Address: 68 Riverside Drive
Old Address: 93 Riverside Drive
Other names: O'Brian Cottage (1912), Koch Cottage (1928), Domme Cottage (1929), Gonzalez Cottage (1931); DIS
Year built:
Other information: According to the 1916 TB Directory, the O'Brien Cottage, run by a Mrs. O'Brien, had room for eight patients, had one cure porch and charged $10-18 per week.
This was later the home of Dr. and Mrs. Edward H. Levy. Mildred Levy had become friends with the Hungarian composer Bela Bartok and his wife, Ditta. On Mrs. Levy's suggestion, the Bartoks rented the four-room cabin at the rear of the house next door — at 89 Riverside Drive — for the summer of 1945 from Maks and Ida Haar. A fine pianist, Ditta Bartok visited the Levys to play their upright piano.
After the cure era, this house fell into the hands of a bank. In order to make it more saleable for single-family residential use, it was radically reduced in size by removing an upper floor or floors and various porches, but the piano remained. Mrs. Anna Ferree lived here in the 1960s through the '90s, and cared for many children here. When Mrs. Ferree sold the house, she donated the "Bartok" piano to Historic Saranac Lake. It is now housed in the John Black Room at the Saranac Laboratory, and has recently been restored to fine playing condition.
In Cure Cottages of Saranac Lake, page 69, Phil Gallos cites the stone retaining wall in front of the former 93 Riverside Drive as a fine example of the contributions of the Works Projects Administration in Saranac Lake during the Great Depression.