Cure Cottages

Between 1873 and 1945, Saranac Lake became a world renowned center for the treatment of tuberculosis, using a treatment that involved exposing patients to as much fresh air as possible under conditions of complete bed-rest. In the process, a specific building type, the Cure Cottage developed, built by local residents seeking to capitalize on the town's fame, by physicians, and often by the patients themselves. Many of these structures are still extant, and their historic value has been recognized by listing on National Register of Historic Places.¹

Fifty-nine of these structures named below are listed on the National Register of Historic Places as individual cure cottages. Others can be found in National Register-listed Historic Districts. Many others exist in Saranac Lake and surroundings, but were not listed on the National Register.

Note: The name assigned to each of these cottages gives the impression that it was called by that name throughout its service as a cure facility. In fact, it was common for a house to be operated by several different people over time, and the name of the cottages changed accordingly. We have tried to assign the name each cottage was best known by, but some idea of the history of the property can be gained by looking at the "Other names" entries. See the discussion at Disinfection Records for more on the sources of this information.

See also Cure Cottage History

Cottage		Pre-911 Address	Current Address	Notes
Dr. A. H. Allen Cottage		22 Catherine Street	11 Woodycrest Road	A 1909 Scopes and Feustmann-designed cure cottage. NRHP Form
Ames Cottage		43 Church Street	19 Church Street	A Queen Anne style cure cottage built about 1906. NRHP Form
Baird Cottage		111 Glenwood Road	67 Glenwood Road	A virtually intact cure cottage built in 1930, near the end of the cure cottage era. NRHP Form
Barngalow		108 1/2 Park Avenue	40 Cliff Road	A two-story cure cottage that was originally a barn, converted to residential use in 1910. NRHP Form
Bogie Cottage		59 Franklin Street	25 Franklin Avenue	A 1908, Craftsman-inspired cure cottage. NRHP Form
Camp Intermission		Northwest Bay Road	Camp Colby Road	A Great Camp built for theatrical agent William Morris, designed by William G. Distin NRHP Form
Peyton Clark Cottage		9 Rockledge Road	36 Rockledge Lane	A 1915 large, Tudor Revival-style, 2 and 1/2 story cure cottage designed by William H. Scopes. The owner was a civil engineer whose wife had tuberculosis. NRHP Form
Colbath Cottage		30 River Street	63 River Street	A Queen Anne-style cure cottage built about 1896. NRHP Form
Coulter Cottage		34 Shepard Avenue	82 Shepard Avenue	A two and 1/2 story cure cottage designed by William L. Coulter and built between 1897 and 1899 as his residence. NRHP Form
Denny Cottage		76 Bloomingdale Avenue	141 Bloomingdale Avenue	A cure cottage built about 1910. NRHP Form
Distin Cottage		11 Kiwassa Road	186 Kiwassa Road	A cure cottage designed by architect William G. Distin for his father, photographer William L. Distin, built between 1915 and 1925. NRHP Form
Drury Cottage		29 Bloomingdale Avenue	52 Bloomingdale Avenue	A cure cottage built c. 1912. NRHP Form
Ellenberger Cottage		183 Broadway	212 Broadway	A Queen Anne style cure cottage built before 1917. NRHP Form
Fallon Cottage Annex		31 Franklin Street	83 Franklin Avenue	A 1901 cure cottage. 2 NRHP Form
Feisthamel-Edelberg Cottage		11 Neil Street	203 Neil Street	An intact cure cottage built before 1915. NRHP Form
Feustmann Cottage		28 Catherine Street	83 Catherine Street	A private cure cottage designed by architect Maurice Feustmann for use by his own family. NRHP Form
Freer Cottage		40 Kiwassa Street	267 Kiwassa Road	A largely intact private cure cottage built before 1925 NRHP Form
E. L. Gray House		15 Helen Street	27 Helen Street	A cure cottage designed by Scopes and Feustmann, built between 1911 and 1913. NRHP Form
Hathaway Cottage		6 Charles Street	168 Charles Street	A largely intact, Queen Anne-style cure cottage built about 1900. NRHP Form
Hill Cottage		36 Franklin Avenue	76 Franklin Avenue	A 1913 Craftsman-style cure cottage. NRHP Form
Hillside Lodge		Harrietstown Road	2030 State Route 86	An intact cure cottage built about 1920. NRHP Form
The Homestead		3 Maple Hill	17 Maple Hill Road	A boarding cure cottage built in 1890. NRHP Form
Hooey Cottage		24 Park Place	4 Prescott Pl	A 1916 cure cottage. NRHP Form
Hopkins Cottage		5 Birch Street	58 Birch Street	A cure cottage built in 1923. NRHP Form
Jennings Cottage		16 Marshall Street	23 Marshall Street	An 1896 Bungalow-style cure cottage. NRHP Form
Johnson Cottage		6 1/2 St. Bernard Street	46 St. Bernard Street	A largely intact cure cottage built before 1896. NRHP Form
Kennedy Cottage		26 Shepard Street	98 Shepard Avenue	A 1897 cure cottage that was used by the National Vaudeville Artists Philanthropic Association prior to the construction of the Will Rogers Hospital. NRHP Form
Lane Cottage		4 Rockledge Road	5 Rockledge Road	A 1923 cure cottage built by Edward Shaw for his wife, who had tuberculosis. The Shaws had two young children; fearing that they would contract TB from Mrs. Shaw, a separate house was built for them, nearby. NRHP Form
Larom Cottage		112 Park Avenue	247 Park Avenue	A cure cottage built between 1905 and 1910. NRHP Form
Larom-Welles Cottage		110 Park Avenue	50 Cliff Road	A 1905, three-story, wood frame cure cottage, built for the priest of St. Luke's Episcopal Church, later the home of Dr. Edward Welles, a pioneer in thoracic surgery, who practiced at the Adirondack Cottage Sanatorium. NRHP Form
Dr. Henry Leetch House		3 Johnson Road	12 Labrador Lane	A 1932 cure cottage designed by William G. Distin for Dr. Henry Leetch, who specialized in treating tuberculosis, and who had the disease himself. NRHP Form
Leis Block		3-5 Bloomingdale Avenue	12 Bloomingdale Avenue	A 1902 commercial building with apartments built with "cure porches", it originally housed Henry P. Leis pianos and a pharmacy on its first floor. NRHP Form
Leis Cottage		26 Algonquin Avenue	401 State Route 3	A private, shingled cure cottage built about 1906. NRHP Form
Lent Cottage		18 Franklin Avenue	114 Franklin Avenue	An apartment house, built about 1920 as a cure cottage NRHP Form
Little Red		Algonquin Avenue	154 Algonquin Avenue	The original cure cottage of the Adirondack Cottage Sanitarium founded by Dr. Edward Livingston Trudeau. NRHP Form
Magill Cottage		37 Riverside Dr.	74 Kiwassa Road	A cure cottage built about 1911. NRHP Form
Marquay Cottage		6 Slater Street	67 Slater Avenue	A 1914, Queen Anne-style cure cottage built of rusticated cast-concrete blocks, with an octagonal corner tower. NRHP Form
Marvin Cottage		15 Franklin Street	119 Franklin Avenue	A cure cottage built about 1900. NRHP Form
McBean Cottage		89 Park Avenue	192 Park Avenue	A Colonial Revival cure cottage with Craftsman-style touches, built between 1915 and 1925. NRHP Form
Morgan Cottage		100 Park Avenue	211 Park Avenue	A 1915 bungalow designed by Scopes and Feustmann as a cure cottage. NRHP Form
Musselman Cottage		25 Riverside Dr.	60 Kiwassa Road	A boardinghouse-style cure cottage built about 1907. NRHP Form
Noyes Cottage		16 Helen Street	35 Helen Street	A cure cottage built in 1898. NRHP Form
Partridge Cottage		15 South Street	30 Clinton Avenue	A 1925 Colonial Revival apartment house, with three apartments used as a cure cottages for three families. NRHP Form
Pittenger Cottage		14 Forest Hill Avenue	494 Forest Hill Avenue	A cure cottage with five cure porches, built about 1920. NRHP Form
Pomeroy Cottage		26 Baker Street	55 Baker Street	A Craftman-style house built about 1910, it may have been designed as a private cure cottage by William G. Distin. NRHP Form
Radwell Cottage		2 Charles Street	178 Charles Street	An intact 1896 cure cottage. NRHP Form
Ryan Cottage		62 Algonquin Avenue	29 Algonquin Avenue	An 1893 Queen Anne-style cure cottage. NRHP Form
Sarbanes Cottage		72 Bloomingdale Avenue	129 Bloomingdale Avenue	A cure cottage built about 1930. NRHP Form
Orin Savage Cottage		33 Olive Street	117 Olive Street	A cure cottage built about 1910. NRHP Form
Schrader-Griswold Cottage		49 Riverside Dr.	116 Kiwassa Road	A 1906 Queen Anne-style cure cottage. NRHP Form
Seeley Cottage		27 Olive Street	127 Olive Street	An intact cure cottage built in 1890. NRHP Form
Sloan Cottage		21 View Street	31 View Street	A Coulter and Westhoff-designed single-family cure cottage built in 1907. NRHP Form
Smith Cottage		12 Jenkins Street	25 Jenkins Street	A cure cottage for a single patient built about 1903. NRHP Form
Stevenson Cottage		Stevenson Ln.	44 Stevenson Lane	A cure cottage used by Robert Louis Stevenson in 1887. NRHP Form
Stonaker Cottage		Glenwood Road	92 Glenwood Dr	A private home built in 1916 for the president of Northern New York Telephone who used it as a cure cottage. NRHP Form
Stuckman Cottage		6 Clinton Avenue	17 Fawn Street	A cure cottage built between 1897 and 1900. NRHP Form
Walker Cottage		67 Park Avenue	134 Park Avenue	A 1904 Colonial Revival-style house that evolved into a cure cottage. 3 NRHP Form
Wilson Cottage		8 Williams Street	21 William Street	An intact Queen Anne-style cure cottage. NRHP Form
Witherspoon Cottage		3 Kiwassa Road	164 Kiwassa Road	A boardinghouse-style cure cottage built in 1910. NRHP Form

There were many more houses that were used as cure cottages in Saranac Lake. Many of them can be found on the pages of this site: see Streets.

For other properties on the National Register of Historic Places, see Other historic properties.

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