SARANAC LAKE — Historic Saranac Lake received a $51,000 check on Christmas Day that has enabled the organization to pay off its $100,000 mortgage, plus the accrued interest.

The benefactors, John Black II and his brother Peter Black, of Mansfield, Ohio, donated the same amount last year.

"There's sort of an emotional aspect to it that there's really someone out there who cares about our history," said Amy Catania, executive director of the nonprofit architectural preservation organization.

The final paperwork will complete the process in the next few days, but the official date that marks the mortgage's retirement was Friday, Dec. 30.

An old-fashioned mortgage burning will be planned soon to celebrate the occasion, Catania said.

The Saranac Laboratory Museum — the physical location of the organization — has been fortunate to receive so much money in these trying economic times, she said.

"We weren't sure it would come through," she said. "It was exciting to get this donation when so many people are under water with their mortgages."

BREATHING SPACE

With the mortgage taken care of, Historic Saranac Lake no longer has that $850 monthly payment, Catania said.

However, it still relies on yearly membership contributions and the $5 suggested donations collected during tours of the building.

"(But) it gives us a little breathing space" to have the mortgage paid off, she said. "Now we can keep that (other donated funds) locally, and it's not going to a bank somewhere."

The museum has also received New York State Council on the Arts funding to help with the rehabilitation of the building.

The Saranac Laboratory Museum contains a replica of a science lab that was established in 1894 by Dr. Edward Livingston Trudeau, which was the first tuberculosis research laboratory in the United States.

Ten years earlier, Trudeau founded the Adirondack Cottage Sanitarium, now called the Trudeau Sanatorium.

Tuberculosis treatment is "a big part of Saranac Lake history," Catania said.

The other part of the building is used as rented meeting space.

PORTRAIT MISSING

The two generous donations that paid off the mortgage are linked to the time when many ill with tuberculosis were treated in the village.

"It's really a pretty amazing story." Catania said.

John Black — uncle of John Black II and Peter Black — contracted tuberculosis while he was serving in World War I. He was sent to Saranac Lake to recover. Unfortunately, he died five years later in 1923 at the age of 27.

His parents, Frank and Jessie Black, built the library/meeting space addition to the Saranac Laboratory in their son's memory. Today, it is rented by the Adirondack Unitarian Universalist Community and has other office tenants.

A year after John died, his nephew was born and named after him.

John Black II took an interest in his family history and wanted to preserve it.

He researched and wrote a two-volume history of the Ohio Brass Company, a business established by his grandfather.

Later, in the 1980s, John Black II traveled to Saranac Lake to find the Saranac Laboratory that his relatives had paid for in a sad state of disrepair. And the portrait of the first John Black that had hung above the fireplace in the building was gone.

GENEROUS DONORS

Luckily, Historic Saranac Lake bought the Saranac Laboratory in 1998 and began the extensive process of restoring it to its former glory.

The portrait was located and returned to its place over the fireplace. Intrigued by the man in the painting, Historic Saranac Lake staff searched the Internet and found John Black II in Ohio.

In 2009, John Black II and his younger brother, Peter, made the trip to Saranac Lake once again.

This time, he wasn't disappointed. The two, now in their 80s, toured the restored Saranac Laboratory Museum and John Black Room.

Impressed with the restoration, the brothers donated funds to help with improvements to the building and the installation of museum exhibits. They also gave $25,000 to the Historic Saranac Lake Endowment Fund, in addition to the two-part $102,000 donation that covered the mortgage.

Historic Saranac Lake's 30 volunteers give tours and hold educational programs in area schools year round. Catania said the educational element of the museum is an important part of the organization.

She's pleased the Blacks have seen the improvements made to the museum, she said.

"We hope they'll come back to visit us again."

Those interested in a tour should call ahead to make an appointment at 891-4606.