The Dairy Building

The Dairy Building. Hague Historical Society Walking Tour. , 1918 Smith Sexton bought this building, a barn, from Louis Burgess. Smith and his wife turned the upstairs into a living space where they spent the winters; in the summers they ran the Uncas Hotel (now the Northern Lake George Resort). A restaurant occupied the lower floor. At one point, Smith got into a squabble with the Keenan brothers and opened his own grocery store as revenge. It's rumored that he also had a private speakeasy in the building., 1947 The new Hague Fire Department had its first headquarters here. The first fire-fighting vehicle was a Jeep., 1948 Keith and Nancy De Larm bought the building. While Keith, a Captain in Marine Corps, was away serving in the Korean War, he leased part of the building to Fitzgerald's Hardware and Meat Store., 1953 Keith moved the processing and bottling portion of De Larm's Dairy downtown from the De Larm farm in West Hague. The business offered pasteurized and homogenized milk and other dairy products. Keith and Nancy lived upstairs with their growing family: three girls and a boy, whose arrival was announced by hanging overalls across the front of the building., 1967 Keith De Larm closed the dairy and turned the building into four apartments and an office space., 1971 Roger Wilson leased space for a laundromat., 1973-79 Jim Rypkema took over the laundromat. His mother, Betty Rypkema, ran a gift shop named Behold the Turtle., 1980 Ron Graser bought the building. He had an auto body shop in the back. Perry and Cathy Girard opened Lakeside Liquors., 1987 Alison V. Craig opened her realty office, serving the community seven days a week., 2003 Rolly and Cathy Allen bought the building., 2004-09 Silver Bay Construction operated out of a ground-floor office., 2009 Neil and Sandy Rypkema took over ownership.