Adirondack Architecture

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Knollwood Club

Camp Topridge

Adirondack Architecture refers to the architectural style generally associated with the Great Camps within the Adirondack Mountains area in New York. The builders of these camps used native building materials and sited their buildings within an irregular wooded landscape. These camps were built to provide a primitive, rustic appearance. Elements such as whole, split, or peeled logs, bark, roots, and burls, along with native granite fieldstone, were used to build interior and exterior components. Massive fireplaces and chimneys built of cut stone are also common within the Great Camp architecture. The use of native building materials was not only for promoting a natural appearance, but also to avoid the expense of transporting conventional building materials into a remote location.^[1]

The style drew upon Swiss chalet architecture, which had been introduced to America by Andrew Jackson Downing around 1850. Log construction was popularized by Downing's protege, Calvert Vaux, in his pattern book Villas and Cottages in 1857. Downing's design principles emphasized utility, structural expression, and conformity to natural surroundings. The building form was influenced by Stick style, but using log framing instead of dimensional lumber to express the structural system of the buildings. Charles Eastlake's book Hints on Household Taste in Furniture, Upholstery and other Details also influenced the Adirondack rustic style. Interior decorations such as rustic and Mission Style furniture, mounted trophies of fish and game, Japanese fans and screens, and American Indian artifacts were influenced by Eastlake's ideas.^[1]

The Adirondacks building were recognized for their rugged finish and outstanding craftsmanship especially by the wealthy natives. The Adirondacks style of architecture can be specialized into custom homes, rugged roofing, log cabins, boat houses, rustic furnishing, rustic kitchen, birch and cedar furniture, log and twig works.

This style of architecture is found most prominently in and around the area of Adirondack Park, the largest state park in the United States. With 6.1 million acres (25,000 km²), it is roughly the size of the entire state of Massachusetts. 42% of the land is public, with the remaining amount of land consisting of several villages and hamlets.

Saint Regis Presbyterian Church, designed by William L. Coulter	The Jordan Cottage, Saranac Lake	Camp Katia on Upper St. Regis Lake	Brighton Town Hall, by Benjamin A. Muncil, 1914
Hotel Wawbeek, Upper Saranac Lake (1890, Stoddard)	Wawbeek Lodge, 1900	Raquette Lake Hotel, (1889, Stoddard)	Echo Camp, Upper Saranac Lake (1916, Stoddard)