The destruction of the Lake George Yacht Club’s building in Basin Bay in 1896 was as much a loss to Lake George’s architectural history as the demolition of the Gilded Age-era mansions along Millionaire’s Row.
Today, only a few privately-owned properties on Lake George are protected through the State and National Registers of Historic Places.
New York State’s Board for Historic Preservation is attempting to remedy that deficit.
On June 4, Kathy Moser, the Commissioner of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation (OPRHP) announced that the Board has nominated the Lake George Club for listing on the State and National Registers of Historic Places.
“The Lake George Club reflects the architectural distinction and leisure culture associated with New York’s upper class during the early twentieth century,” the OPRHP stated in its press release announcing the nomination. “Designed by prominent New York architect Charles S. Peabody, it remains one of the longest-lasting seasonal sites on Lake George. The club fostered a distinct summer society throughout the twentieth century and continues to operate as one of the few remaining historic buildings in its original capacity on Lake George.”
Established in 1908, the Club’s founders included Spencer and Katrina Trask, who created the artists’ colony at Yaddo and financed the working women’s retreat at Wiawaka.
Earlier that year, the Trasks and a group of other Lake George summer residents, John Boulton Simpson, George Foster Peabody and W.K. Bixby among them, met at the Sagamore hotel to discuss forming a social club to replace the Lake George Yacht Club.
As the Lake George Mirror reported from the meeting, “it was determined that the Lake George Club should be organized to maintain a clubhouse and grounds where residents and visitors at Lake George may meet and have opportunity for mutual pleasure and friendly intercourse,” as well as participate in “all wholesome games and sports.”
Trask found the group a suitable property – a farm with ample room for a club house, docks, tennis courts and a golf course. Within weeks, the group approved purchase of the property and retained Charles S. Peabody to design the club house.
Peabody – whose firm was also responsible for Wiokosko, Wiawaka’s boat house and the Delaware and Hudson complex at the head of the lake – chose a style that is vaguely Tudor, vaguely Arts & Crafts, but which is nonetheless distinctive and representative of Lake George’s past.
As reported in the New York Times on August 22, 1909, opening day was a grand affair. “Society was out in force, and the members with their friends filled the piazzas and grounds while more than a half hundred steamboats and launches were anchored or floated about the club dock during the speed boat race.”
Also opening that day were the golf course and the clay tennis courts, which began hosting U.S. Lawn Tennis Association-sanctioned tournaments in 1918.
As the OPRHP notes, “the Lake George Club shaped the region’s boating history.”
Once commissioning ceremonies came to a close on August 14, 1909, the club’s first official powerboat races were held.
They would be the first of many. In 1914, for instance, the club commissioned its own Gold Cup race entry: Hawk Eye. In 1935, the Lake George Club sponsored three-time Gold Cup winner El Lagarto in that year’s races on Lake George.
One-Design sailing was introduced to the club in 1936; it continues today with fleets of J-22 and J-24 boats.
To help preserve the architectural legacy of the Lake George Club, a group of current members have established a not-for-profit organization called the Lake George Club Historic Preservation Foundation.
Its purpose, says Kathy Grasmeder, the foundation’s president, is to raise enough money to create an endowment that will maintain the appearance and the integrity of the 1909 structure into perpetuity. Nearly $2 million has been raised to date.
According to the OPRHP, listing on the State and National Registers can assist owners in revitalizing properties, and make them eligible for various public preservation programs and services, such as matching state grants and federal and state historic rehabilitation tax credits.
“Through the State and National Registers, we are committed to identifying and documenting historic places while connecting communities and property owners with resources that support preservation and revitalization,” said Kathy Moser.
