Paving of Saranac Lake's streets began in 1905 when brick paving was put down by Italian immigrants, according to a November 14, 1969 story in the Adirondack Daily Enterprise. A.L. Donaldson wrote that the main streets of Saranac Lake were paved by 1921. 1Harry Hull was the village engineer responsible for much of the paving work.
Malone Palladium, June 22, 1905
The contract for building the macadamized road in the town of Brighton has been awarded to Geo. Williams, of Saranac Lake, and he will commence work at once. The road will be about six miles long and the price to be paid is $4,000. When this contract is completed Brighton will undoubtedly have the best roads of any town in the county.
Elizabethtown Post, April 29, 1909
Dowers Brothers of Ballston Spa have secured the contract to lay sewers, construct brick pavements and macadam roads at Saranac Lake. The contract amounts to $142,000.
Baldwinville Gazette and Farmers' Journal, December 14, 1911
SLEIGHING ENDS IN MOUNTAINS
The prolonged thaw of the last few days has caused a condition unprecedented in the memory of the oldest Adirondack dweller in that sleighing time broken up at practically the middle of winter. Saturday and Sunday drivers of business and pleasure rigs were forced to revert to wheels.
The Adirondack winter starts about November 1, and by the tenth or twelfth of the month a fine bottom of ice and snow has formed on the roads, to remain over periods varying from 120 to 150 days. ''Bill'" Kelsey, guide and trapper, says that in his sixty years of Adirondack experience he has never before known sleighing, once it has started, to break up until spring.
Sunday night the bare brick of the paving was visible on streets at Saranac Lake, while the twelve inches of packed snow on the country roads in the mountains had completely disappeared. Sleighing for the winter was thought to have opened November 14, when the stage line, operated between Lake Placid and Cascade, officially discarded wheels for runners. The wheels are now working again.
Lake Placid News, November 30, 1923
HENNEY'S PAVING JOB MOVING ALONG FAST
The Adirondack Enterprise has the following to say about the progress of the paving work in Saranac Lake, the contract for which was awarded to D. W. Henney of Lake Placid:
The new crosstown paved street link has just been opened with the completion of the new paving on Pine and Helen streets, carried out jointly by the village of Saranac Lake, and the towns of North Elba and St. Armand. Far more rapid progress was made than had been expected.
This new route turns off Bloomingdale avenue on Pine street, over Helen street hill to Church street, and by way of Church street to River street.
The portions paved by the village and a part of the contract awarded early this fall to D. W. Henney of Lake Placid. He now has the pavement on Margaret street to do to complete his contract. All the work being done is of asphalt macadam.
On Helen street the village paved from Franklin avenue to Pine street, the section from Franklin avenue to Church street having been completed last spring in cement concrete so that now all of Helen street is paved. Concrete curbs the whole length and in places new concrete sidewalks have been placed. New storm sewers and catch basins were also constructed.
On Pine street the village pavement extends from Helen street to the Delaware & Hudson tracks. Between the tracks and the bridge, the work was done by the town of North Elba, which town also constructed the strip between the bridge and Bloomingdale avenue. The latter section was paid for by the town of St. Armand, in which it is located. North Elba also paved the short section of [several words illegible] to the tracks.
At a recent meeting of the village board of trustees, a vote of thanks was extended to both towns, communicated to them thru Village Clerk Seaver A. Miller.
A plan is now under consideration to secure a connection from Pine street to Main street to eliminate the double railroad crossing. The railroad owns a right of way along the tracks between these two streets, and it is believed an easement can be arranged to permit the village to improve this strip.
Lake Placid News, November 2, 1923
SNOW PLOW AT SARANAC
The Enterprise announces that at a town board meeting last week it was decided that highways in the town of Harrietstown will be kept open to traffic this winter.
New machinery, including a five-ton tractor and a snow-plow with a 24-foot sweep, is being purchased for this purpose and will be placed in use this year.
The investment in machines is not expected to materially increase the town's expenditures, as the board anticipates a substantial saving to be brought about by their use.
Footnotes
1. Alfred L. Donaldson, A History of the Adirondacks, New York: The Century Co., 1921, p. 235. (reprinted by Purple Mountain Press, Fleischmanns, NY, 1992)
- Academy Street
- Adirondack Street
- Algonquin Avenue
- Ampersand Avenue
- Arnold Drive
- Baker Street
- Balsam Street
- Birch Street
- Bloomingdale Avenue
- Bloomingdale Road
- Brandy Brook Avenue
- Broadway
- Canaras Avenue
- Cantwell Way
- Catherine Street
- Cedar Street
- Center Street
- Charles Street
- Church Street
- Church Street Extension
- Circle Street
- Cliff Road
- Clinton Avenue
- Cold Brook Road
- Crossfield Avenue
- Delaware Avenue
- Depot Street
- Dewey Place
- Dorchester Road
- Dorsey Street
- Dorsey Terrace
- Dugway
- Duprey Street
- East Pine Street
- Edgewood Road
- Edward Street
- Elm Street
- Fairview Avenue
- Fawn Street
- Fletcher Farm Road
- Forest Hill Avenue
- Forest Home Road
- Franklin Avenue
- Franklin Falls Road
- Front Street
- Garden Street
- Glenwood Drive
- Glenwood Estates
- Grandview Street
- Greenough Street
- Grove Street
- Hanmer Avenue
- Harrietstown Road
- Harold Square
- Haward Street
- Helen Street
- Hobart Road
- Hope Street
- James Street
- Jenkins Street
- John Munn Road
- Johnson Road
- Keene Street
- Keese Mills Road
- Kiwassa Road
- Labrador Lane
- Lake Flower Avenue
- Lake Meacham Road
- Lake Street
- Lakeview Terrace
- Lee Street
- Leona Street
- Main Street
- Maple Hill Road
- Maple Street
- Margaret Street
- Marshall Street
- Maryland Avenue
- McCarthy Terrace
- McClelland Street
- McComb Street
- McIntyre Street
- McKenzie Pond Road
- McMaster Road
- Merrill Street
- Mills Avenue
- Moody Avenue
- Moody Pond Road
- Mountain Road
- Mulflur Road
- Neil Street
- New York Route 3
- New York Route 30
- New York Route 86
- Norman Ridge Road
- North Street
- Northwest Bay Road
- Old Military Road
- Olive Street
- Park Avenue
- Park Lane
- Park Place
- Payeville Road
- Pelkey Lane
- Petrova Avenue
- Pine Street
- Pontiac Street
- Prescott Place
- Prospect Avenue
- Ray Brook Road
- River Street
- Riverside Drive
- Rockledge Road
- Rosemont Avenue
- Santanoni Avenue
- Saranac Lake-Tupper Lake Highway (George LaPan Highway, or New York Route 3)
- Sara-Placid Highway (part of New York Route 86)
- School Street
- Seneca Street
- Shepard Avenue
- Slater Avenue
- South Hope Street
- South Street
- St. Bernard Street
- St. Lawrence Avenue
- State Street
- Stevenson Lane
- Sumner Place
- Sunset Road
- Swinyer Road
- Tara Drive
- Terrace Street
- Trudeau Road
- Turtle Pond Road
- Van Buren Street
- View Street
- Virginia Street
- Water Street
- Watson Place
- Wayota Road
- William Street
- Winona Avenue
- Woodland Avenue
- Woodruff Street
- Woodycrest Road
See also