Adirondacks Getaway: Great Camp Sagamore, the Vanderbilt Family's Gilded Age Retreat



Great Camp Sagamore

I was in need of a rustic break from summer in the city. When Mum phoned recently to tell me about an article that she had just read about Great Camp Sagamore, I was intrigued. When she told me that it was open to the public and I could stay overnight at the property, I knew that I had to look into a possible visit. Eager to explore the Adirondacks in upstate New York and go to “camp,” I decided to book a weekend stay.

On a recent Friday morning, I jumped on an Amtrak train at Penn Station for the two-and-a-half hour ride to Albany. I rented a black Kia car from Enterprise at the train station and then started the two-and-a-half hour drive to Raquette Lake. When the Vanderbilts acquired Sagamore in 1901, it took 30 hours to travel from Manhattan to camp, which was six times as long as the modern day journey. On my way north on I-87, I stopped for ice cream at Saratoga Springs, where I plan to return in August during racing and polo season. I continued up I-87 to the Warrensburg/Route 9 exit. The Sagamore team had advised me ahead of time that I would not have cell phone reception at camp and to fill up my gas tank before heading into the mountains. So, I made a few calls and then started the final leg of the drive. Once through Warrensburg, I turned onto Route 28, which would take me to Sagamore. When I arrived at Blue Mountain Lake, which is about 24 miles from camp, I saw the sign for the Adirondack Museum and made a note to stop there on my way back to Albany on Sunday if time permitted. At Raquette Lake, I turned left onto a four-mile dirt road, which was the entrance to the Sagamore camp. As I drove through the forest, I completely forgot about my city life. A few minutes later, I reached the first of two bridges and imagined what it must have been like for the Vanderbilts and their guests to have traveled this same road by horse and carriage. When I arrived at the second bridge, I opened a gate and proceeded to drive slowly into camp.



Camp's Entrance

After parking the car, I walked down the hill to check-in and passed the bowling alley, playhouse and tennis court. The front office informed me that dinner would be at 6:30pm on Friday evening and 6pm on Saturday. I would hear the bell when it was time to walk over to the dining hall. I signed a waiver so that I could go kayaking. If I wanted to have wine with my dinner, I would have to purchase it at the front office. I then looked at the one-page wine list and selected a bottle of Bordeaux. I was assigned a room on the second floor of the main lodge. I was informed that there were no room keys or TVs at Sagamore. Linens were provided, but I had to make the bed and return the linens on Sunday. I also had to share a bathroom and so I brought my own hair dryer, robe and even a bar of soap.



Guest Room in Main Lodge



I arrived before most of the other weekend guests and so the main lodge was rather quiet when I brought my luggage upstairs to my room. The doors to the vacant rooms were open and I found Room #5 with my name taped to the door. It was adjacent to the original master bedroom and across from two rooms that faced the lake. I took a quick shower and then searched for an electrical outlet in my room. I found an extension cord under the bed and pulled it out so that I could plug in my hair dryer.  I left the hair dryer’s power on low as I did not want to blow a fuse and risk losing power in the building (I have had some unfortunate experiences with electricity in old buildings in the past). Before I left my room, I heard families arriving and soon the sound of footsteps could be heard throughout the building.

Boathouse

I then strolled over to the boathouse because I was looking forward to kayaking on the 12-square-mile Sagamore Lake on Saturday. No one was around and I saw a few canoes and a kayak. When I heard the bell, I knew that it was the talisman for dinner. It was the first opportunity for me to interact with my fellow campers. Today, the camp can accommodate up to 72 guests but during the Vanderbilt era, there would be up to 20 guests. I met a group of ladies who had been at camp since Wednesday for a digital photography retreat. As I had expected, most of the guests were families or couples from the Northeast region. After a pasta dinner served buffet-style, I attended Orientation, which began at the boathouse and then was followed by an introduction to Sagamore by Jeff Flagg in the playhouse.

When I returned to my room, I had to push an old-fashioned button in the wall instead of flipping a light switch. It was an odd feeling not being able to use my cell phone, but I did not miss it for a couple of days. There was a WiFi signal in the lounge of the main lodge and a guest computer in the conference building, but I chose to disconnect from modern technology while at camp.



View from Guest Room



I was awakened the next morning by the 8am breakfast bell, which served as my camp alarm clock. I heard guests in the hallway and fortunately no one opened my door since it did not have a lock. I had heard stories about guests being caught in awkward moments in their rooms when someone had unexpectedly opened the door. After having scrambled eggs and oatmeal, I read for a while on the dock and then walked to the chalet in the upper complex to take the 10am tour. Jeff was our guide and he demonstrated an encyclopedic knowledge of the property during his two-hour tour.

William West Durant was an Adirondack developer and self-taught architect whose father, Thomas Clark Durant, was the General Manager of the Union Pacific Railroad. Durant Sr. bought almost one million acres of land in the Adirondacks at 6 cents per acre in order to secure railroad rights. William was brought in to develop the land. The concept of a Great Camp entailed a remote, private, self-sustaining estate of buildings with separate functions and made of indigenous materials for a single family and their guests. It was also the origin of modern recreation. The idea of vacating to one’s Adirondack camp led to the American concept of “taking a vacation.” Durant created the new Adirondack style of architecture in his design of the Great Camps by expanding the proportions of a Swiss chalet to three stories and incorporating elements of early log cabins. His first Great Camp was Pine Knot, which he sold in 1895 to Collis P. Huntington, one of the famous Big Four, which included Leland Stanford, Charles Crocker and Mark Hopkins. He then built Camp Uncas, where guest and service buildings were separated by architectural style and location on the property. The guest buildings were covered by logs or bark and the service buildings were red board-and-batten structures. The camp was used as collateral on a loan to J.P. Morgan, who proceeded to take over the property. The third Great Camp that Durant built was Sagamore, which he moved into in 1897. At that time, the estate covered 1,526 acres and he spent $250,000 in creating this masterpiece, which included state-of-the-art amenities: gaslights fueled by compression chambers and pumps for gasoline, indoor plumbing (which Morgan did not have at Uncas) and hot and cold running water. Durant ran into serious financial problems and sold Sagamore to Alfred Vanderbilt for $162,500 in 1901.

Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt was the great-grandson of Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt. He had grown up in a 154-room mansion in New York City and spent his summers at the Breakers in Newport, Rhode Island. When Alfred’s father died in 1899, he became the wealthiest young man in America when he inherited the bulk of the family’s $80,000,000 fortune. He married his second wife, Margaret McKim, in 1901. They both loved outdoor sports, horses and traveling. They expanded Sagamore by adding a hydroelectric plant, underground power lines, tennis court, playhouse, bowling alley and dining hall. They had two sons, Alfred Gwynne, Jr. (b. 1912) and George Washington Vanderbilt (b. 1914). In 1915, Alfred was aboard the Lusitania on his way to Europe when a torpedo sank the ship. The official reason for Alfred traveling abroad was to attend business meetings of the coaching society, but there was speculation that he was on his way to see his true love, a woman by the name of Mrs. Ruiz, whom he had met while riding in Central Park.

Margaret married her third husband, Raymond T. Baker, who was head of the U.S. Mint, in 1918 and they had a daughter, Gloria Marie, who was called Mimi, in 1920. Mimi and the Gloria Vanderbilt of the famous jeans label were cousins. Alfred Jr., George and Mimi had a large playroom on the third floor of the main lodge. Today, it is a guest room and was right above my room. I heard another generation of young ones running around in that same space. When the children grew up, Margaret had cottages built for each of them. George’s cottage was originally the laundry and when I visited Sagamore, a grandmother, her daughter and granddaughter were staying in that cottage. Alfred’s and Gloria’s cottages were built lakeside and had identical floor plans. I would recommend staying in Gloria’s cottage because one side faces the lake and another faces the river. Margaret married Charles Minot Amory in 1929 and divorced him five years later. She was 50 years old and declared that she was finished with marriages. She legally reassumed her maiden name, Emerson, and the staff at Sagamore referred to her as “Mrs. E.” She continued to take her grandchildren to camp until after WWII. In 1950, a great portion of the surrounding forest was destroyed by a hurricane force windstorm and she could not bear to see the destruction. She gifted Sagamore to Syracuse Univeristy in 1954 and died of a heart attack in Manhattan in 1960.

Alfred's Cottage

Syracuse used Sagamore for 20 years but deferred necessary maintenance. When the costs were too high to restore the camp, the university logged the land, auctioned the furnishings and put the property up for sale. They made a deal with New York State to add the acreage to its park holdings, but it would have required the demolition of the buildings. At the last minute, the non-profit Sagamore Institute bought the camp’s bark-covered buildings for $100,000. In 1983, the Institute purchased a piece of land to trade into the forest preserve while the 10 acres of the workers’ complex were traded out. The organization now manages the 19-acre estate, which is a fraction of the original 1,526 acres. 

Upper Complex with Chalet on far right

Sagamore was built around the upstairs-downstairs concept. The guests occupied the lower complex by the lake and the workers were located at the upper complex, or caretaker’s village. When Durant lived at Sagamore, there were 40-45 workers on site. The hierarchy in the upper camp was the caretaker at the top, then the skilled workers and the unskilled workers on the bottom tier. The chalet is the former “men’s camp,” where the workers lived. The school house was the original men’s camp and occupied the same location as today’s chalet, but it was moved to its present place because it was not considered an attractive structure. Appearance was very important at Sagamore. The road to Camp Uncas, J.P. Morgan’s camp, passed by the upper complex of Sagamore and Vanderbilt relocated the school house and hen house in 1911 and built the chalet, which was a mirror image of the main lodge and blocked off the sight of the camp, so that his property would be more attractive as Morgan and his guests traveled by it. On the tour of the upper complex, I also viewed the carpenter’s shop, blacksmith’s shop, carriage house, barn, ice house, wood house and root cellar. Another example of the importance of appearance was the fact that automobiles were not allowed at camp. The guests had to arrive by horse and carriage and so their cars were parked in the carriage house. The experience of being in a remote location was an essential part of the camp experience for the Vanderbilts’ guests.



Upper Complex with Blacksmith's Shop, School House, Carriage House (from left to right)



The blacksmith’s shop was used for aesthetic purposes. Decorative ironwork was used on chandeliers, fire screens, andirons, door hinges and locks. Charles Dougherty and Jimmy Leffler were the two artisans who used copper and iron in the chandeliers in the main lodge and dining hall.



The Wigwam

I was intrigued by the Wigwam building. It was built in 1901 between the upper and lower complexes of Sagamore and faced the river. It did not have the serene ambiance of the main lodge. It felt more like a hunting cabin, even though it had nine bedrooms with connecting doors, and was isolated from the rest of the camp. Northern white cedar bark was applied as sheathing on the building to give the appearance of rusticity. Old growth cedar was used because the deeper grooves of the bark had a textured aesthetic and it was a water and infestation resistant wood. Tar paper was applied to the walls under the bark, which was then nailed to the building with small nails. The fireplace in the parlor was made of fieldstones and built to look as natural as possible. The stones were set in place with moss still on some of them and workers had to spray the moss to keep it green. A full basement was needed to support the weight of the fireplace. So, have you guessed what took place in the Wigwam? It was a party house for Alfred Vanderbilt and his male guests. Their female guests from the local community were escorted discreetly into the building through a back door. Today, large families stay in the Wigwam and enjoy its privacy.



The Wigwam's Parlor

The tour continued down the hill to the lower complex. On the way to the main lodge, we passed Alfred’s and Gloria’s cottages and the boathouse. The lawn in front of the lodge was the site of many croquet games. Margaret was an avid croquet player. Her wickets are still used on the lawn, but during Margaret’s era, the ball was larger and the mallet was between the size of the current mallet and the size of a polo mallet.

Main Lodge

Durant’s new architectural style of blending a Swiss chalet with a log cabin was best exemplified in the main lodge. The spruce logs on the outside of the building were used only as finishing touches to give the illusion of rusticity. The front door, which was directly below my room, could have been in a castle. The hinges and locks were substantial. I asked Jeff about the red color which was not only on the front door, but also on the window frames and other doors throughout the property. He said that it was referred to as “Durant red” and the paint, which was the same that was used on boxcars, was made from soil that contained iron ore particles. I also learned in my research that Margaret Vanderbilt’s favorite color was red. The interior of the main lodge was meant to evoke a small and cozy space. The cross-tapered beams on the ceiling of the parlor were full-length spruce trunks and Durant chose knotty pine paneling in an effort to convince the visitor that it was a log building. The guests would have used flushed toilets, which were considered a modern luxury in 1897. The main lodge originally consisted of five bedrooms for the owners and guests and the playroom on the third floor with a room for the nanny.

Lounge in Main Lodge

The Vanderbilts spent six weeks a year at Sagamore, four in August and two over Christmas. Margaret had the staff on 48-hour notice the rest of the year in case guests were sent up to camp. 

Exterior of Dining Hall

The original dining hall in 1897 was comprised of a porch, a hall with a fireplace and seating for 12-15 people at a log-based table. One of the chandeliers that was made by Dougherty hung overhead. When the Vanderbilts saw the space, they asked for the room to be doubled in size. But in 1924, Margaret invited 65 guests for Christmas dinner and another expansion that more than doubled the size of the hall was undertaken. It included the bay window with a circular table large enough to seat 12 guests. When I visited camp, I enjoyed having some of my meals in this area of the dining room. Margaret enjoyed formal entertaining. Cocktails were at the main lodge followed by dinner in the nearby dining hall and the dishes were served on silver platters by British liveried servants. The menus were written in French on cards that were printed with Sagamore scenes. China was designed for the camp with a pattern of spruce trees circling the gold-rimmed trim and manufactured by Higgens and Seiter. A Vanderbilt-era menu is framed in the Dining Hall today. Fish and game were usually served and after Margaret had been to Hawaii, she often included pineapple in many dishes.

Dining Hall

There were a number of notable guests over the years at Sagamore. Margaret brought together artists, writers, actors, musicians and statesmen. Gary Cooper, Howard Hughes, Richard Rodgers and General George Marshall all spent time at the camp. When Madame Chiang Kai-Chek visited, Margaret had to vacate her own camp because Madame Chiang brought 25 personal maids with her.

Playhouse

The social heart of the camp was the playhouse, which was built between the tennis court and bowling alley. It was a complement to the Wigwam, which was also built in 1901. It was the only building designed by a professional architect on the property and was originally called the casino. It had a roulette table, billiard table and ping pong table. A crocodile that Margaret shot in Africa was stuffed and used as a tray to hold the ping-pong balls. The fireplace was made of fieldstones and when it settled, it was so heavy that it started to pull the building down. It was reinforced with a support system underneath it.

Bowling Alley

The adjacent bowling alley was built in 1911 and represented Margaret’s love of sporting games. Bowling was considered a socially progressive game and in order to play it, you had to build your own bowling alley. The foundation was six feet thick in order to go below the frost line. The canvas shades can be rolled down during inclement weather. Of course it had to have a fireplace, too. The bowling alley is no longer used today, except for special demonstrations.

The tour ended and it was time for lunch. While other guests were planning to go hiking or fishing or just relax on the porch and read for the afternoon, I was anxious to get out on the lake and so after a quick sandwich, I changed into my shorts and walked over to the boathouse. After marking the time that I was leaving on the sign out sheet, I grabbed a paddle and pushed my orange kayak gently away from the dock. When I had paddled out to the middle of the lake, I floated for a while and absorbed the silence, privacy and stillness of the place. This sense of peace was and still is the essence of Sagamore.

Sagamore Lake

That evening after dinner, the guests gathered for a campfire and s’mores at the lean-to near the Wigwam. As I sat there on the bench by the fire, I listened to this contemporary group of Sagamorians discuss Durant and the Great Camps. One guest highly recommended a visit to the Adirondack Museum while I was in the area.

On Sunday morning, the bell rang at 8am for my final meal at camp. The guests were asked to vacate their rooms by 10am and to drop off their linens in the laundry room. It was tough to leave Sagamore and before I loaded the car, I took a quick run around the property for a last look. I had planned on taking an afternoon boat tour on Raquette Lake, but it was canceled and so I drove to Blue Mountain Lake to see the Adirondack Museum instead.

Blue Mountain Lake

I had three hours before I had to drive back to Albany and the time flew by at the museum. I started with a quick bite at the Lake View Café, which gave me a chance to orient myself with the property. The museum was vast, but the highlights were the Osprey boat, Sunset Cottage with beautiful mosaic twig work, private railcar and boating exhibition hall. In the gift shop, I picked up an 18” white cedar canoe that now sits on my coffee table at home. 

My re-entry into the modern era occurred as soon as I walked into the Albany train station and learned that my evening train to Penn Station was running 90 minutes late. But while I waited in the lobby of the station, I reflected on the weekend and looked forward to returning to Sagamore for the chance to step back into the Gilded Age once again.

Great Camp Sagamore

Raquette Lake, NY

http://www.greatcampsagamore.org/

tel: 1.315.354.5311

Open Memorial Day-Columbus Day

Guided tours are open to the public

Adirondack Museum

Blue Mountain Lake, NY

http://www.adirondackmuseum.org/