SARANAC LAKE, N.Y. (WCAX) – One of Saranac Lake’s most historic properties is on track to become a new source of housing in the Adirondacks.
Just outside the Village of Saranac Lake sits the former Trudeau Sanatorium, a place where hundreds of people were medically treated and where history can still be found.
“For about 70 years this was a property that was attracting people from all around the world for treatment from tuberculosis,” said Amy Catania with the group Historic Saranac Lake. She says the sanatorium was the first of its kind in the nation when it was built in the late 19th century. “There was a grand dining hall, a beautiful chapel, a workshop where people did occupational therapy, and little cottages where patients stayed together — four patients at a time. They had their own porches. So, it was very different than what we see today with modern health care.”
Catania says until the 1950s, the sprawling grounds, which once consisted of 50 buildings, were home to those who helped shape the village.
“Tuberculosis patients were a part of the whole community, and in fact the village was really built by many tuberculosis patients. And so they stayed not just here because there wasn’t really enough room for them just here, they were in private homes all throughout the villages in what we call cure cottages today,” she said.
She says after closing, the grounds were owned by the American Management Association, which was there longer than the sanatorium.
In the last four years, new owners have moved in and have been transforming the facilities into housing.
“We were able to secure a grant from New York State to renovate, to help renovate the property,” said Brian Draper, one of the co-owners. He says they’ve already remodeled the former workshop, chapel, and a few cottages on the property. He says they are now looking to breathe new life into the largest of the 20 buildings that remain. “In the future — very shortly we hope — this building here and the next two we will be turning into approximately 45 apartments.”
He says they plan to start construction this January and have the new rentals ready by 2026.