Loon Lake is a

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...

and a lake in the northeastern region of

Adirondack Park The Adirondack Park is a part of New York's Forest Preserve in northeastern New York, United States. The park was established in 1892 for “the free use of all the people for their health and pleasure”, and for watershed protection. The park ...

in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sover ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

. The community is located on the east side of Loon Lake and northeast of Saranac Lake and north of Lake Placid. Loon Lake was one of several socially prominent destinations in Franklin County throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries; it featured the Loon Lake House resort.

History

Blacksville

In 1848 abolitionist

Gerrit Smith Gerrit Smith (March 6, 1797 – December 28, 1874), also spelled Gerritt Smith, was a leading American social reformer, abolitionist, businessman, public intellectual, and philanthropist. Married to Ann Carroll Fitzhugh, Smith was a candidat ...

gave to Willis Hodges, a free black from

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

, to settle a community with 10 families. They named it Blacksville. Dissatisfied with the isolated frontier conditions and harsh winters, Hodges and the settlers became discouraged and abandoned the community after two winters.

Paul Smith

After Blacksville was abandoned, entrepreneurs built two inns, the Merrillsville Inn and Loverin Tavern, to serve loggers and hunters. Among the latter was Paul Smith. He enjoyed the area and bought 200 acres in 1852 on the North Branch of the

Saranac River Saranac River ( moh, Tsi ietsénhtha) is an river in the U.S. state of New York. In its upper reaches is a region of mostly flat water and lakes. The river has more than three dozen source lakes and ponds north of Upper Saranac Lake; the highes ...

for $300. Here he built "Hunter's Home", serving doctors, lawyers, and other professionals who came to the area to hunt big game. In 1858 Hunter's Home burned. Smith relocated to the lower St. Regis River, where he built a much larger hotel.

Loon Lake House

In 1878 Mary and Ferd Chase purchased 10 acres on a bluff overlooking Loon Lake. They built The Loon Lake House, a 31-room hotel. The resort's instant success allowed the Chase's to expand operations, and by 1893 the Loon Lake House's capacity reached 500 guests. Eventually, the resort would expand to accommodate 800 guests across three hotel structures and 60 private cabins spread over the resort's 3,000 acres. Main house

The resort had an expansive infrastructure that included two water systems, an underground sewer, an early electrical system, a dairy, vegetable and flower gardens, a large boat house, bowling alleys, and one of the Adirondacks' first golf courses, built in 1895. (The Loon Lake Golf Course was abandoned in 2003.) In its heyday the large resort hotel was as self-sufficient as a small town; the resort also included a general store, post office, and a large and elegant train station. The train station originally served passengers of the Chateaugay Railroad, a branch of the

Delaware and Hudson Railroad The Delaware and Hudson Railway (D&H) is a railroad that operates in the Northeastern United States. In 1991, after more than 150 years as an independent railroad, the D&H was purchased by the Canadian Pacific Railway (CP). CP operates D&H ...

. In 1892 the

New York Central Railroad The New York Central Railroad was a railroad primarily operating in the Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The railroad primarily connected greater New York and Boston in the east with Chicago and St. Louis in the Midw ...

completed its rail line to Loon Lake, allowing passage directly from New York City. The beautiful landscape and luxury of the hotel attracted many public figures of the period. Presidents

Grover Cleveland Stephen Grover Cleveland (March 18, 1837June 24, 1908) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 22nd and 24th president of the United States from 1885 to 1889 and from 1893 to 1897. Cleveland is the only president in American ...

Benjamin Harrison Benjamin Harrison (August 20, 1833March 13, 1901) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 23rd president of the United States from 1889 to 1893. He was a member of the Harrison family of Virginia–a grandson of the ninth pr ...

, and

William McKinley William McKinley (January 29, 1843September 14, 1901) was the 25th president of the United States, serving from 1897 until his assassination in 1901. As a politician he led a realignment that made his Republican Party largely dominant in ...

enjoyed stays at the Loon Lake House during their tenures. Wealthy families of the period, including the

Vanderbilts The Vanderbilt family is an American family who gained prominence during the Gilded Age. Their success began with the shipping and railroad empires of Cornelius Vanderbilt, and the family expanded into various other areas of industry and philanthr ...

, Whitneys,

Rothschilds The Rothschild family ( , ) is a wealthy Ashkenazi Jewish family originally from Frankfurt that rose to prominence with Mayer Amschel Rothschild (1744–1812), a court factor to the German Landgraves of Hesse-Kassel in the Free City of F ...

Rockefellers The Rockefeller family () is an American industrial, political, and banking family that owns one of the world's largest fortunes. The fortune was made in the American petroleum industry during the late 19th and early 20th centuries by brot ...

, and

Guggenheims The Guggenheim family ( ) is an American-Jewish family known for making their fortune in the mining industry, in the early 20th century, especially in the United States and South America. After World War I, many family members withdrew from th ...

regularly stayed at the resort. Additionally, popular cultural figures, such as composers

Irving Berlin Irving Berlin (born Israel Beilin; yi, ישראל ביילין; May 11, 1888 – September 22, 1989) was a Russian-American composer, songwriter and lyricist. His music forms a large part of the Great American Songbook. Born in Imperial Russi ...

and

George Gershwin George Gershwin (; born Jacob Gershwine; September 26, 1898 – July 11, 1937) was an American composer and pianist whose compositions spanned popular, jazz and classical genres. Among his best-known works are the orchestral compositions ' ...

, and authors

Theodore Dreiser Theodore Herman Albert Dreiser (; August 27, 1871 – December 28, 1945) was an American novelist and journalist of the naturalist school. His novels often featured main characters who succeeded at their objectives despite a lack of a firm mora ...

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle (22 May 1859 – 7 July 1930) was a British writer and physician. He created the character Sherlock Holmes in 1887 for '' A Study in Scarlet'', the first of four novels and fifty-six short stories about Ho ...

, and

Oscar Wilde Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 185430 November 1900) was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular playwrights in London in the early 1890s. He is ...

vacationed at the Loon Lake House. The Chases owned and managed the hotel from construction in 1878 until 1929. Business dwindled after the stock market crash of 1929, and Mary Chase was forced to sell the resort. In 1956, the primary building burned. The remaining assets, including the grounds and cabins, were auctioned off in 1957. The rise of private automobile use and widespread construction of highways had created wide competition for vacationers.

Loon Lake

Loon Lake is fresh water and approximately three miles long. The lake is positioned between Look Out and

Loon Lake Mountains Loon Lake Mountains are a pair of mountains, the tallest being , near Loon Lake in Franklin County, New York. On the summit is the Loon Lake Mountain Fire Observation Station, which was added to the National Register of Historic Places Th ...

Cultural allusions

* '' Loon Lake'' a novel by

E.L. Doctorow Edgar Lawrence Doctorow (January 6, 1931 – July 21, 2015) was an American novelist, editor, and professor, best known for his works of historical fiction. He wrote twelve novels, three volumes of short fiction and a stage drama. They included ...

, is set in this area. A large private estate on the lake is the main setting for this 1930's Depression-era story. * Loon Lake is mentioned in Chapter XLII of

's novel '' The Titan''. Loon Lake is the subtitle of Symphony #63 by American Composer Alan Hovhaness, composed in 1988.

Sources

*Beckwith Smith III, Karl ''Loon Lake: An Introduction

*Collins, Geradine. ''The Biography and Funny Sayings of Paul Smith'', Paul Smiths College, Paul Smiths, NY. 1965.
"Loon Lake"
''New York Times'', 18 July 2012 * {{Franklin County, New York Hamlets in Franklin County, New York Hamlets in New York (state) Adirondack Park