Hotel Ampersand - 1907 The Ampersand Hotel opened in 1888. The main building burned to the ground the night of September 23, 1907, after which the hotel was operated as a cabin complex until the property was acquired by the State.
Plattsburgh Sentinel, May 11, 1888
The Adirondacks-Changes for 1888.
Stoddard's "Adirondacks for 1888," notices the following changes:
...Hotels
…Hotel Ampersand is a new house being built on Saranac Lake, near Miller's, to be open for winter guests early in the fall. It is intended to make it first class in every respect...
Malone Palladium, August 16, 1888Plattsburgh Sentinel, October 12, 1888
SARANAC LAKE.
OCT. 9
—The parties are beginning to move into houses in the village for the winter, opening of Hotel Ampersand not diminishing the number of city people who spend the winter here, for there are even more houses than usual engaged.
Hotel Ampersand, c. 1885
Courtesy of the Adirondack ExperiencePlattsburgh Sentinel, November 2, 1888
—A sidewalk is being constructed joining the old one at J. Vosburgh's, and going as far as C. H. Greenough's. We understand there is talk of extending it to Hotel Ampersand. There is also sidewalks being built in other parts of the village which will be a great improvement.
Bella, Mr. Entow (?) & dogs - The Ampersand, May 1889 Saranac Lake N.Y.
Courtesy of the Getty MuseumPlattsburgh Sentinel, November 16, 1888
—Messrs. Agnew & Eaton, managers of Hotel Ampersand, the new summer and winter resort on Lower Saranac Lake, announce that Mr. John Harding, of Pittsburgh, will have charge of the office. Mr. Harding has spent several years at Paul Smith's where he was very popular with the guests. This new house has one hundred bed rooms, is heated by steam, lighted with gas, has elevator, electric bells, bath rooms on each floor, and large fire places in the public rooms and bed rooms.
Plattsburgh Sentinel, November 30, 1888
Travel to the Adirondacks A dispatch from Hotel Ampersand, Lower Saranac Lake, says that the tide of travel to that favorite winter resort has set in in earnest and that before the Christmas holidays it is expected that large hotel will find itself taxed to its utmost to accommodate the tourists bound thitherward. Among the recent arrivals are Dr. E. L. Trudeau, George C. Cooper, Mrs. E. L. Taintor and family, of New York; William Tod, of Skye, Sootland; George O. Banks, of New Rochelle; President Quintard, of the Citizens' Saving Banks of New York; Gen. Winchester, vice-president of the National Express Company. Among the expected arrivals later on are Mrs. Harrison Garrett, of Baltimore. Numerous Bostonians have engaged apartments, and visitors from various parts, attracted there mainly by the prevailing epidemic in Florida, will help to swell the arrivals to such an extent that this favorite winter resort, with all the attractions of Saratoga, Newport and Long Branch, will soon be the scene of animation and enjoyment, both for the pleasure-seeker and invalids, the latter of whom will flock there in large numbers.
Ampersand Hotel Staff, May, 1890
Historic Saranac Lake CollectPlattsburgh Sentinel, December 28, 1888
IN THE ADIRONDACKS
A Bit of Vivid and Informing Description—The Claims of the Wilderness from a Health-Promoting' Point of View—The Benefits Consumptives Receive from This Winter Resort—
A Pleasant Account of Saranac Village and Its Many Attractions— The New Hotel Ampersand and Neighborhood.
Special Correspondence of the Troy Daily Times.
HOTEL AMPERSAND, LOWER SARANAC LAKE, Franklin County, N. Y., Dec. 18, 1888…
Ampersand Hotel Stagecoach on Main Street in the village, driven by Tuffield Latour. In the background, from center to right, is the Seaver A. Miller Cottage, a glimpse of the Empire Hotel, and the first Harrietstown Town Hall (undated).
…A NOTABLE HOTEL. The constantly increasing demand for accommodation attracted the attention of capitalists, and about a year ago the erection of a spacious and substantial hotel, heated with steam, furnished luxuriously and equipped with elevator and all other modern appliances, was contemplated by its present owners. Ground was broken last April, and it was hoped that the Ampersand would be completed and ready for occupancy October 1, the usual time of closing the great summer hotels, as many invalids who summer at these great resorts would at that time be available patrons but unavoidable delays prevented the opening of the Hotel Ampersand until nearly a month later. The hotel is an imposing structure of modern architecture, four stories high, finished in hard woods throughout. The rooms are divided into suites of seven rooms, and so arranged that they can be used in suites or separately. Each large room is provided with an ample fireplace and well ventilated. The house contains 100 available rooms for guests.
New York Times, May 26, 1895
HOTEL AMPERSAND, Saranac - Lake, Franklin County, New-York. Eaton & Young, Managers. Opens June 1, closes about Oct. 1. Accommodates 275 persons. Board, $4 per day; from $21 per week upward. Ten hours from The Greater New-York. Reached by the New-York Central and Hudson River R. R. via the Adirondack and St. Lawrence line or via the Delaware and Hudson and Chateaugay R. R. By the latter about sixteen hours from The Greater New-York.
The Wigwam at the Ampersand
In behalf of the Ampersand the announcement is made that it will be under the same management as in 1894. The New-York Central and Hudson River Railroad Company intends to run solid trains from the Grand Central Station to the Saranac Lake station, through without change, and with only two stops, one at Albany and one at Utica. This will probably somewhat shorten the time by this route. The woods surrounding the hotel have been thoroughly brushed, and additional pleasant and romantic walks added to those already existing. Special attention will be paid to the amusements of the young people, and the ball field and tennis court will be in first-class shape, and first-rate games on the former and tournaments on the latter made a special feature. The orchestra of 1894, widely known as one of the best in the mountains, has been re-engaged and will render classical and operatic music during the dinner hour and dance music in the evening. Other improvements for the benefit and comfort of the guests have been made. The house has been put in thorough order, and will undoubtedly sustain its reputation as one of the most homelike, as well as most modern, of Adirondack hotels.
Essex County Republican, June 11, 1896
John Wallace Instantly Killed at Saranac Lake.
The view South from hotel Ampersand, Martin's at left.
From Seneca Ray Stoddard's Saranac Lake in Winter, 1889.
About 4 o'clock Wednesday, June 3, a laborer named John Wallace, employed by the Ampersand Hotel Co., Saranac Lake, was engaged in removing bedrock from the farm near the hotel by blasting. He had fired a charge which failed to explode promptly and Wallace, supposing the fuse had burned out, went to re-light it. As he reached the spot where the charge laid, it exploded, tearing his head from his body. Wallace was about 60 years old and married.
Adirondack Daily Enterprise, June 3, 1989
"Lake of the Clustered Stars" was home to hotel with enigmatic name — Ampersand
SARANAC LAKE — Because of its many picturesque islands, Lower Saranac Lake was supposedly named "Lake of the Clustered Stars" by the Indians. Although probably bogus, the place has lived up to this nomenclature with no loss of esteem or romanticism. Over the ensuing years, the lake has witnessed a multitude of both physical and historical changes. Certainly, its familiar shoreline has changed little since being mapped by Colvin in, 1877, but its man-made, features have varied in ways directly related to the fluctuations in our social values.
Ad in Health and Pleasure on America's Greatest Railroad, 1895, New York Central and Hudson River Railroad, p.418
There is little doubt that man's first intrusion here came by bark canoe paddled by an aboriginal occupant, quickly followed by the bearded French trapper-hunter of the 1600s. Next came the avid sportsman with his intrepid Adirondack guide in a sleek craft, his passage dutifully recorded by the writers and artists of the 1800s. Together with the latter group, the famous Adirondack resort hotel came into being. Three of these structures, indigenous to our area, were erected at the eastern end of Lower Saranac Lake. Martin's and the Algonquin having been discussed in previous articles, the Ampersand remains to have its sad fate recalled.
Located at the extreme eastern tip of the lake, the building crowned an elevation of land and afforded a superb view southwesterly over the expanse of water and island to that distant mountain which shared its enigmatic name.
Superior in size and elegance to its two predecessors, the Ampersand was an imposing structure.
It was originally intended to capitalize on Saranac Lake's fame as a health resort, but it eventually emerged as a summer vacation tourist type hotel. It would accommodate 300 guests in luxurious surroundings. A toboggan slide was built which, together with skating and sulky races on the lake, was able to attract a considerable following.
The hotel's manager, Charles M. Eaton, soon realized that more people vacationed in the summer than winter. His advertisements of the late 1890s called the Ampersand "the Saratoga of Lower Saranac Lake." This hotel boasted a nine-hole golf course, and its own baseball team, which played neighboring teams from Malone, Lake Placid and AuSable Forks. Boating was popular and the fishermen could take pike from the lake or row up to Round Lake where abundant speckled trout hungrily awaited the angler's hook, and an occasional deer could be seen feeding in the lilypad shallows. From the south shore's sandy beach, a trail led to the summit of Ampersand Mountain, where a spectacular view awaited the climber.
Transient guests and local residents played on the golf course and attended the many concerts and dances. A fine orchestra was always on hand at the Ampersand. After closing his Saranac Lake house for the summer, Dr. Trudeau would often spend time at the hotel before moving on to St. Regis Lake. In August, 1896 a benefit ball at the hotel raised $900 for the doctor's sanitarium.
Lakeside Cottage 
Arthur S. Knight, Adirondack Guide, Vacationland in Picture Story and History, Adirondack Resorts Press, Lake George, New York, 1947, p. 277. (Library of Congress) On Saturday, July 25, 1896, the Adirondack News reported that guests at the Ampersand witnessed a rare sight from the front piazza. A flotilla of guide boats bearing state commissioners swept up to the shore as the band played "Nearer My God to Thee." This was the famous group of state assemblymen touring the region for the purpose of reporting to the legislature on the feasibility of land acquisition within the state park. Captain James H. Pierce of Bloomingdale was chairman of the committee. Martin Van Huron Ives from Potsdam chronicled the tour in his book, Through the Adirondack in 18 Days.
Indoor activities at the Ampersand consisted of games of Whist, billiard competitions, recitals, plays and dances. The social reporter for the Adirondack News, Mrs. Caroline Washburn Rockwood, also a correspondent for several New York City and Boston newspapers, kept readers up to date oil comings and goings at the hotel. Seaver A. Miller, who served as Saranac Lake village mayor, clerk and justice of the peace, was the editor of the little weekly.
In the early 1900s, the golden era of Adirondack Hotels was on the wane and the Ampersand felt the crunch.
On the night of September 23, 1907, the Ampersand burned to the ground. The decline in the hotel industry lent credence to a pervading suspicion of arson. Long after the smoke had drifted away and the ashes turned stone cold, the issue lingered unsettled in the courts. The litigation between the hotel owners and the insurance company dragged on seven years before it was finally settled in 1914, with $100,000 being awarded to the Ampersand's owners. In 1920, Charles Eaton sold the property to Sam Matthews. Matthews sought to rebuild the Ampersand and the Algonquin and auction off some 250 building lots. The project fizzled.
Hotel Ampersand (Seneca Ray Stoddard, c. 1890) 
Ampersand Hotel (William Henry Jackson, c. 1902)
The last commercial venture to operate on the site was a cottage complex owned by Walter and Ivy Little. With an ideal location, the Ampersand Cottages became a popular summer vacation resort and enjoyed many prosperous years. After Mr. Little's death, his widow ran the business until the sale of the property to the state Conservation Department. Currently, the state maintains a caretaker's dwelling and a boat launch site on the premises.
The derivation of the word Ampersand is as much a mystery as the origin of the word Saranac. Both have been denied any Indian relationship. Colvin suggested the appellation of "amber-sand" for the color of the sandy shores of Ampersand Pond. Van Dyke offers the alphabetical symbol, ampersand, (&) as the source, due to the winding and twisting course of Ampersand Brook.
In our community today, the name lives on in Ampersand Bay and Ampersand Avenue, but the Ampersand Hotel and its past glories live on only in our memories.
Malone Palladium, April 3, 1890.
A Saranac Lake dispatch to the New York Times says: "The 200 acres of land adjoining the Saranac Lake Hotel Company's property have been purchased by parties interested in the Hotel Ampersand, thus giving it a large lake frontage, many beautiful cottage sites, and a farm which will be run in connection with the house. This additional land will add greatly to the pleasure of the many guests already booked for the coming season, as the wooded section will be laid out in a small park, with many different walks and resting places."
On May 22, 1891, the Plattsburgh Sentinel reported that "Verplanck Colvin is surveying the Ampersand premises and putting in permanent posts that will not be disturbed for generations to come, probably." 1
Malone Gazette, July 22, 1892
The dining room at the Hotel Ampersand. Historic Saranac Lake Collection, TCR #300.
The Adirondack hotels are rapidly filling with guests and by August 1st the season will be at its height. Hotel Ampersand, at Saranac Lake, now has 200 guests and more are coming...
John A. Gallaway at the entrance to the Hotel Ampersand. Courtesy of Shelby Hines.New York Times, June 11, 1893
BEAUTIFUL SARANAC LAKE.
An Ideal Spot in Which to Spend the Hot Summer Months.
Saranac Lake, June 10.—This beautiful spot, with its peaceful waters, gentle, undulating vales, emerald forests, and surrounding lofty, pine-clad mountains, was never lovelier than now. Already the invasion of "summerers" has not only begun, but has continued for several weeks, and the various resorts are rapidly assuming a businesslike air.
At the famous Ampersand Messers. Eaton & Young have inaugurated very few changes in the conduct of their establishment. Never, at this season, have their bookings been so heavy as now. The house is practically filled at present, and by the 27th there will not be an inch to spare.
Mr. F. A Harrington of the Adirondack and St. Lawrence Railroad, with a party of twenty-five, has been spending a few days here.
The influx of foreign visitors is imminent, two London and three Vienna gentlemen now enjoying the glorious mountain air and scenery.
Mrs. C. A. Strong, daughter of J. D. Rockefeller, has arrived and will remain through the Summer.
Toboggan run, 1888. Photograph by Seneca Ray Stoddard
Courtesy of the Adirondack Experience
New York Times, September 9, 1894
SARANAC LAKE'S LATE VISITORS
…The Misses Jackson, direct descendants of "Old Hickory" have returned from camp on the upper lake to the Ampersand.
"Saranac in summer, the drive to the Ampersand
From a photograph by Woodward, Plattsburgh,"
Unidentified news clipping, c. 1900, from "Scrapbook No. 1," Saranac Lake Free Library"
Malone Palladium, March 18, 1896
Sale of the Ampersand Hotel Property
The real estate of the Saranac Lake Hotel Co., which included the Hotel Ampersand at Saranac Lake, in this county, was sold in this village on Friday last on a mortgage held by the Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York. The property was bought for $70,000 by CHAS E. HOTCHKISS, of the law firm of DAVIES, STONE & HOTCHKISS, who are the attor-, neys for the insurance company. On the previous day the personal property belonging to the Saranac Lake Hotel Co., which consisted of the furniture, fixtures, liquors, cigars, etc., of the Hotel Ampersand, was sold on the premises, on a chattel mortgage also held by the Mutual Life Ins. Co., for $2,600. The proceeds of the two sales, it is understood, will just about satisfy the claims of the mortgagee, leaving nothing with which to pay an issue of $30,000 of outstanding bonds and some thirty or forty thousand dollars of accounts which are owing, to creditors in New York, Utica, Plattsburgh, and in this county.
A scheme of reorganization has, however, been settled upon, which it is represented will result in the payment of at least a portion and perhaps all of this indebtedness, As we are informed by Mr. JOHN P. KELLAS, who is assisting in the matter, a new company is to be organized, with Mr. C. M. EATON as manager, as heretofore, to which company the Mutual Life Ins. Co. will deed the property, taking back a mortgage for $55,000. Creditors and holders of bonds of the old company—or such of them as consent to this arrangement—will be paid 25 per cent, of their claims in cash and the remaining 75 per cent, in the stock of the new company.
It is stated as an explanation of the insolvent condition of the old company that the building and furnishing of the hotel cost forty or fifty thousand dollars more than was expected, and that the experiment of keeping the house open winters resulted in a loss of nearly or quite that amount.
As a summer resort the hotel has been extensively patronized, and it is believed that with good management it can be made to pay fair dividends on the capitalization, which, as stated, will include the debts due from the old company less the 25 per cent, which will be paid in cash. If this is a fair statement of the facts of the case, it would seem that the arrangement is as practicable and equitable as any that could be made.
New York Times, June 27, 1897 (A pdf of the full article is here)
ON MOUNTAINS AND LAKES
The Numerous Adirondack Resorts Now Ready to Receive the Summer Visitor.
[...]
Very little that is new is offered in the vicinity of the village of Saranac Lake this season. This old village is on the Saranac branch of the Adirondack and St. Lawrence Railroad. Persons going there from New York leave the Grand Central Station on the regular Adirondack trains, and change cars at Lake Clear. Saranac Lake village is the largest settlement in the Adirondack region. It has a population of about 1,200.
The fashionable Ampersand Hotel stands on an advantageous site on lower Saranac Lake and is about two miles from the village. This is one of the most, sumptuous hotels in the woods, and is conducted by Charles Eaton of New York. Since last season the Ampersand Company has obtained control of the Miller property, on the opposite side of the lake, where the old Saranac Lake House was located before it fell a victim to fire. Some of the old buildings were not destroyed, and they will be used hereafter as an annex to the Ampersand. Some excellent golf links have been established in connection with the Ampersand...
Plan of the Ampersand from the 1899 Sanborn map. The 1895 map is essentially identical.
New York Times, August 27, 1899
THE ADIRONDACKS.
The excessive heat of the early part of the week, which, by the way, was an impossibility according to all the guide books— or was it one of those exceptions which prove the rule: that "it is never warm in the Adirondacks"— followed by the rain of the week's end, has not been conducive to outdoor sports. Nevertheless, the Ampersand golf grounds have been filled with people in broiling sun and drenching rain, and baseball and tennis have been played whenever the grounds permitted.
On Wednesday evening an interesting and enjoyable concert was given as a testimonial to the Ampersand Orchestra. The guests contributed liberally, and made the affair an artistic and financial success. Miss Ruby C. Cutter of Boston especially pleased the audience. She sang a song by Arditti, "Se Saran Rose," and Chaminade's "Summer." Henry K. Hadley, the leader, played a Chopin nocturne, and his brother, Arthur D. Hadley, gave a number of selections by Popper on the 'cello. The other soloists were Alfred P. De Veto and Henry Burck. The orchestra rendered a number of Wagner selections.
Unidentified news clipping, September 23, 1907 [from scrapbook No. 1, Saranac Lake Free Library]
Hotel Amperand Burns.
Special to The World.
SARANAC LAKE. N. Y., Sept. 23--The Hotel Ampersand, one of the largest and best known of the Adirondack hotels. was destroyed by fire to-night. The loss is placed at $270,000, and it is not known how much of this is covered by insurance.
The fire started in the elevator shaft on the ground floor, and swept to the upper floors with such rapidity that all efforts to stay it were fruitless. The hotel closed for the season last Saturday,
"The Ampersand"
William Henry Jackson, c. 1902
The Plattsburgh Sentinel, October 4, 1907
Ampersand Property Will Now Be Run As a Club.
Officers of the Hotel Ampersand corporation announced this week following news of the burning of the hotel at Saranac Lake, that it will be rebuilt as a casino. The casino will the social center of a colony that has been planned for some time, and will be organized next month.
William B. Ellison of New York, former corporation counsel, who is legal adviser for the company, and is nominally its president, explained that the club idea had been carefully worked out.
Lake Store, Hotel Ampersand
There will be two hundred shares issued at $1,000 par value. With the $200,000 thus raised the club organization will erect a casino and take charge of the beautifying of five hundred acres of land.
Each club member will have a cottage of his own, and altogether it will be a large colony.
"For many years," said Mr. Ellison, "the same persons have patronized the hotel, and it was in effect a club. It was for this reason that the club colony was projected. Although there is a loss involved by the fire, the hotel would have been replaced anyway by a clubhouse."
Charles M. Eaton, a broker with the firm of Raymond, Pynchon & Co. of Co. of No. 111 Broadway, New York is the treasurer and majority stockholder in the hotel corporation. Among those interested in the club plan are many well known New Yorkers.
Adirondack Daily Enterprise, March 22, 1997
[After fire of September 23, 1907, the hotel's] nine cottages, known as the Summer Colony Center, continued to be rented for many years. On March 3, 1926 the cottages were acquired by the W. E. Little family, who intended to renovate and continue renting them. They had the capacity to hold 75 guests. The original hotel site was retained by it owner. Mr. Matthews, who acquired the property in 1920 from the late Charles M. Eaton. Mr. Matthews had plans to erect a new Ampersand hotel on the site. A stock offering was made by a George Gazley and Frank Kendall of New York City on March 21, 1922 to purchase the land and cottages and build the 127 room hotel with connecting baths. The hotel was never built.
The 1906 Adirondack Directory lists one of J.A. Latour's liveries at this address. Greenough's Livery was located near by.
Mr. and Mrs. Herbert Sackett, honeymooning at the Ampersand Hotel, are said to have driven the first car to come to Saranac Lake.
Ampersand Hotel Display by Karina Jackson, Shown at History Day 2008. Click on the image to enlarge the display 
Ampersand Hotel & Cottages map, c. 1930 
Ampersand Hotel (Seneca Ray Stoddard, c. 1890) 
Ampersand Hotel ad. Courtesy of John Van Anden. 
An 1888 map of the road to Ampersand Hotel, by I. Vosburgh. It seems to show a planned re-route of an earlier road from Forest Home, at top, and Ampersand Avenue, at right. The width shown is probably the full right-of-way, not the actual width of the road. Courtesy of Mary Hotaling.
Comments
Footnotes
1. Snippets
