Lake Placid is a

village A village is a human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban v ...

in the

Adirondack Mountains The Adirondack Mountains ( ) are a massif of mountains in Northeastern New York which form a circular dome approximately wide and covering about . The region contains more than 100 peaks, including Mount Marcy, which is the highest point in Ne ...

in Essex County, New York, United States. In 2020, its population was 2,205. The village of Lake Placid is near the center of the town of North Elba, southwest of Plattsburgh. Lake Placid became known internationally for hosting the

1932 Events January * January 4 – The British authorities in India arrest and intern Mahatma Gandhi and Vallabhbhai Patel. * January 9 – Sakuradamon Incident (1932), Sakuradamon Incident: Korean nationalist Lee Bong-chang fails in his effort ...

and the 1980 Winter Olympics, the

1972 Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using Solar time, ...

and 2023 Winter World University Games as well as the 2000 Goodwill Winter Games.

History

Lake Placid was founded in the early 19th century to develop an

iron ore Iron ores are rocks and minerals from which metallic iron can be economically extracted. The ores are usually rich in iron oxides and vary in color from dark grey, bright yellow, or deep purple to rusty red. The iron is usually found in the f ...

mining operation. By 1840, the population of "North Elba" (four miles southeast of the present village, near where the road to the Adirondak Loj crosses the Ausable River), was six families. In 1845, the philanthropist Gerrit Smith arrived in North Elba and not only bought a great deal of land around the village but granted large tracts to former

slaves Slavery is the ownership of a person as property, especially in regards to their labour. Slavery typically involves compulsory work, with the slave's location of work and residence dictated by the party that holds them in bondage. Enslavemen ...

. He reformed the land law and demonstrated his support of

abolitionism Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the political movement to end slavery and liberate enslaved individuals around the world. The first country to fully outlaw slavery was France in 1315, but it was later used in its colonies. ...

. The abolitionist John Brown heard about Smith's reforms and left his anti-slavery activities in Kansas to buy of land in North Elba. This parcel later became known as the "Freed Slave Utopian Experiment", ''Timbuctoo''. Brown would become known for his militant abolitionist work, which led to his raid on Harpers Ferry and his conviction for

treason Treason is the crime of attacking a state (polity), state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to Coup d'état, overthrow its government, spy ...

and

murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse committed with the necessary Intention (criminal law), intention as defined by the law in a specific jurisd ...

. Shortly before his execution in 1859, John Brown asked to be buried on his farm, which remains preserved as the John Brown Farm State Historic Site. As leisure time increased in the late 19th century, Lake Placid was discovered as a resort by the wealthy, drawn to the fashionable Lake Placid Club. Melvil Dewey, who invented the Dewey Decimal System, designed what was then called "Placid Park Club" in 1895. This inspired the village to change its name to Lake Placid, an incorporated village in 1900. Dewey kept the club open through the winter in 1905, which aided the development of winter sports in the area. It often hosted national conventions. Nearby Saranac Lake had hosted an international winter sporting event as early as 1889 and was used year-round by patients seeking treatment for

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can al ...

at sanatoria. The fresh, clean mountain air was considered good for them and was a common treatment for tuberculosis. As the dramatic surroundings became more known to residents of New York City, filmmakers started to use Lake Placid and its surroundings for shooting silent films around 1920. Many movies, among them '' News Parade, Summer Bachelors, The Avalanche'', and '' Out of the Snows'', were shot in the area. By 1921, the Lake Placid area boasted a ski jump,

speed skating Speed skating is a competitive form of ice skating in which the competitors race each other in travelling a certain distance on skates. Types of speed skating are long-track speed skating, short-track speed skating, and marathon speed skat ...

venue, and ski association. In 1929, Godfrey Dewey, Melvil's son, convinced the

International Olympic Committee The International Olympic Committee (IOC; , CIO) is the international, non-governmental, sports governing body of the modern Olympic Games. Founded in 1894 by Pierre de Coubertin and Demetrios Vikelas, it is based i ...

(IOC) Lake Placid had the best winter sports facilities in the United States. The Lake Placid Club was the headquarters for the IOC for the

and the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid. The Club did not allow Jews or Catholics, but there were other hotels that catered to them. Especially during and after World War Two, many cosmopolitan refugees from Hitler's Germany and Austria spent their summers in Lake Placid. Main Street was filled with fashionable shops, albeit opened only during the season. In addition to the John Brown Farm and Gravesite, the Mount Van Hoevenberg Olympic Bobsled Run, New York Central Railroad Adirondack Division Historic District, and United States Post Office are listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

Major historical hotels

There were three major hotels built in the 1870s, and many subsequent inns flourished. Among the most prominent hotels were: The Grand View Hotel, Stevens House, The Mirror Lake Inn, The Ruisseaumont Hotel, Northwoods Inn, Hotel Marcy, Searles House, and The Homestead. Some of them are still in business.

Sporting events

Olympic Winter Games

Lake Placid hosted the

Winter Olympics The Winter Olympic Games (), also known as the Winter Olympics, is a major international multi-sport event held once every four years for sports practiced on snow and ice. The first Winter Olympic Games, the 1924 Winter Olympics, were held i ...

and

1980 Events January * January 4 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter proclaims a United States grain embargo against the Soviet Union, grain embargo against the USSR with the support of the European Commission. * January 6 – Global Positioning Sys ...

. Lake Placid, St Moritz, and

Innsbruck Innsbruck (; ) is the capital of Tyrol (federal state), Tyrol and the List of cities and towns in Austria, fifth-largest city in Austria. On the Inn (river), River Inn, at its junction with the Wipptal, Wipp Valley, which provides access to the ...

are the only sites to have twice hosted the Winter Olympic Games. Jack Shea, a resident of the village, became the first person to win two gold medals when he doubled in speed skating at the 1932 Winter Olympics. In the U.S., the village is especially remembered as the 1980 USA–USSR hockey game site. Dubbed the " Miracle on Ice", a group of American college students and amateurs upset seasoned and professional Soviet national ice hockey team, 4–3, and two days later won the

gold medal A gold medal is a medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture. Since the eighteenth century, gold medals have b ...

. Another historic first was the performance of American speed-skater Eric Heiden, who won five gold medals.

Other international sporting events

Lake Placid has continued to host international multi-sport events. The World University Games took place there on two occasions; hosting the 1972 Winter Universiade and the 2023 Winter World University Games. Lake Placid hosted the 2000 Goodwill Winter Games.

Regular sporting events

* Since 1999 Lake Placid has been a site for the annual Ironman Lake Placid Triathlon, the second oldest Ironman in North America and one of ten official

Ironman Triathlon An Ironman Triathlon is one of a series of long-distance triathlon races organized by the World Triathlon Corporation (WTC), consisting of a swim, a bicycle ride and a marathon run completed in that order, a total of . It is widely consid ...

s held in the continental U.S. * The Lake Placid and I Love New York Horse Shows have been held at the North Elba Showgrounds since 1969. * The Winter Empire State Games were held in Lake Placid in February until they were discontinued in 2010. * The Lake Placid

ice dance Ice dance (sometimes referred to as ice dancing) is a discipline of figure skating that historically draws from ballroom dancing. It joined the World Figure Skating Championships in 1952, and became a Winter Olympic Games medal sport in 1976. Ac ...

competition is held every year in July or August in the 1980 Olympic Arena. * CAN/AM hosts an adult pond hockey tournament. The Canadian American pond hockey tournament is held in February on Mirror Lake. * The Lake Placid Summit Classic Lacrosse Tournament is held every year in early August since 1990; roughly 250 teams participate.

Recreational opportunities

Lake Placid is well known among winter-sports enthusiasts for its skiing, both Alpine and Nordic. Whiteface Mountain (), in nearby Wilmington about from Lake Placid, offers skiing, hiking, gondola rides, and mountain biking, and is the only one of the High Peaks that can be reached by an auto road. Whiteface Mountain has a vertical elevation of , the highest vertical elevation of mountains in Eastern North America. The area has one of only 16

bobsled Bobsleigh or bobsled is a winter sport in which teams of 2 to 4 athletes make timed speed runs down narrow, twisting, banked, iced tracks in a gravity-powered sleigh. International bobsleigh competitions are governed by the International Bobs ...

runs in the Western Hemisphere. In 2010, '' U.S. News & World Report'' highlighted Lake Placid as one of the "6 Forgotten Vacation Spots" in North America. Many people use Lake Placid as a base from which to climb the 46 High Peaks in the

. Lake Placid built its first golf course in 1898, one of the first in the U.S., and has more courses than any other venue in the Adirondacks. Many of its courses were designed by well-known golf course architects, such as Seymour Dunn and Alister MacKenzie. The geographic features of the Adirondacks were considered reminiscent of the Scottish landscape, where the game started, and thus a fitting canvas for original play, or "mountain golf". Lake Placid is near the West Branch of the Ausable River, a well-known stretch of water for

fly fishing Fly fishing is an angling technique that uses an ultra-lightweight lure called an artificial fly, which typically mimics small invertebrates such as flying and aquatic insects to attract and catch fish. Because the mass of the fly lure is in ...

Music

Lake Placid is home to the Lake Placid Sinfonietta, a professional summer chamber orchestra that has existed since 1917. Musicians associated with New York City's Greenwich House Music School summered in Lake Placid around 1920, as did the opera singer George Hamlin. Victor Herbert was the most famous musician to own a camp in town. The Lake Placid Club offered concerts and gala festivities for decades.

Education

* Postsecondary education ** North Country Community College * Primary and secondary education ** In Lake Placid, public education is administered by the Lake Placid Central School District. Lake Placid is home to five private schools: * Mountain Lake Academy * National Sports Academy * North Country School * Northwood School * St. Agnes School

Geography

According to the

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal statistical system, U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and American economy, econ ...

, the village has a total area of , of which is land and , or 10.79%, is water. The village is located near the southern end of Lake Placid lake. More immediate to the village is Mirror Lake, which lies between the village and Lake Placid.

Demographics

As of the census of 2000, there were 2,638 people, 1,303 households, and 604 families residing in the village. The

population density Population density (in agriculture: Standing stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geog ...

was . There were 1,765 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the village was 95.75%

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

, 0.68%

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

, 0.45% Native American, 0.91% Asian, 0.57%

Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, Pacificans, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the list of islands in the Pacific Ocean, Pacific Islands. As an ethnic group, ethnic/race (human categorization), racial term, it is used to describe th ...

, 0.19% from other races, and 1.44% from two or more races.

Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...

or Latino of any race were 0.91% of the population. There were 1,303 households, of which 22.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 34.1% were married couples living together, 8.4% had a female householder with no husband present, and 53.6% were non-families. 45.7% of all households were made up of individuals, and 16.9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.02, and the average family size was 2.93. The population was spread out, with 22.4% under the age of 18, 8.5% from 18 to 24, 33.2% from 25 to 44, 19.3% from 45 to 64, and 16.6% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 37 years. For every 100 females, there were 92.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 88.3 males. The median income for a household in the village was $28,239, and the median income for a family was $43,042. Males had a median income of $26,585 versus $21,750 for females. The

per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. In many countries, per capita income is determined using regular population surveys, such ...

for the village was $18,507. About 8.5% of families and 13.2% of the population were below the

poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line, or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...

, including 13.3% of those under age 18 and 17.8% of those age 65 or over.

Climate

According to the

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification divides Earth climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature. The five main groups are ''A'' (tropical), ''B'' (arid), ''C'' (te ...

system, Lake Placid has a warm-summer,

humid continental climate A humid continental climate is a climatic region defined by Russo-German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1900, typified by four distinct seasons and large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers, and cold ...

(''Dfb''). ''Dfb'' climates are characterized by a least one month having an average mean temperature ≤ , at least four months with an average mean temperature ≥ , all months with an average mean temperature < and no significant precipitation difference between seasons. Although most summer days are comfortably humid in Lake Placid, episodes of heat and high humidity can occur with

heat index The heat index (HI) is an index that combines air temperature and relative humidity, in shade (shadow), shaded areas, to posit a human-perceived equivalent temperature, as how hot it would feel if the humidity were some other value in the Shade (s ...

values > . Since 1897, the highest air temperature was . The average wettest month is June which corresponds with the annual peak in

thunderstorm A thunderstorm, also known as an electrical storm or a lightning storm, is a storm characterized by the presence of lightning and its acoustics, acoustic effect on the Earth's atmosphere, known as thunder. Relatively weak thunderstorm ...

activity. During the winter months, the average annual extreme minimum air temperature is , corresponding to

hardiness zone A hardiness zone is a geographic area defined as having a certain average annual minimum temperature, a factor relevant to the survival of many plants. In some systems other statistics are included in the calculations. The original and most widely ...

4. Since 1897, the coldest air temperature was . Episodes of extreme cold and wind can occur with

wind chill Wind chill (popularly wind chill factor) is the sensation of cold produced by the wind for a given ambient air temperature on exposed skin as the air motion accelerates the rate of heat transfer from the body to the surrounding atmosphere. Its va ...

values < . The average annual snowfall total is .

Ecology

According to the A. W. Kuchler U.S. potential natural vegetation types, Lake Placid would have a dominant vegetation type of Northern

Hardwood Hardwood is wood from Flowering plant, angiosperm trees. These are usually found in broad-leaved temperate and tropical forests. In temperate and boreal ecosystem, boreal latitudes they are mostly deciduous, but in tropics and subtropics mostl ...

Spruce A spruce is a tree of the genus ''Picea'' ( ), a genus of about 40 species of coniferous evergreen trees in the family Pinaceae, found in the northern temperate and boreal ecosystem, boreal (taiga) regions of the Northern hemisphere. ''Picea'' ...

(''108'') with a dominant vegetation form of Northern

s (''23''). The plant hardiness zone is 4a with an average annual extreme minimum air temperature of . The spring bloom typically peaks on approximately May 12 and fall color usually peaks around October 1. Panorama Lake Placid

Notable residents

* Bill Beaney (born 1951) ice hockey coach * John Brown (1800–1859), abolitionist * Chadd Cassidy (born August 3, 1973), AHL coach *

Lana Del Rey Elizabeth Woolridge Grant (born June 21, 1985), known professionally as Lana Del Rey, is an American singer-songwriter. Lana Del Rey discography, Her music is noted for its melancholic exploration of Glamour (presentation), glamor and Romanc ...

(born 1985), singer and songwriter * John Desrocher (born 1964), ambassador to Algeria * Godfrey Dewey (1887–1977), president of the Lake Placid Organizing Committee * Melvil Dewey (1851–1931), inventor of the

Dewey Decimal Classification The Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) (pronounced ) colloquially known as the Dewey Decimal System, is a proprietary library classification system which allows new books to be added to a library in their appropriate location based on subject. ...

System, founder of the Lake Placid Club * Victor Herbert (1859–1924), composer and summer resident * Chris Ortloff (born 1947), former

New York State Assembly The New York State Assembly is the lower house of the New York State Legislature, with the New York State Senate being the upper house. There are 150 seats in the Assembly. Assembly members serve two-year terms without term limits. The Ass ...

man * Artur Rodziński (1892–1958), conductor * Katharine Sharp (1865–1914), pioneer in library science, died there in a car crash includes photo * Kate Smith (1907–1986), singer * James Tolkan (born 1931), actor * Craig Wood (1901–1968), golfer

Winter Olympic athletes

* Lowell Bailey (b. 1981), biathlete * Stanley Benham (1913–1970), bobsledder * Ashley Caldwell (b. 1993), freestyle skier * Art Devlin (1922–2004) ski jumper, decorated

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

veteran, sports commentator * Peter Frenette (b. 1992), ski jumper * Mark Grimmette (b. 1971), luger * Eric Heiden (born 1958), speedskater * Haley Johnson (b. 1981), biathlete * Jack Shea (1910–2002), speed skater * Jimmy Shea (b. 1968), luger * Andrew Weibrecht (born 1986), alpine skier

References

External links

Village of Lake Placid official website
*
Lake Placid News
'
Lake Placid Olympic Authority
{{Authority control Villages in New York (state) Villages in Essex County, New York