Kushaqua Chapel

Apparently I am not the only person intrigued by the church on Lake Kushaqua - see the previous post. I googled it and found the following information. Much of it is from responses to a Flicker posting of a photo of the church very similar to the one I took. There is lots of information on a site on the history of Saranac Lake and surrounding areas. That is the source of the photos shown here. There is also information on a site maintained by the current owners, a small group of friends.

The area was once known as Stony Wold and was the site of a TB Sanitarium built in 1900 to treat working girls in the initial stages of tuberculosis.The chapel building was the community hall, chapel, and movie theater for the complex. The sanitorium closed in 1955 and was bought by the Ogdensburg Diocese of the Catholic Church to be administered by the “White Fathers”, medical missionaries to the Middle East (they originated in France and were known for their white robes). They ran a boys camp known as Camp Lavigerie. In 1962 the Camp was closed and the Franciscan Friars used it as a seminary while their facility in Saranac Lake was being built. The main building and out-buildings were finally razed in the 1970's,leaving the chapel as the only remaining building.

The chapel had beautiful Tiffany windows behind the altar. The windows are now installed at the New-York Historical Society Museum at Central Park West and 77th Street, on the stair landing outside the third floor.