Mrs. Mary Manchester, English instructor at the Saranac Lake High School, did a meticulous job on the 150-year history of Saranac Lake. The sub-head at the top of Page One read: “Researched, Complied and Edited under the Direction of Mrs. Mary Manchester.”

Too bad that I can’t give my readers more than a glimpse of that history.

“Many of the short articles are based on “Merely Local” columns by Bill Mclaughlin. In showing that history is very abbreviated, Bill once wrote: “If two 75-year-old men stood back to back in 1898 and walked in opposite directions across their life spans, it would encompass the entire time catalogue of the village and its total experience since birth.”

The following are excerpts from long stories:

“The Indians who came to the area were the Algonquin and the Mohawks. They considered the area dismal and bitter except for a few weeks in summer when deer could be killed in the forests and mountains. The word ‘Saranac,’ it is said, comes from an Indian word meaning, ‘river that flows under a rock.’

“In 1887, rail service arrived at Saranac Lake when the Chateaugay Railroad completed its line from Plattsburgh. The first train arrived on December 5th and three years later the tracks were extended to Lake Placid and both lines were acquired by the Delaware & Hudson.”

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“The doors of the National Bank were opened in 1897 and the following year Saranac Lake held its first Winter Carnival.”

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“In 1901, the great Mark Twain came to Saranac Lake to spend the summer and the first automobile arrived in town in 1902 when Mr. and Mrs. H. O. Sachet honeymooned at the Ampersand Hotel.”

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“There were two hospitals built; one was called the Reception Hospital built by Mrs. Mary Prescott in 1905 and the other one was called the Saranac Lake General Hospital, founded in 1913 by the Proctor family.”

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“A man named Walter Cluett donated the first enclosed curling club (now Madden’s Storage) and he also built the boys club in 1914, both on River Street. (That beautiful boys club building was later the National Guard Armory still filled with offices, lounge, running track, basketball court and bowling alleys.)”

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“Electric living started in 1894 when Orlando Blood and Wallace Murray, owners of the Riverside Inn, purchased the dam and mill site and installed hydropower generators.”

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“In 1895, the Adirondack Daily Enterprise was born.”

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“In 1948, Howard Riley had his first beer at the Melody Lounge on Woodruff Street.”

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“Before Saranac Lake was known as ‘Little New York City,’ it was known as ‘Playground of Millionaires.’ In the 1920s, there were 85 Boarding Houses and 13 hotels.”

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There is a long list of famous people who visited or lived in Saranac Lake … here are a few names with some bios in the original list:

¯ Bella Bartok, Hungarian Composer

¯ Ray Bolger, the scarecrow in “The Wizard of Oz”

¯ Eddie Cantor who did a benefit performance at the Pontiac Theater for the “March of Dimes,” a campaign against polio, which he named.

¯ Presidents Calvin Coolidge and Cleveland and President Benjamin Harrison, who dedicated the Saranac lake High School in 1890 (later we would have to name Presidents Clinton, Bush, the younger, and Nixon.)

¯ Larry Doyle, New York Giants baseball star who came here to cure for tuberculosis

¯ Sammy Davis Jr. who performed at the Pontiac Theater as part of the Marston Trio.

¯ Faye Dunaway, famous actress who won an Oscar for her performance in the movie “Bonnie and Clyde.” Faye worked as a waitress at the Dew Drop Inn. In later years, there were many guys who claimed they dated her. The only one I know of who really did date her was Peter Cox, Enterprise Editor, whose family compound in Kennebunkport, Maine, which I had visited, looked down and across the road at the Presidents’ Bush family compound located on the water.

¯ Elliott Gould [Here is what the story said about Mr. Gould’s visit: “He came to the Adirondacks on vacation. He stopped at the Cedar Post Restaurant (now La Bella Ristorante) and came in trying not to attract attention. When no one noticed him, he made himself the center of attention.”]

¯ Paul Harvey

¯ Al Jolson

¯ Robert Kennedy

¯ Veronica Lake

¯ Gordon Mac Rae

¯ Sidney Poitier

¯ Manuel Quezon who came here with tuberculosis and died here in August, 1944. He was the first President of the Commonwealth of the Philippine Islands.

¯ Albert Einstein — known for his Theory of Relativity and Nobel Prize winner in physics in 1921 — once lived in Saranac Lake. Dr. and Mrs. Einstein, located at the Distin Cottage in Glenwood with the idea of renting it. When Mrs. Distin brought up the subject of rent, Mrs. Einstein stepped forward and said, “You know Dr. Einstein never could do arithmetic so I’ll handle this.” They rented the Distin Cottage for a year and stayed many summers at Knollwood.

[I believe we all agree that history on every level is not always accurate — here is another version of that incident. I have a photo from The Enterprise of Dr. Einstein sitting at a table in the office of Herbert Leggett at a real estate business at 98 Main St. Mr. Leggett is looking on next to Mrs. Einstein as Dr. Einstein studies the lease. The much younger Mrs. Einstein and, by the way, Dr. Einstein’s cousin, says, “He’s not very good at figures, so I’ll take a look at it.”