| The Station is an architecturally attractive building that was built at minimal cost in 1920. At that time, the railroad management was well aware of the likely creation of the reservoir and the loss of the Northville track by flooding of the Sacandaga River valley; FJ&G President Ledley Hees was a Board Member of one of the power companies that was financing the reservoir project and purchasing land in the valley. One wonders why the Station was built in the first place. It served as a railroad station for only 10 years; as a bus station for 18 years; and as a post office, community gathering spot and support building for the summer theatre, for another 15 years. In 2002 the building had been largely neglected for 40 years except for an ill-conceived renovation in 1972. In the 90's the former Station master office was used by the artist Faust as a studio apartment. At that time, the rest of the building contained 4 horse stables, a very basic artist workshop and a garage. The utilities in the entire building were ancient and minimal; there was no heating system since the original use was for summer only. There was exposed electrical wiring including on the attic - with the skeletons of the culprits (squirrels) next to them. Considering that the attic was used as a hayloft, it was a miracle that the Station did not burn down. The building was built on a slab, making it hard to install utilities. There was a retrofitted 3ft deep crawl space under the southside of the building with the floor supported by ....pieces of rail! The building lacked insulation. Windows and doors were single pane and not salvageable. Some of the stable lumber was re-sawn and recycled. The roof shingles needed replacing and the roof framing of the center pyramid roof was unsafe. Lack of winter snow removal post-FJ&G had broken essential support timbers in the roof structure. The interior spaces needed to be re-imagined with adaptive re-use in mind while preserving, restoring, or allowing visualization of the original floor plan. Over time, a lot of historic material was collected and displayed in the Station interior. |
| It took close to a year to renovate the building inside and out. We greatly acknowledge the work, advice and support of our local contractors, friends, NYS office of Parks Recreation and Historic Preservation (OPRHP) and Adirondack Architectural Heritage (AARCH). The official opening celebration was held on August 7, 2004. There was a tour of Historic Sacandaga Park, a representative of OPRHP for the National Register listing and in the evening a Big Band, reminiscent of the Adirondack Inn period of the Park. |
