Cortez Moody House. Adirondack Daily Enterprise, August 8, 1996, Historic Saranac Lake Collection.
Address: 209 Lake Flower Avenue
Old Address: 195 Lake Flower Avenue
Other names:
Year built: between 1876 and 1880
Adirondack Daily Enterprise, August 8, 1996
SL resident gives bank officials history lesson
Gallos hopes to prevent demolition of Moody house
By LARRY RULISON
Enterprise Staff Writer
SARANAC LAKE - A plan by Tupper Lake National Bank to tear down an old, weathered home at 195 Lake Flower Ave. here and build a new, 2,500-square-foot, Adirondack-style branch bank in its place might seem innocuous enough to most people, but Philip Gallos of Park Avenue wants to make sure bank officials know the home was built by Saranac Lake's native son, Cortez Moody. He thinks the old structure could be spared and remodeled into a bank, preserving a piece of architecture he thinks is historically important.
The history lesson became apparent during a pre-application conference at a recent Village Planning Board session. Architect Brooks Washburn of Potsdam presented preliminary sketches of the proposed branch bank that would replace Tupper Lake National Bank's loan office at 20 St. Bernard St. The bank will be presenting its formal plans to the Planning Board on Aug. 15. A public hearing on the application will be held at 7:30 that night.
Washburn said the home on Lake Flower Avenue is of "historical interest" being one of the first homes built in the village. He said the home, which is owned by David Whitson, has not been placed on the state or federal Register of Historic Places and does not have a "history" of being taken care of.
Washburn conceded that pictures of the home could be exhibited in the new bank, and items of interest removed, as a compromise to save some of the history.
He added that it was not in the interest of Tupper Lake National Bank, which has an option to buy the property, to convert the existing structure into a bank, because of its poor condition.
"(That is) not the path of most sensible development," said Washburn.
Gallos, a technical services coordinator at North Country Community College is a founding, though not current, member of Historic Saranac Lake, and the Friends of Union Depot. In the 1980s, he helped collect an oral history of Saranac Lake. One of those interviewed was Moody's grandson, who confirmed that the home was the house Moody built here between 1876 and 1880, after returning home from a stint out west. Moody was the first child born in Saranac Lake, said Gallos, the son of Jacob Moody, the first settler here.
Whitson, who attended the public hearing, did not want to comment at this point.
Historical Saranac Lake (HSL) has traditionally sought to preserve architecture related to the tuberculosis cure, said Sharon O'Brien, executive director of HSL, and thus the home has never been a "major focus" for HSL. O'Brien said she did write an informational letter to the bank's president about the home, but said HSL is not actively seeking to preserve the home.
Gallos stressed that he does not want to stop the bank's project. "(This is) not an attempt to block the sale of the property or the project," said Gallos. He said his efforts, which have included writing letters to the bank's president and board of directors, are simply an attempt to "appraise (the bank) of the history of the home.
Gallos said the home is a "three dimensional verification of the community's roots."
Tupper Lake National Bank President Martin Bier said his company has had a history of renovating old buildings for its use because "the bank's philosophy is very community oriented." But that has a happened "because we had something that we could work with."
"The home has been remodeled and remodeled and remodeled." said Bier. "There is not any kind of structure you can work with." #
According to a Building-Structure Inventory Form filed by Phil Gallos at Historic Saranac Lake and dated 5/11/84, "This house was built and lived in by Cortez [Cortis] Moody, son of Jacob Moody and the first white child born in Saranac Lake. Cortez and his sons, Cortez F. and Milo, as well as Milo's son Herbert were all guides. Milo and Herb, additionally, operated a boat livery. The house is the oldest remaining of the Moody houses." It was torn down in about 1996, and the bank was built on its site.
Historians differ on whether the name is correctly spelled Cortez or Cortis, as it is given on his gravestone.
Sources:
- 1910 U.S. Census
- Testimony of Herb Moody
