Fraser Cottage, March 20, 2025
Courtesy of Sara Smith SheldonAddress: 37 Franklin Avenue
Old Address: 51 Franklin Avenue
Other names: Prall Cottage (1911), Mrs. Weston Cottage (1911), DaPres Cottage (1912), Fries Cottage (1912), Andrews Cottage (1913), Fraser Cottage (1948-51), Wilson Cottage (1950); DIS
Year built: 1911
Mrs. Ida Fraser was the proprietor from 1933 to 1945
This cottage is one of several on Helen Hill that appears to have had its upper story or stories removed.
Elise Chapin was a patient in this cottage from 1940 to 1942.
It went through a foreclosure in 1982.
Tupper Lake Herald, December 10, 1915
DeWitt Riley Preston, public accountant and auditor of 51 Franklin avenue, Saranac Lake, made The Herald a pleasant call on Tuesday.
The Guild News, May, 1942
"Cottage Calls"
The Frazer [sic: Fraser] Cottage, 51 Franklin Avenue, is "home" to a group of patients well known throughout the village.
Here, for instance, lives Dorothy Wilson who was once tennis champion back in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, and who is still more interested in outdoor sports than anything else. Now, however, she has substituted gardening for tennis.
Miss Wilson is one of that small group of patients who met with Dr. Sidney F. Blanchet in 1936 to organize the Saranac Lake Study and Craft Guild. As she remembers it -- it was mid-winter, and a heavy snow delayed the arrival of the committee from the Carnegie Corporation, who were helping with the financial backing. Dr. Blanchet sat in the middle of the room telling story after story to keep the local group from dispersing until the committee finally arrived.
Miss Wilson is active in civic affairs, and has recently been helping with the sugar rationing. She is known throughout the house as the champion ticket-seller.
In spite of all these activities, Miss Wilson finds time to play a lot of Mah-Jong, and joins in the bridge games which are so popular in the house.
Hector McCrudden, taking his ease in a cure chair on the front porch, was the next one we talked to. Mr. McCrudden came to Saranac Lake from Montreal, Canada, where he is an investment dealer.
He served with the Canadian Artillery forces during the last war. Then because he liked horses, he changed over to the cavalry, and came out with the rank of lieutenant.
Mr. McCrudden like to read and listen to the radio. He took French lessons at the Guild for about a year. He claims that he is a champion kibitzer at all the bridge games.
Elise Kalb comes from Catonsville, Maryland, which, she is quick to explain, is a suburb of Baltimore. She worked as lighting expert for the electric company there before coming to Saranac Lake.
After regaining her health here, she became a Guild student in J. L. Griswold's X-Ray class. Finishing that course, she got a position as student in the Trudeau X-Ray Laboratory last fall, and finds it all very interesting.
A versatile girl, Elise likes her knitting, plays only a little bridge, but is particularly enthusiastic about picnics and outdoor sports. She is also an amateur gardener -- and has devoted much of her time this spring to nursing along several flats of seedlings on her cure porch. We are pleased to report that these are doing nicely, at the moment.
Ken Smith, another Canadian, also makes his home at Frazer's. Much adverse to talking for publication, he did give us permission to report him as the enthusiastic bridge player we know him to be.
Mott Chapin came to Saranac Lake from Niagara Falls, and is well known throughout the village as former editor of The Guild News, ex-rabbit entrepreneur, Art League-r, photographer, hunter and fisherman.
As a hunter, he did all right last fall bringing in a good sized deer. But the shock was too much and he had to go back to curing for a few months. He is up again now, supervising the planting of his victory garden.
Mott likes Saranac Lake and the Adirondacks so much that he has decided to make it his permanent home. He has a little house on Forest Hill Avenue, complete with the before-mentioned garden. He also has a state camp on the Lower Lake, where he plans to spend much of his time.
Adirondack Daily Enterprise, September 10, 1953
Mr. and Mrs. Thomas J. Waters, who spent the last three weeks vacationing at 51 Franklin ave., have left for Concourse Plaza Hotel, New York City. Miss Winifred Snyder, who also vacationed here for three weeks, returned today to New York City.
Adirondack Daily Enterprise, October 3, 1953
Mrs. Ethel Paris, who spent the Summer at 51 Franklin ave., has left for her home in New York City.
Adirondack Daily Enterprise, July 6, 1965
William Fletcher
William Fletcher, 73, died Sunday evening at the home of hi son, Herbert, 51 Franklin Avenue, Saranac Lake, where he and his wife had been living since December. He had been ill a long time.
Mr. Fletcher was born Feb. 18, 1892, a son of William and Elizabeth Fletcher. He was a retired carpenter. He and Mrs. Fletcher, the former Effie Simpton, had made their home, until December in Vermontville.
Besides his wife and son, he is survived by another son. James of Laurens, S, C ; three daughters, Mrs. Wylda Hall of Saranac Lake, Mrs. Eileen Waters of Syracuse, Mrs. Marion Hamm of Vermontville; 12 grand children and one great-grandson.
Friends may call at the Fortune Funeral Home where a funeral service will be held at 2 p. m. Wednesday. The Rev. George Sailer, pastor of the Adirondack Presbyterian Parish will officiate. Burial will be in Union Cemetery in Vermontville.
Pallbearers will be Elmer Keith, Francis Shene, Albert Skeels, and Ernest Hathaway.
Adirondack Daily Enterprise, October 17, 1967
…In other business, the Mayor read a letter from Attorney Thomas B. Cantwell stating that a check for $120 was being offered the village by Herbert Fletcher, of 51 Franklin Ave., toward purchase of the old Alta Vista Hotel, property on Franklin Ave. which has been off the village tax roles since September 1964. The letter also said $1,000 has already been paid to Essex County for the property.
The question of who has priority, the county or village, in what is to be done with land off both county and village tax roles was then raised. Since the county, has already accepted a check from Fletcher, the board wants to know what say the village has in disposal of the property.
Village Attorney Joseph Duffy will meet with Cantwell on this question. Meanwhile the village has noted receipt but not acceptance of the check for $120 which equals ten percent of the village taxes on the property.
Adirondack Daily Enterprise, October 29, 1980
Saturday at 2:02 a.m., seven men and one truck were called to the Herbert Fletcher residence at 51 Franklin Ave. to fight a chimney fire. The blaze was extinguished before firemen arrived.
The men checked the chimney and returned to service at 2:23 a.m.
