By Ann Breen Metcalfe
Here is the second installment of our four part series on the 20 events that helped make Schroon Lake the gem of a town it is today.
1915 Seagle Music Colony Founded. Baritone Oscar Seagle taught young singers first at the Brown Swan Club -- now the Word of Life Inn -- then later moved the Colony to its current home on Charley Hill. Today it is a national magnet for young vocalists and faculty artists. Performances take place in eight Adirondack sites. Post-season activities include school tours.
1917 Tumblehead Falls Dam Project Defeated. The project to control flooding and generate electricity by damming the lower Schroon River was stopped. Schroon, Paradox and Brant Lakes were to become a single body of water, raising the water level 20-30 feet. Local and summer people founded The Schroon Lake Association. The Sacandaga Reservoir was completed in 1930.
1917-1918 Schroon Lake Golf Course Built. L.W. and James Emerson -- owners of the Leland House Hotel -- had the 9-hole course built for the enjoyment of their guests. The course remained private until the 1950s.
1920’s Automobiles Arrive. Route 9 and other hardtop roads (74, 73, 8, 22, 28, etc.) were built. Senator Jim Emerson, who had hotel and lumber interests, persuaded Albany to build 350 miles of roads in the Eastern Adirondacks. Route 9 was reconstructed in the late 1950s.
1937 Schroon Lake Central School Built. The consolidation of a central school district united the one-room schools districts of South Schroon, Loch Muller, Charley Hollow, Schroon Lake, Schroon Falls, Paradox and Blue Ridge. A single school building fostered better quality education and centralized activities, strengthening the Schroon and North Hudson communities.