ELIZABETHTOWN — My husband, Frank, and I were looking for a small building to restore and re-sell; we discovered the Gaming Cottage in 2003.
The cottage and surrounding overgrown grounds, complete with stark and vacant remains of an old mansion, lay just beyond the hamlet of Elizabethtown. The mansion and cottage had once been the centerpiece of an estate known as Garondah.
We found the cottage hidden behind a tangled mass of white pines, scruffy poplars and vines. At the top of this unkempt jungle, a steeply pitched roof and a massive stone chimney were visible. Four eyebrow windows graced the roof midway.
A crumbling concrete piazza in front of the cottage was covered with debris and junked household appliances. Sodden boxes of magazines, newspapers, business records and school textbooks lay strewn about the interior.
A site plan identified the forlorn structure as the Gaming Cottage.
"I almost wanted to cry — I thought, 'Somebody has to rescue it.'"
FORMER SPLENDOR
The main house at Garondah had been built by a wealthy copper merchant as his family's summer home in the 1890s.
Frank Munsey, a very successful New York City publisher, owned Garondah from 1918 to l925. In 1923, he had the Gaming Cottage built close to the main house, formal gardens and tennis court. Its ample dimensions and large, elegant stone fireplace provided a stylish recreational center for guests on a rainy day.
In 2003, the cottage still retained vestiges of its former architectural finesse despite years of neglect and ill use. Handsome interior wood braces supported the roof, oak flooring still covered sections of the floor, and the massive stone fireplace stood intact in the center of the western wall. On either side of the fireplace, now ill-fitting, weather-worn French doors opened outward to the piazza with views of a meadow and the peaks beyond.
Sections of the exterior wood shingle siding had rotted over the years. Yet an elegant shingle skirting or flare remained intact at the lower edge of the walls. Large wood brackets still supported the overhanging roof. Sections of the original wooden scrollwork adorned the lower edges of the roof lines.
ORIGINAL DESIGN
Restoration architect Robert Burley of the Burley Partnership in Waitsfield, Vt., volunteered to take a look at the Garondah main house and outer buildings. He determined that the mansion could not be salvaged nor could several other auxiliary buildings.
The Gaming Cottage, on the other hand, was small enough and structurally sound enough to be saved.
Once given this professional appraisal, we called in a reliable contractor — Calvin Cumm of the former Champlain Heritage Builders — to give a detailed estimate of stabilization and renovation costs. His crew included a skilled carpenter to lead the actual day-to-day restoration effort. Work on the Gaming Cottage took nearly a year.
Our carefully planned goal was to stabilize and replace the critical structural elements of the building as well as interior walls and ceiling as necessary. Finishing details were the responsibility of the ultimate purchaser of the property, a decision not uncommon in "rescue and renovation" projects.
As the work proceeded, every effort was made to adhere to the original design using the originally specified materials. Some exceptions to this rule of thumb were made: Stronger, more durable pressure-treated woods were used as floor supports. Architectural-grade roofing shingles came with a 25-year guarantee.
NEW LIFE
But visible design elements and materials were faithfully replaced. The lead carpenter rebuilt the eyebrow window frames by hand; exact replacements did not exist.
The Gaming Cottage represents an era in North Country history when affluent "outsiders" underwrote the costs of distinctive design and construction. Reminders of that era are scattered across the Adirondack landscape, but time, devastating fires and all the costs of rehabbing and maintaining such properties are taking their toll.
Today the Gaming Cottage is alive and thriving.
Its purchasers completed the final renovations as required by the deed. Their new home models the principles of recycling and adaptive reuse. Construction drawings for an addition — now a work in progress — faithfully complement the original structure in design, scale and materials.
It's going to be lovely, just lovely. Our gift to the Adirondacks.
Local News
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Alison Hain
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