A Storied History
Originally, the Saranac Inn was a large luxurious hotel on Upper Saranac Lake. frequented by US presidents Glover Cleveland and Chester Arthur. It’s humble beginnings, in 1864, on the shores of magnificent Upper Saranac Lake, were as a small 15 room hotel, known as the Prospect House. Gradually, as access to the Adirondacks improved and demand for luxury accommodations grew so did the Prospect House to 100 rooms. In 1886, the original Inn was sold to a group of investors, who began a program of renovation and construction, expanding the hotel to 250 rooms.
In 1912, the Saranac Inn was purchased by the owner of the Harrington Hotel in Washington, D.C. Harrington Mills took the project on with the goal of making the Saranac Inn a luxurious vacation destination. Mills rebuilt the hotel, adding two stories, elevators and private baths in each room. Enlargements took place, again, in 1920, at which time the Inn was a expansive resort with a sizable main hotel, lakeside cottages and platform tents, which collective housed up to 1000 guests. This was the Inn’s heyday. After the great depression, the hotel business overall dropped sharply and the Saranac Inn was not spared. It saw many difficult years, with the hotel changing hands many times. In 1962, the doors were finally closed and the hotel and surrounding properties was purchased by auctioneers for $400,000. The land, cottages, hotel and championship golf course were all sold separately. Then, in 1978, the main hotel burned to the ground.
Today, the golf course continues to shine, the original cottages and guest houses still maintain that old feel of a great vacation destination on the beautiful shores of Upper Saranac Lake.
If you would like to read more about the history of the Saranac Inn: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saranac_Inn