Great Camp Santanoni Post I: A Summer in the Adirondacks

 

Hello! I’m Leigh, a history major and a public history minor at the Shady Grove campus of UMBC. 

This summer I had the wonderful opportunity to be a summer intern at Great Camp Santanoni, a 

historic area in upstate New York’s Adirondack Park. Unlike national parks, the Adirondacks have 

towns in which full and part-time residents reside interspersed with the preserved natural spaces 

that attract mountain climbers, bikers, anglers, and other lovers of the outdoors. Camp Santanoni 

is located in the central Adirondacks in the small town of Newcomb. It’s both a local treasure for 

residents, as well as one of its biggest tourist draws.

Camp Santanoni is an early example of a great camp, which was a Gilded Age trend in the 

Adirondacks. Wealthy New England families built country estates to retreat to, creating a 

distinctive architectural style in doing so. The Adirondacks were inspirational to the establishment 

of the national parks system in regards to the novel idea of environmental conservation as well as 

architecture: the grand, rustic cabin structures in such places as Yellowstone and Yosemite follow 

the trends set by the Adirondack Great Camps.

Santanoni today consists of three historic areas: the Gate Lodge (above left), the farm (above 

right–pictured is the creamery), and the main camp, where the Pruyn family resided when they 

first had Santanoni constructed in the 1890s. The main camp is difficult to photograph due to its 

layout, intentionally meant to make it feel smaller than it is and blended in with the surrounding 

landscape. The photo below on the left is of the kitchen wing in the rear, and the photo below on 

the right is a photograph of the front porch of the main cabin as seen from Newcomb Lake. The 

camp complex consists of five separate cabins and the rear kitchen wing, all interconnected by a 

series of porches.

I was employed by the historic preservation nonprofit Adirondack Architectural Heritage (AARCH), 

who co-manages Camp Santanoni alongside the New York State Department of Environmental 

Conservation (NYSDEC) and the Town of Newcomb. Summer staff is responsible for working on 

restoration projects and giving interpretive tours to visitors. The above photo of the main camp is 

only a preview of how many windows there are in the main complex–it’s well-known among those 

familiar with Santanoni that window reglazing and painting is an endless and time-consuming project 

for summer staff each year. Photographic evidence of such work conducted by myself and other staffer 

Kevin is below to the left. Notorious window work aside, our most important job was interacting with 

visitors both through informal conversation and formal tours. The photo below to the right is of me 

starting a tour on the front of the main cabin’s porch.

The "End" Madelyn Pollack #3

I never dreamed that I would spend time working at NASA, but I feel so grateful to have had the opportunity to learn about so many career opportunities, in and out of my field. I have gained a newfound appreciation for the (many!) things that I don’t understand, and I feel that in working at such a place, I am more well-rounded and prepared for the world after college and graduate school. Even when that preparation meant navigating angry Twitter replies about my usage of the metric or imperial systems (I got both, at separate times), I was able to learn from my efforts and move forward productively and reflectively.

One of the most important life lessons I learned over the months I’ve spent as a NASA History intern was that balance and time management are everything. Over the summer, I was spending 40-hour work weeks at the desk in my bedroom at home. During the fall semester, I was spending fewer hours exclusively on internship work, but I was also working as a full-time student. In order to stay on top of all the things I needed to do, it was important for me to take breaks and be aware of all of my deadlines in advance.

As my internship comes to an end, I am looking forward to applying my experience in future internship and job opportunities. Although I will not be continuing this internship for another semester, I intend to continue taking advantage of as many opportunities as I can, with as wide a range as I might possibly apply myself to. My final advice is this: don’t limit yourself to only what you know you can do. Take a leap of faith, even if it means that you find yourself in an unfamiliar environment. The more you can learn outside your comfort zone, the more you grow and can take with you for future endeavors.