Saranac Lake Study and Craft Guild

Saranac Lake Study & Craft Guild Teaching Appointment Occupational therapy such as this at the Trudeau Sanatorium led to the creation of the Study and Craft Guild Guild House ribbon-cutting, 1941. Adirondack Daily Enterprise, August 4, 1990
The Saranac Lake Study and Craft Guild began in 1936, with the intent of providing education, job training and enrichment for the many patients who came to Saranac Lake hoping to recover from tuberculosis. Three individuals provided strong leadership to nurture the Guild: Jeanne Duplaix, William Stearns and Morris Croll. The Guild received early financial support from a Carnegie Grant as well as funding from the New York State Education Department in later years. In addition, the Guild was generously supported by celebrities and the local community. Opera star Grace Moore performed a benefit concert at the Pontiac Theater to raise funds for the construction of a new Guild House on Main Street. Like many celebrities that came to Saranac Lake, she had a personal connection to the curing community: her husband, Valentin Parera, spent time recuperating from TB in the lakeside village.

Courses offered by the Guild were diverse, covering the usual academic subjects such as Literature and History as well as the more skilled work of glove making and x-ray technique. In time, courses were opened to the local community. By 1941 its membership had reached 449, a significant upswing from its initial membership of 169. Guild membership was accessible to everyone; lifelong memberships could be purchased for $500 while "active" memberships cost only a $1. Memberships and fees contributed to the 1941 $17,000 budget with the State contributing the larger portion, $13,500. In 1947, enrollment in the guild soared to 3,646, a gain of 1,651 from the previous year.¹ In 1951, the budget would grow to over $100,000.

The x-ray program successfully continued with a year-long course of study, with room and board provided at Prescott House, with fees of $400 and a $20 weekly, respectively. With the advent of effective antibiotics, the curing industry diminished as did enrollment in the Guild. In 1962, after the property was given to the Saranac Lake Free Library, the Guild House (Image) on Main Street was demolished to make room for an addition to the Library. The x-ray program later became a popular program at North Country Community College.

Source

• Bailey, Cecily. “Cure patients found purpose while learning at Guild House.” Press Republican. Plattsburgh, NY. September 12, 1983.

From the Adirondack Daily Enterprise, December 28, 1948

Guild's Fall Term Of Classes Shows Patient Increase

Increased rehabilitation service to the patients and ex-patients of Saranac Lake is revealed in the preliminary summary of the fall term of classes at the Saranac Lake Study and Craft Guild released today. The term closed on December 18.

Two hundred twenty-five convalescents were numbered among Guild students, an increase of twenty-three over last year. This compares with a total of one hundred thirty-three well persons registered, an increase of eighteen. The over-all enrollment of three hundred fifty-eight is 41 over the fan term in 1947.

Saranac Lake Study & Craft Guild Student Receipt

The most notable growth occurred in the department of arts and crafts, under the supervision of E. Blanchard Brown. Total registration numbered two hundred sixty-three.

Among the most popular courses were dress-making and alteration, with seventy-seven, drawing and painting with forty, metalwork with thirty-nine, music appreciation with twenty-nine, leatherwork with twenty-six and pottery with fifteen.

The academic department showed an increase from seventy-six to one hundred during the fall term. Fifty were in English, thirty-one in Spanish, eleven in French and seven in German.

In commercial subjects, the registration grew from fifty-five to seventy-four, with thirty-eight in typewriting, twenty-six in shorthand and eight in bookkeeping.

Due to a drop in enrollments in the photofluorographic [x-ray] operators training course, traceable to decreased appropriations for training costs in many states, the technical department fell behind last year with fifty-nine registrations compared with ninety.

The total registration of four hundred ninety-six in all departments included three hundred forty-five in classes at Guild House, Trudeau, Ray Brook, the Hotel Alpine painting studio and the Algonquin Woodcrafters Shop. One hundred fifty-one were for bedside instruction in local and neighboring sanatoria.

A staff of twenty- five teachers offered a curriculum of forty-seven different subjects.

The reorganization of the counseling department, under Mrs. Tirzah W. Anderson, at the start of the fall term is believed to have stimulated the enrollment of patients in Guild classes. The department has interviewed, visited and tested a large number of applicants for rehabilitation counseling in the term and has developed educational plans for a wide variety of individual needs.

The reader's advisor, Mary D. Hoey, a regular member of the Guild staff, visited and prepared reading lists from the Saranac Lake Free Library for more than 40 bed patients in the term.

As a result of increased activity, the Guild teaching payroll, which is met partially through state and federal appropriations, received through the Franklin County Vocational Education and Extension Board, showed an increase from $15,366.25 to $19,887.00 for the period from July 1 to November 30 inclusive.

Total student hours of instruction totalled 15,746 .as compared with 13,640 last year for the same period.

The winter term of Guild classes beginning January 5, 1949, will continue most of the educational offerings of the fall term. Expansion becomes increasingly difficult, according to Guild officials, because of limitations in space and equipment.