoke and drove into the driveway and alerted a neighbor. Lefler said after the call “it took not much over five minutes” for the fire department to arrive.

Andy McGill, who was Saranac Lake Fire Chief later told the enterprise reporter, Larry Rulison, that their investigation had not yet resulted in finding the cause of the fire.

Chief McGill said that 36 men responded to the fire with five trucks. It was brought under control within 45 minutes pouring 40,000 gallons of water onto the blaze with most of the damage on the north side, according to Chief McGill. Volunteer firemen from Bloomingdale, Paul Smiths/Gabriels and Lake Placid also responded to the call.

Durgan’s, LaFountain’s

and Muldowney’s

Mr. and Mrs. Harold Durgan were the owners when I was growing up here; their daughter Joyce was a well known figure skater. The club was very popular in the 1940’s, to which I can attest, because I was driving cab in 1948 and it seems like every other call on weekend nights was to bring some party out to Durgan’s or to pick up a party.

Then when Mose and Bea LaFountain bought the place it was really jumping. Bea was a great chef, the food was superb and on top of that they hired Sonny Woodley, (an incredible drummer) who headed a black jazz band, full time musicians at the Club, who lived in an apartment in the building. They are the parents of Lorraine “Peppy” Fobare, and Red, Jim and “Faker” LaFountain.

It seemed like the roaring 20’s to me when big Jack Muldowney bought the place, which by that time was Club 86. Not only great food and music but Jack was the ultimate host … handsome, charming and witty.

The Club was then something like Purdy’s Elm Tree Inn of Keene, where if you visited and met Monty Purdy once, you would never forget him and he would never forget you.

It was the same with Jack Muldowney, he greeted all with a smile, he knew all the regulars by name and he was your friend forever. Now I don’t know If I can handle any more “John” Muldowney’s. His son John, the attorney, his grandson, Johnny, executive director of the Saranac Lake Chamber of Commerce and for all I know Johnny maybe has a daughter named “Jackie.”

News from the men’s

hockey league

(Does the league still exist?)

“Elizabethtown evened its record at 1-1 Monday in the Coor’s Light Men’s League with a 7-4 hockey victory over Lemieux’s.

Babcock had three goals and Greg Dennin and Mike Connelly two apiece for the winners, who trailed 2-0 after one period and 3-2 after two before exploding for five tallies in the final period.

“Rick St. Denis recorded 20 saves.

“Mike Dewyea, Sean Guerette Ayouta and Gordie Duval had single scores for Lemieux’s, 0-2, with Will Howard stopping 17 shots.

“Tuesday saw Thirsty Moose top Lemieux’s, 7-2, behind Tom Broderick’s hat trick. Bill Hurley added a pair of goals while Gerard Ellers and Ace Jopling contributed one goal each. Tim Stark made 20 saves in the win.

“Thursday, Mud Puddles rolled over Elizabethtown 16-7 [not unlike the Russia’s beating Japan 16 to 0 in the 1980 Olympic Winter Games in Lake Placid]. Brad Preston, Sean Cassidy, Chris Cuttaia, Jeremy Colby and Jamie Laboy backed Safford’s four goals with two each. Mark Deshaies and Brian Munn also scored. Mark Roberts made 20 saves.

“Greg Dennin turned in a hat trick for Elizabethtown, while Bill Hagar, Tom Hagar, Fred Hooper and Rich Flora found the net once each. St. Denis had 19 saves.

“Friday, the Snuffy’s Pub evened its record at 1-1 with a 6-0 blanking of Paul smith’s College. Scoring one goal each were Brian Battistoni, J.P. O’Neil, Dan Peer, Chris Spicer, Tracy Farmer and Matt Woodruff. Mark Farmer made 29 saves in recording the shutout.”

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