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"Hutridge"/"Camp Topridge"

USA / New York / Saranac Lake /
 residence, interesting place

Originally called Hutridge by the Lothrops, cofounders of Woodward & Lothrops a Washinton DC department store. c. 1880's. Renamed Topridge sometime after her divorce from E.F. Hutton. The main "Season" was mid-July to Labor Day when the camp was staffed by 85 men and women. Camp Topridge is an Adirondack Great Camp built in 1923 by Marjorie Merriweather Post, founder of General Foods and the daughter of C. W. Post. The "camp", in Keese Mill, in the U.S. state of New York, was considered by Post to be a "rustic retreat"; it consisted of 68 buildings, including a fully staffed main lodge and private guest cabins, each staffed with its own butler. It was one of the largest of the Adirondack great camps and possibly the most elaborately furnished.

It is located on 207 acres on an esker between the Spectacle Ponds and Upper St. Regis Lake, about 12 miles northwest of Saranac Lake, New York.

As originally built, the property could only be reached by water. Guests arrived by float-plane or Post's yacht at a private dock, and thence via funicular to the main building at the top of the ridge. Three times a week, guests would gather in the 80 by 100-foot (30 m) living room where full-length movies could be screened; an adjoining dining room seated thirty guests. Many of the original furnishings of the room, which included an extensive collection of American Indian artifacts, are now in the Smithsonian Institution. Among the many elaborate structures on the property is a Russian dacha built for Post's third husband, who had served as ambassador to the Soviet Union

The estate was designed by local builder Ben Muncil in collaboration with New York architect Theodore Blake.

Post left the property to the State of New York. The main lodge, most of the buildings and 105 acres were offered for sale, with the remaining acreage to be made part of the Adirondack Forest Preserve. It was sold it at public auction in 1985 to New Jersey businessman Roger Jakubowski for $911,000. In 1994 it was sold for $975,000. It is currently owned by Texas real estate magnate Harlan Crow.

The property is on the National Register of Historic Places.

www.digital-librarian.com/adirondacks.html
hsl.wikispot.org/Camp_Topridge
archive.org/details/adirondackfurnit0000gilb/page/78/mo...
archive.org/details/sim_american-architect-and-architec...
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Coordinates:   44°25'2"N   74°18'1"W
This article was last modified 3 years ago