An Update on Debar Pond Lodge
The Preservation League is working closely with our colleagues at Adirondack Architectural Heritage (AARCH) and the Debar Pond Institute to advocate for the preservation of Debar Pond Lodge, a historic, National Register-listed Adirondack lodge built circa 1940.
Debar Pond Lodge, located in the town of Duane within the Adirondack Park, was designed by notable Saranac Lake-based architect William Distin. The relatively subdued log exterior of the 17-room main lodge opens into an interior that exemplifies the Adirondack style, its rustic wood and stone elements providing an informal, outdoorsy character to a spacious and comfortable setting. The property, which encompassed about 1,200 acres, also includes multiple outbuildings built to support the activities of the owners, Claire and Arthur Wheeler and their family.
The Wheelers sold the property in 1959 to Farwell T. Perry, who owned it for another two decades before selling it to New York State in 1979. Before the sale, he leased the lodge and an area immediately surrounding it to a private individual for a 25-year term. The State honored the terms of the lease, thus delaying any decision about the future of the lodge until 2004.
As the lease neared its expiration, Adirondack Architectural Heritage began drawing attention to the need to plan for the preservation of the lodge. If the property remained in state ownership, it would be subject to the “forever wild” provision of the New York State Constitution (Article XIV), which has been interpreted to require demolition of buildings in the Adirondack Park in other instances. AARCH began working with state and local leaders to identify a new use that would allow the buildings to be retained, and also sponsored the listing of the property in the State and National Register.
In late 2020, the Department of Environmental Conservation proposed demolition of the lodge and other buildings on the site for creation of a new “intensive use area,” to include expanded parking, a “pavilion” on the footprint of the existing lodge, and multiple grilling fireplaces, picnic tables, and fire pits. AARCH, the Preservation League, and other preservation and environmental groups immediately objected and asked the DEC to reconsider its plan. The League and AARCH noted that demolition of the buildings without careful consideration of alternatives would be a violation of state historic preservation law, and that ample precedents existed for alternative solutions that would allow the buildings to be retained.
Just such an alternative is embedded in the history of the Preservation League, which successfully advocated for the preservation of Great Camp Sagamore in the early 1970s, when the League was a brand-new organization. Syracuse University, which owned the camp as a conference center, no longer needed it. To prevent a transfer to the state, which would have likely doomed the camp to demolition, the League took title to the property in 1977, then resold it to the Sagamore Institute, subject to covenants governing its future use and maintenance. This transfer required amending Article XIV of the State Constitution, adding language allowing Sagamore Institute to take possession of the property, in exchange for which the Institute donated about 200 acres of “wild forest land” of comparable value to the state. That process was complete in 1986, and Great Camp Sagamore became an educational institution that continues to thrive.
My family history overlaps with that of Great Camp Sagamore, because my grandfather was chancellor of Syracuse University from 1971-1991. We were lucky enough to take family vacations at Sagamore and the other Great Camp the university owned, Minnowbrook, when they were not in use for conferences. I was at Sagamore once or twice as a baby, although I don’t remember it. Memories of annual family gatherings at Minnowbrook, made even more poignant when the original lodge was lost to fire in January 1988, undoubtedly influenced my interest in historic preservation.
The proposed plan for protecting Debar Pond Lodge is modeled on the successful example of Great Camp Sagamore and similar transfers: the Debar Pond Institute, a nonprofit group whose members have many decades of collective experience preserving and promoting significant Adirondack properties, will take possession of the six-acre parcel on which the buildings sit, and in exchange, will donate over 400 acres to the State to be added to the Forest Preserve. The Debar Pond Institute plans to implement public programming focused on Adirondack history, environmentalism, diversity, the arts, and more. Meanwhile, the public will retain access to the hiking trails around Debar Pond and to the waterfront; the state plans to build a new parking area and trailhead to facilitate public access. Conservation easements will be included in the deed to ensure public access to the site and preservation of the buildings.
The process of amending the State Constitution to allow for an Adirondack land exchange requires multiple steps: legislation must be passed in two sessions of the State Legislature, then the exchange must be approved by a statewide referendum. A bill initiating the process has been introduced in both the Senate, by Senator Daniel Stec (S.7868), and Assembly, by Assemblymember Billy Jones (A.7535A). Among the groups supporting this proposal are Historic Saranac Lake, Adirondack Wild, Adirondack Council, the Town of Duane, Franklin County Board of Legislators, the Adirondack Diversity Initiative, the Malone Chamber of Commerce, and more.
The Preservation League strongly supports this common-sense solution that preserves the lodge, expands the Forest Preserve, and retains and improves public access to Debar Pond and the surrounding forest lands, all at no cost to New York State. We are pleased to be working with our colleagues at AARCH (now led by the League’s former VP for Policy and Preservation, Erin Tobin) and the Debar Pond Institute to advocate for the passage of S.7868 and A.7535. If you would like to express your support for this legislation, please contact your state Assemblymember and Senator and tell them you support S.7868 / A.7535.