I have spent summers in the Adirondacks my entire life and recently developed an interest in the area’s history, especially the tradition of spending summers at camps to relax, play and connect with nature. Our own family “house” was built on the southern shores of lake George in the mid-1800s. The interior spaces are modest and much of the square footage belongs to screened in porches, used for living, dining, and even sleeping. Many of the older homes on the lake also have fantastic porches and sleeping porches and they blend so well into the alpine woods that they are hard to see from the lake. This all led me to wonder how the ADK “camp” tradition began and to consider what we might learn from the older camps that we can apply to our modern designs. Many great examples of this history are still represented in the Great Camps of the Adirondacks – large rustic estates that date back to the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Eventually I hope to tour all of the remaining camps and my journey started this summer with a visit to Sagamore, the estate built by the Vanderbilt family. Here are some photos of that property and a link to my account of the visit on our Instagram Sagamore Story
