The
Adirondack
Architecture
Guide

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The first architectural guide to the entire Adirondack Park.

The Adirondack Architecture Guide enables readers to find buildings and sites, to learn something about them, and to understand them in the context of Adirondack history and culture. The Guide is being produced as three books covering the Southern-Central, Eastern, and Northern Regions.

Since its creation in 1892 the Adirondack Park has been a unique combination of natural and man-made places, inextricably intertwined on six million acres (9,375 square miles/24,280 square kilometers) of public and private lands. The Park is the largest National Historic Landmark in the contiguous U.S., recognized for its outstanding historical significance. It contains 100 towns and villages, but no cities. Different from, say, Beacon Hill, Lower Manhattan − or any urban destination − buildings and sites worth seeing in the Adirondacks are not concentrated, but widely dispersed, even hidden. The Guide takes modern-day Adirondack explorers to see architecture they don’t expect and to visit places they’ve never been before.

The Adirondacks possess examples from every era, and most styles, of American architecture from the late 18th century onward, but the region also spawned building types, techniques and styles that are unique to its own history and geography. The work of prominent architects from outside the region is well represented. At the same time, talented local architects, designers, builders and craftsmen designed the vast majority of buildings, and also developed the Adirondack Rustic Style that was subsequently exported to the National Parks and throughout the country.

To capture the rich diversity of the built environment, the Guide purposely ranges across geography, socio-economic strata, building types, and time, from early settlement to the present. The first selection criteria for the Guide are that a building or structure is still standing, possesses architectural interest, and is viewable. The majority of entries are buildings that are simply well designed, or that illustrate the threads of community development and architecture particular to the cultural fabric of the Adirondacks. Exemplars of Adirondack architecture, such as Great Camps and other rustic structures are included, as are numerous examples of building types associated with tourism, such as historic hotels, children’s camps, tourist cabins, amusement parks, and Olympic facilities. Naturally, the architecture of Adirondack communities is the core of the Guide, including civic buildings, representative commercial and residential architecture, churches, and such iconic buildings as rural schoolhouses. Retention of architectural integrity and rarity among extant structures are also factors in selection, but variably applied. For example, a ruined tannery or a compromised historic theater may yet be worth seeing, whereas a significantly altered church or house may not. Repetitive examples may illustrate an architectural ensemble, the evolution of a building type or style, its design variants or geographic dispersion, or the body of work of an architect or designer.

In its broadest meaning, “architecture” denotes all types of man-made structures and places. Beyond buildings, the Guide also includes designed landscapes, such as cemeteries and parks; engineering structures, such as railroads, bridges and dams; and public art, from sculpture by major artists such as Rodin to folk art in the public realm.

The primary method of identifying buildings and sites for the guide is field survey, in concert with research by the authors and local historians. More than 7,000 miles on the ground, plus unknown miles on the water, have been covered in the Southern-Central Region alone. An encyclopedic guide, however, would be impossibly long. The Guide is selective yet representative, encompassing both the ordinary everyday architecture of the region as well as structures that are individually extraordinary − in their quality of design, rarity, innovation, or even their “what the heck is that” curiosity factor. While Adirondack historians and other residents have suggested properties for the Guide, the authors are responsible for the final selection and its assessment. Ultimately, the selection of buildings and sites is subjective, representing what we, the authors, would take visitors to see if we could guide each one in person.

The Adirondack Architecture Guide is a collective endeavor of architect and lead author Janet Null, contributing authors, staff members of Argus Architecture & Preservation and, not least, numerous local historians, property owners and other Adirondack residents.