The Preservation
League of New York State is dedicated to the protection of New York's
diverse and rich heritage of historic buildings, districts, and
landscapes. It actively encourages historic preservation by public and
private organizations, agencies, and individuals in local communities
throughout New York State and provides the united voice for historic
preservation.
The Barn at Camp Sagamore - One of the outbuildings the Preservation
League successfully saved in the 1980s.
The League's history has been
illuminated by several stellar achievements. In the early 1980s, we
arranged a land swap that saved the outbuildings of Camp Sagamore, an
Adirondack Great Camp built c.1895 by William W. Durant. In order to
accomplish this goal, the land swap arrangement had to be approved by
popular referendum. Through a publicity blitz that included booths at
the New York State Fair, we got the word out. The public understood the
value of an intact Camp Sagamore and voted to approve the land swap.
Today, the outbuildings still stand to tell a vital part of the story
of life at an Adirondack Great Camp.
In 1980, the League pushed the
New York State Historic Preservation Act through the legislature.
Applying to all state agencies' projects, it required consultation and
an effort to avoid harming historic properties. It was the first time
state agencies had had such a mandate.
In the mid-1980s, we
successfully fought off an effort to exempt historic religious
properties from landmark laws. We organized a statewide campaign,
bringing people to Albany to testify at a public hearing. With
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis as the star witness, we packed the hearing
room. The bill was defeated.
In the
early 1990s, the League once again led the charge, this time to save
Ellis Island. Although the immigration building had recently opened as
a popular museum, the buildings on the south side of the Island were
moldering away. The hospital, the contagious disease wards, the laundry
and morgue buildings were all slated for redevelopment as the site of a
luxury conference hotel. We lobbied the National Park Service to slow
down long enough to give the public a chance to be heard. After a
well-attended public hearing, the Park Service went back to the drawing
boards and came up with a new concept, currently under development–
that of a family genealogical center with low-cost accommodations and
study centers suitable for school groups.
Camp Sagamore and
its outbuildings - all of which survive today to help tell the
story of an Adirondack Great Camp.
