A cluster of resorts | Information, Sports activities, Jobs

I walked all the streets of Saranac Lake as a newsboy from the 1940s when we moved to the village from our farm on Norman Ridge, which we lost during the Depression. Then from the large Oseetah Diary Farm in Ray Brook (80 registered Holsteins) that my father had worked. We settled in a great house my parents bought at 5 Pine St.

Papa was a jack-of-all-trades in the Trudeau Sanatarium, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., seven days a week. He said it was the easiest job he ever had … and if anyone knew anything about life on the farm back then, he wasn’t kidding.

Back to the hotels that used to be in the village. I had given a presentation at Historic Saranac Lake and Will Rogers with photos on a flash drive about old hotels in Saranac Lake. One appeared to be a beautiful hotel at the intersection of Forest Home Road and Ampersand Avenue.

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Some of what I remember

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I loved that “NS. Regis corner”, that was at the intersection of Broadway and Bloomingdale Avenues. For me as a kid, that was where it all happened, not Berkeley Square; although the Hotel Saranac, the Berkeley Hotel (which hosted the WNBZ radio station), and the large, beautiful Pontiac Theater dominated this area.

The St. Regis Hotel, 1 Bloomingdale Ave., then belonged to Bill McLaughlin’s aunt and uncle, a Mr. and Mrs. English, a lovely white-haired couple. Catty-Corner on St. Regis at 81 Broadway was the Arlington Hotel, but in the phone book as “The Potter Block” owned by a Mr. Potter with an unusual first name I can’t remember, but I do remember him. Then, across from St. Regis, on Broadway 84, was the seven-story Alpine Hotel. Only the first four floors were finished. It was run by a Mr. and Mrs. Jarvis who lived in the hotel. They were the in-laws of Bob Roberts, who was a big hit at the Saranac Lake Savings and Loan at the time.

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Why was this place so alive?

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Remember, these are the memories of a 12 year old Enterprise newsboy and then a 16 year old bellboy at the Alpine.

I tend to stick to this small area. Don’s Melody Lounge on 90 Broadway with live music (later owned by Jack Lawless, now the back door) was next to the Alpine. The Alpine had a street level bar and a lounge on the ground floor. It was a dorm for the first grade of Paul Smith’s College in 1946. I have already said that my heroes, the WWII veterans, made up half of that first grade who attended college on the GI bill and at the Alpine were housed. The hotel had housekeeping hot and cold almost every night and parties on the unfinished floors above.

Exciting job at the age of 16.

The Hotel Alpine opened on July 24, 1928 and demolished in November 1977.

The Potter Block had the Top Hat Bar in the basement. In the back of the building, Carl Puccini had a shoe workshop. His son Bob was a World War II naval hero.

The St. Regis bar was called the Green Room, which is where I posted a picture of Jack Dempsey posing with the bartenders. The St. Regis was also the bus station for Trailways and Greyhound, with many buses going in and out every day. That alone led to a lot of pedestrian traffic on this corner. The Oxford Market, which was run by the Effenbach family, was close to St. Regis on Broadway 73.

The Drutz Super Market was on Bloomingdale Ave. 4, owned and operated by Sol and Joe Drutz, next to McClay’s Bowling Alley. At the end of the bowling alley building was the Altamont Ice Cream Bar. Rainbow Bar & Grill was next at 14. Bloomingdale Ave. Every Friday night, as the saying goes, there was fights at Rainbow and that was in front of the TV.

Reiss’s drugstore was at 3 Bloomingdale Ave. – Milkshakes, 15 cents – later owned by Howard Hoffman. In the same building were Leis’s music store and Mike D’Ambrisi’s barber shop.

Right next door was the Miss Saranac Diner on Bloomingdale Ave. 7 and next to it Shorty McCormick’s garage.

Well that’s kind of a bird’s eye view when things were really volatile in this tiny part of the village. It never gets boring and think of the train station, just around the corner on Depot Street. Trains come and go at any time of the day or night.

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