Echo Camp is an

Adirondack Great Camp __NOTOC__ The Great Camps of the Adirondack Mountains refers to the grandiose family compounds of cabins that were built in the latter half of the nineteenth century on lakes in the Adirondacks such as Spitfire Lake and Rainbow Lake. The camp ...

on the tip of Long Point adjacent to

Camp Pine Knot Camp Pine Knot, also known as Huntington Memorial Camp, on Raquette Lake in the Adirondack Mountains of New York State, was built by William West Durant. Begun in 1877, it was the first of the "Adirondack Great Camps" and epitomizes the "Great Camp ...

Raquette Lake Raquette Lake is the source of the Raquette River in the Adirondack Mountains of New York State. It is near the community of Raquette Lake, New York. The lake has of shoreline with pines and mountains bordering the lake. It is located in the t ...

. It was used as a private girls' camp from the mid-1940s to the mid-1980s. It was sold in 1986, and is now a privately owned summer residence. Built for Connecticut governor

Phineas C. Lounsbury Phineas Chapman Lounsbury (January 10, 1841 - June 22, 1925) was an American politician and the List of Governors of Connecticut, 53rd Governor of Connecticut. Biography Lounsbury was born in Ridgefield, Connecticut on January 10, 1841. He work ...

in 1883, its design bears the influence of

William West Durant William West Durant (1850–1934) was a designer and developer of camps in the Adirondack Great Camp style, including Camp Uncas, Camp Pine Knot and Great Camp Sagamore which are National Historic Landmarks. He was the son of Thomas C. Dura ...

. Its main buildings were nearly identical with those of two other nearby camps built in 1880, Camp Fairview, built on Osprey Island by cousin C. W Durant Jr., and The Cedars, built by cousin Frederick Durant on nearby Forked Lake. Neither is still standing, though they are preserved in photographs by

Seneca Ray Stoddard Seneca Ray Stoddard (1844–1917) was an American landscape photographer known for his photographs of New York's Adirondack Mountains. He was also a naturalist, a writer, a poet, an artist, and a cartographer. His writings and photographs helped ...

and

Edward Bierstadt Edward Bierstadt (September 11, 1824 – June 15, 1906) was a photographer of portraits and landscapes as well as an engraver in the United States. Early life Bierstadt was born in Solingen, Rhine Province, Prussia on September 11, 1824. He w ...

(elder brother of Albert Bierstadt). Like other Durant camps, Echo Camp is built of locally felled logs, with separate buildings for each function. The main lodge consists of a one-floor log hall flanked by twin two-story log towers, giving a villa-like appearance. Interiors are sheathed in polished planks and narrow wainscoting, rooms are lightened by large, half-round clerestory windows, and

twig work Twig-work is the term applied to architectural details constructed of twigs and branches to form decorative motifs in buildings and furniture. Carpentry or woodworking using wood that has not been milled into lumber and is still in its natural sh ...

decorates verandas and eves. Some buildings have applied cedar bark sheathing, still remarkably intact. The camp was included in a multiple property submission for listing on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

and was listed in 1986.

References

Sources

* Gilborn, Craig. ''Adirondack Camps: Homes Away from Home, 1850–1950''. Blue Mountain Lake, NY: Adirondack Museum; Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2000. * Kaiser, Harvey. ''Great Camps of the Adirondacks.'' Boston: David R. Godine, 1982. Adirondack Great Camps Residential buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in New York (state) Buildings and structures in Hamilton County, New York National Register of Historic Places in Hamilton County, New York {{HamiltonCountyNY-NRHP-stub