Fletcher Cottage
Address: 399 Park Avenue
Old Address: 168 Park Avenue
Other names:
Year built: c.1925
Architect: William G. Distin
Other information: A Tudor Revival-style house. Home for a time to Mrs. George McCurdy, but named in this instance for Hilda Fletcher, an early owner.
From the NRHP nomination form:
Asymmetrically massed, two-story, wood frame, Tudor Revival style residence is clad with wood shingles and half-timbered stucco walls and covered by an asphalt-shingled, cross gable roof. The building, designed by William G. Distin and erected in ca.1925, features an arched entrance portico, prominent native stone chimney, asymmetrically grouped multiple-paned casement windows, a full porch on first story and sleeping porch with two entrances on second floor. Interior details include hand-operated two-person elevator, complete call bell system, wrought iron fire escape to south lawn, original wall-mounted light fixtures in the living and dining rooms, and almost all original plumbing and bath fixtures.
The following account is from former owner James Werther:
The property on which the Cottage was to be built was purchased on August 18, 1924 by Hilda Fletcher for the amount of $3,500, on a warranty deed from James T. Hickey and Katherine Hickey. The cottage was designed by William G. Distin and built in 1924 or 1925 with the address of 168 Park Avenue. Information provided about Hilda Fletcher was provided by Saranac Lake attorney James LaPan, who handled the Estate of Hilda Fletcher on its sale to James T. Werther and Eileen P. Werther early in 1982. Attorney LaPan stated that Hilda had come from a well to do family in New York City, after having been educated both as an attorney and medical practitioner, the result of her father wanting her to be educated but not have to work for a living. According to Attorney LaPan, she moved to Saranac Lake, and had the cottage built, so that she might cure from a case of tuberculosis she had contracted, thus the sleeping porch off the master bedroom, the elevator between floors and large porch (piazza, according to Distin's description) on the first floor. It is believed that Hilda may not have been in the best of health in advance of her death as a hospital bed was left behind in the house when sold in 1982.
When moving into the Fletcher Cottage, the Werthers discovered blueprint type architectural elevations of the house by Distin, and Attorney LaPan provided them the single spaced, typed instruction of Distin on construction of the Cottage, in the minutest of detail as to all material to be used in construction. On December 14, 2004, these documents were mailed to the resident at (then) 399 Park Avenue.
The house, when acquired in 1982 by the Werther family, was stained a forest green on the rough cut cedar and cedar shake siding and white trim and stucco of the exterior. Jim Werther stained the exterior siding dark brown the trim and stucco a cream color in about 1984 with 25 gallons of stain. A significant task , but made easier with the use of a compressed air sprayer on loan from a former neighbor and friend, Tom Seymour, who with his wife Sharon lived at 10 Kiwassa Road.
The interior was painted, with wall paper applied to the formal dining room and downstairs bathroom at about the same time. Before the house was sold in 1987, it was insulated with insulation blown in through the exterior siding.
In 1982 the house was heated by means of an old coal burning boiler in the poured concrete basement, which had been converted to oil burning. The coal bin area and pieces of coal found in the basement support this fact. It was converted by the Werthers to wood burning with oil burner backup, servicing the larger cast iron radiators throughout the house. Domestic hot water was held in an 80 gallon copper water tank suspended from the basement ceiling.
While at a family funeral in Latham, NY in the third week of January 1985, the oil burner failed, the domestic water plumbing and all attached appliance, including radiators, froze and split, radiators exploded, causing damage throughout the house, with most damage to the downstairs.
Local plumber, Bill Schieffer, acted as General Contractor on the repairs, coordinating the plumbing repairs, painting and hardwood floor re-finishing (maple upstairs, oak downstairs, douglas fir in the kitchen. The old boiler and retaining tank were removed and a point of use water heater was installed in the basement next to the new hot water heating system. The elevator came in handy when it came to installing the replacement cast iron radiators on the second floor. Repairs took approximately three months at which time the Werther family moved back. The Werthers moved to Essex, Vermont in the summer of 1987.
Adirondack Daily Enterprise, February 9, 1943
Police report
Fire alarm 35 -- Park Avenue and Grove Street. fire at Mrs. Fletcher's, 168 Park. Fire started in cellar, considerable water and smoke damage. Two lines of hose and two trucks needed. Wilkins and Fear left there for the night to watch the house. Traffic taken care of by Higgins and Jones.
