James Smith House. Photograph by Susan Moody.
Address: 304 Trudeau Road
Other names: Doctor's Inn
Year built: 1927
Other information: Built in 1929 in Saranac Lake on the Trudeau Road by Branch and Callanan for James Smith, the grandson of the Reverend Samuel Smith.
At the onset of the 1929 financial crash the property was lost by James and was purchased by the Trudeau Sanatorium. They used it as a cure cottage until the Sanatorium closed in 1954. * (See comment, below)
Also in 1957, the Cottage was sold to Dr. William Steenken, the Director of Research at the Saranac Laboratory. [Steenken's doctorate was honorary, awarded by the University of Maryland for his distinguished career as a bacteriologist at the Trudeau lab.]
In 1981, Geraldine Steenken sold the property to Joshua Schwartzberg.
In 1991, Joshua Schwartzberg sold the property to the present 2012 owner, Susan Moody. Ms. Moody operated "The Doctors Inn" bed and board for several years. The property has been recently renovated for rental purposes.
Comments added anonymously on Sept. 19, 2015:
- The Friedrich and Ingeborg Klemperer family rented the property from the Trudeau Sanitorium in January 1947 and lived there until 1954.
- The house was not used as a cure cottage until 1954 - I know because I was born in 1947 and lived there until 1954!
Sources:
- Communication from James H. Richards
- The Doctor's Inn [See also the new site.]
