The Union Depot

The Union Depot. . , Village History , Saranac Lake was first settled in 1819, and grew with the development of a dam and sawmill on the Saranac River. Along with logging, lodging and guiding summer visitors to the woods were the principal occupations. After E. L. Trudeau, a young physician with tuberculosis, spent the winter here for his health in 1875-76, Saranac Lake began to attract patients trying the fresh-air cure year-round. Trudeau experimented with treatments he read about in European medical journals, and founded a semi-charitable sanatorium and a laboratory for study of the disease. Railroad service first reached Saranac Lake on the Chateaugay Railroad late in 1887, shortly after Robert Louis Stevenson, famous author and T.B. patient, arrived here for his health. With easy rail access and national publicity, tuberculosis treatment flourished and the community prospered, incorporating as a village in 1892. , Rail History , Saranac Lake's Union Depot was built in 1904 by the Delaware and Hudson Railroad, consolidating the passenger operations of the Chateaugay Railroad from the East, and the New York Central Railroad from the West. The largest railroad station in the Adirondacks, Union Depot handled 18 to 20 scheduled passenger trains per day between 1912 and 1940. The New York Central closed Union Depot in 1965. The remaining property of the New York Central Railroad's Adirondack Division was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1993. The Union Depot was restored in 1997-98.