First Presbyterian Church of Saranac Lake

The First Presbyterian Church of Saranac Lake, 1901

Address: 57 Church St.

Old Address: 23 Church St.

Year built: 1880

From the Adirondack Daily Enterprise, July 14, 1990

Church and town grow together in first 100 years

By SUSAN COLT Enterprise Staff Writer

SARANAC LAKE — The First Presbyterian Church will be celebrating its first 100 years on Sunday, July 22.

In July of 1932, the 42nd anniversary, the church published a small year book containing a brief history and letters to the parish from early ministers. As the book makes clear, from very early on the church and the health industry established here were intertwined. Two of the earliest ministers were living here because their wives had tuberculosis.

According to the anniversary book, "The immediate task of the church in this community is to be a friend to those who came here to regain their health."

The church held its first organizational meeting on July 25, 1890, when, "Twelve persons were received by letter from the Presbyterian Church of Black Brook and five on profession of faith."

The organizational service was held in the church, still so new that it had no windows and only long wooden benches for seats, but regular meetings for worship were held in the town hall and other buildings until 1893 when the church was completed.

The building process was helped along by Col. Eliot Shepard, for whom Shepard Avenue here is named, who assumed the $900 church debt, paid for a manse, built a stable and donated the Church bell. Shepard was a son-in-law of William H. Vanderbilt.

First Presbyterian Church of Saranac Lake, undated

Costs were low in the early days when the pastor's annual salary was $954.64 and three months of electricity (in 1905) cost $2.25.

The early history contained painful conflicts as well, as the description of the minister, Roy Chamberlain and his subsequent anniversary letter to the book publisher illustrate.

"In 1915 Rev. Roy Chamberlain, a young man of exceptional vigor and strength, interested in athletics and in a radical application of the Gospel to life, became the pastor. He was very popular with the young people, among whom he did splendid work."

But the description continues, "He was minister during the trying days of the war and suffered intensely because of his Pacifistic attitude which he believed to be the only Christian one. In 1918, however, he went as a chaplain to France. For a year or more after he returned he was broken in health but fully recovered....His sincerity, courage and Christian attitude are appreciated much more now by the people of the church than during the days of war fever."

What must have been a difficult time for a young minister and his flock is referred to by Chamberlain in his letter as follows: "May I express once more my gratitude for your patience and indulgence with a raw, untried youngster whom you called to minister to your Church in July, 1915. A fresh graduate from a theological school has to learn somewhere but his first years of "practice" are often hard on his people. Good intentions and unbounded enthusiasm are no substitute for the wisdom and growing spirituality which only experience can bring. It was with you and from you that I began to know what a life with our Master might mean."

During these years of change and growth, the Presbyterian Church was also growing. By 1932, the church had 350 members, a handful from distant places, but most of the members were local visitors.

The tuberculosis health industry continued to shape the nature and character of the church. The Reverend Hiram W. Lyon, minister of the church in 1932 had come to Saranac Lake for his health in 1925. So much time was spent in ministering to people in cure cottages that in 1928 a parish visitor, Miss Christine Burdick, was hired. Miss Burdick was a graduate of the Boston University School of Religious Education and Social Work. In 1928, she made 2,000 home visits.

Women of the church formed their first missionary society in 1896 and pledged two cents a week at first — later it was raised to a mandatory 25 cents a month. The money, which soon took the form of voluntary pledges, was sent to foreign missions.

Young people also formed groups to raise money for the less fortunate. One such group "The Francis Willard Mission Club" remembers an Alaskan girl who came to Saranac Lake to cure.

The village, with a residential downtown shaded by large maples in the 1890s, grew rapidly through the 30s as people from far and wide came in search of health. Church Street, however, in a 1897 photo, appears virtually treeless in the winter, the round church window dominant then as it is now.

The ceiling of the church.

President Calvin Coolidge worshiped here in the summer of 1926, while White Pine Camp on Osgood Pond served as the summer white house. His letter in the 1932 book says, "Mrs. Coolidge and I are connected with the Congregational Church, but we think it more important to attend a place of divine worship on Sunday morning, than to insist on our own church...We shall always remember the kindness with which the church received us and a great satisfaction in the good which we believe it is doing."

The front porch, first enclosed with glass in 1917, was made into an office and chapel in 1967. A pipe organ installed in 1925, (President Coolidge remarked that the music was particularly fine) was replaced in 1973 with a specially built Holtkamp pipe organ given by Mrs. Ralph Burger. The organ is modeled after 17th and 18th century German organs and is especially suited to baroque music. Mrs. Burger gave the organ in memory of her husband, chairman of the board of A&P, who had a camp in the area.

The most noticeable change was the removal of the bell and belfry. Upon removal, the bell was given to North Country Community College in 1967 for the campus buildings then in the planning stage. The bell was returned in 1977 as the college had never used it and installed in a tower at the side of the church in memory of Miles and David Feree.

The Christian Education Building called Gurley Hall in memory of the Reverend Alvin Gurley past for 20 years is razed and a new, two-story addition at the rear of the church takes its place.

The church has always provided a warm, spiritual home for its members and individual members have witnessed by taking an active part in every phase of community life.

From the beginning the church has emphasized the importance of religious education — since 1956 it has sponsored or housed a nursery school. In 1928, a Boy Scout Troop was formed, which by 1932 boasted of eight Eagle Scouts. It housed the first senior citizens and youth centers and provided meeting space for dozens of other organizations.

The church will celebrate its first 100 years in Saranac Lake with a worship service, dedication of new hymnals, singing of old songs, interment of a time capsule, awarding of prizes and, finally, a picnic.

First Presbyterian Church of Saranac Lake, 2/28/2009

Calvin Coolidge History. Coolidge is in the white suit. The man to the right of Coolidge is the Reverend Charles Erdman

Calvin Coolidge History, First Presbyterian Church of Saranac Lake, 3/1/2009 Calvin Coolidge History, First Presbyterian Church of Saranac Lake, 3/1/2009

Church St. First Presbyterian Church on left

Sources

• National Register of Historic Places Registration Form
  

• Colt, Susan, Adirondack Daily Enterprise, July 14, 1990, "Church and town grow together in first 100 years."

Pastors:

• Reverend Roy Chamberlain
  

• Reverend George Kennedy Newell
  

• Reverend Alvin Gurley
  

• Reverend Hiram W. Lyon

Other historic properties