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Historic Saranac Lake frequently receives queries regarding local history. Do you have any answers to the questions below? Please feel free to add what you know in the comment box, or email <amy AT historicsaranaclake DOT org> with your knowledge or your own question.

• 2/4/10 <scott.hazelwood AT sasktel DOT net> noticed a photo of Washburn Cottage at 4 McClelland Street. Does anyone know anything of the history of this house? Seeing that it is on what was McClelland land, he wonders if it was occupied at one point by Garrie & Martha Washburn, the daughter of James McClelland.

• 12/29/09 Colleen Bennett is looking for information on her grandmother, LaVerne Strough, who was a TB patient who lived in Saranac Lake from 1911- c. 1927.

• LaVerne Strough's father, Arthur Strough, and her siblings moved here from Dolgeville, NY because she and her mother, Carrie Strough, had TB. Her mother was ill for a year or so before they moved and may not have made it to Saranac Lake.

• Arthur remarried Anna (Patterson) Strough sometime between 1913 and 1918. Her sister and brother-in-law, Hazel Strough Paye and Robert Paye, also lived here for many years.

• Arthur Strough and his friend Joseph LaBeau were killed in a tragic car accident in April 1922 on Bloomindale Road near the Trudeau Sanitarium.

• 9/29/09 Bill Hogan is seeking information on the Blue Gentian Restaurant. Please post any information or email amy@historicsaranaclake.org.
  

• Lucy Jones Berk writes, "I remember the tearoom well. It was a very special treat for a youngster to go there with a parent and often out of town guests."

• 9/23/09 Does anyone have any information on Mathew Joseph Makaus, who came to Saranac Lake for the cure in May of 1921. He was a WWI Veteran from Brooklyn, NY.

• 5/7/09 Fred Mader is trying to remember the name of the man who used to pass out lollypops at the Pontiac Theater.

• 4/20/09 Reviewers Club, a Saranac Lake women's organization that is 100 years old this year, is looking for descendants of its founder, Grace (Mrs. Ralph) Leonard. The family owned Leonard's Department Store and lived on Riverside Drive. Their daughter, Louise?, married a Dr. (Kyle?) Hardesty. They had a son named Kyle and a daughter, Mary Lou, and are believed to have moved to California.

• More Queries

Mystery Photo

This man came to Saranac Lake for the cure. Who was he, and what did he become famous for?

2/5/10 Leslie Hoffman correctly answers that the mystery photo is of Norman Bethune He had a very interesting life story, and we do not currently have an article on him on this site. Anyone interested in writing an article on Dr. Bethune and his time in Saranac Lake?

Stay tuned for a new mystery photo coming soon!

Past Mystery Pictures