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.
