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Happy 2nd Birthday!

Today is November 9, 2010 which is exactly two years since my first post on the Huletts Current. So now the Huletts Current is officially two years old. The day I started this adventure in blogging, my wife said; “It will be difficult for you to find enough interesting tidbits during the winter when things are slow.” So while things have been slow at times, I’ve at least tried to keep things interesting the last two years.

I continue to look for a variety of information about those things that would interest you, the reader. The responses I received throughout the year have been generally positive and indicate that the Huletts Current continues to draw a significant readership. Hopefully you’ve gotten some enjoyment from the site and learned a thing or two when you’ve stopped by. I’m always looking for interesting interview candidates and if you have any info that you think other people would be interested in, I always enjoy hearing from you. Some of the best ideas have been generated by many of you, so thank you for the ideas.

To celebrate our second year, I wanted to share an email that I received which captures what I hoped to do with the Huletts Current.

Dear George:

My husband and I stayed at Huletts in 2007 and 2008. He has been ill and we have been unable to take a vacation the past two years. I just have to tell you how much I have enjoyed the web cams. I have been able to take a short “virtual vacation” when I get a spare moment. The cams have kept me close to a place I really love and enjoy. Sometimes I can almost smell the pine. Thank you and thank you to the people who have kept the links up and running.

Gail Hoppe

Well Gail, it’s been my pleasure the last two years trying to update everyone about the “goings-on” in and around Huletts. My thanks go out also to our web-cam providers who are sharing their wonderful views.

To recap the last year I thought I would link to the top 10 posts from our second year:

1. Back to the Huletts School
2. Interview with School Board Candidate, Mark DeLuca
3. Local Catholic Church Renovation Plan Presented
4. Spring Smelt Run Started
5. Cell Phone Tower Update
6. An Interview with Olympic Athlete, Erin Hamlin
7. Whitehall Says NO to Growth, Jobs & Expanded Tax Base
8. Cell Phone Tower in Firehouse’s Future?
9. Absentee Ballots Counted: Town Board Race
10. Diseased Oak Tree Taken Down

On to year three.

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Now for Some History: circa 1920-1930

Once we were returning from Whitehall after picking up a friend who had arrived on the “Laurentian.” My daughter, who was driving, made a sudden stop. Crossing the road in front of us was a curious looking animal which upon closer inspection proved to be a skunk, its head completely covered by a tin can. The poor creature crossed and recrossed the road. When it hit the weeds by the road-side it always turned and came back. This continued as three helpless women stood and wondered what to do. A young man came along in a car and sensing that something was wrong, stopped. I said to him, “It’s a skunk! But I have read that if you pick a skunk up by its tail it will not be offensive.” The brave man did so. Mr. Skunk seemed to know that someone was trying to help him and assisted by pushing the can with his paws, twisting and turning the can until it finally came off, leaving a bloody little neck. The skunk stood there on the bank, looking bewildered, but he was odorless. He seemed to be trying to say “Thank you.” I said to the young man, “That was one of the nicest things I have ever seen done and I think you deserve a Carnegie medal.”

by
Elizabeth H. W. Danforth
circa 1920-1930

Published in Hamlet Summers: 1950

The Danforths came to Huletts Landing in 1909 when “Forest Lodge” became their summer home.

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Sometimes a Teasing Self Promotion is in Order

Since the publication of Huletts Landing on Lake George, I sometimes get asked if I’m working on a second book. To date, I’ve always answered that I’ve been too busy and that quite frankly, every truly bit of interesting information that I had regarding Huletts was published in Huletts Landing on Lake George.

Additionally, I’ve always felt that any good history book must have an interesting story attached to it. After writing Huletts Landing on Lake George, I couldn’t see unearthing anything else which could add to the story presented in Huletts Landing on Lake George.

That is until recently when an historical artifact was given to me which was so intriguing, the story just presented itself.

Now you’re probably thinking, “oh what a tease, tell us what you’re working on”. Well if I told you now, it wouldn’t be worth the wait and secondly I have no idea when I’ll finish it because the Huletts Current while quiet now, does take a good bit of my spare time.

I will say this:

a.) it is an ongoing project with no clear finish date.
b.) there are pictures that have never been seen publically before.
c.) the story has even led me (figuratively) to Springfield, Illinois which is better known for it’s significance in the life of our 16th President.

If you see me, don’t ask. You’ll have to stay tuned here to learn more.

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Back to the Huletts School


The former Huletts school house as it looks today.

This past summer I had a chance to sit down with Francis Borden and talk in-depth about what it was like for him to attend the Huletts school house when he was a young boy. Below is my interview with him.

Attending a one room school house was made popular in the television series, Little House on the Prairie, but that was the way students in Dresden were educated for a long time.

“Yes, there were a number of schools in Dresden. Clemons had a school. Dresden had a school near where the old town dump once was and the Huletts school was actually District # 5. The boundary line for attending the Huletts school was on top of the mountain. But in those days everyone walked to school and you had to be close enough to walk.”

Could you give the readers of the Huletts Current an idea of what a school day was like for you?

“Well to begin, I had to make three trips up the mountain every day. I walked up the mountain in the morning. We got sent home for lunch, so I had to walk up the mountain again at one in the afternoon, and finally I had a job cleaning the school house so I would walk up again after school to sweep and clean the building. So if nothing else, I got my exercise.”

So there were children of numerous ages learning different things simultaneously?

“Yes, for instance, the Gregories from the top of the mountain were there, Ken Robbins’ son Ben Robbins was there and and Beulah Cooper was actually the last teacher I remember. Different things were being taught to different students but it was a very good education. The fundamentals of reading, writing and arithmetic were drilled into everyone.”

Are there any pictures that remain from those days?

“Ben Robbins sent me one a few years ago and I’ll be happy to look for it for you.”

The Huletts school house only went up to the 8th grade, correct?

“Yes, when we graduated were were taken by station wagon to Whitehall for high school.”

Station Wagon?

“Yes in those days, no buses came to Huletts and there were only about 4 or 5 of us from Huletts. So we were driven in a station wagon to Whitehall. I actually graduated early because I skipped 2 grades. So when I went to high school, I was only 12.”

So the Huletts school turned out some well educated students!

“I would say so. I did the 1st and 2nd grade in one year and then 5th and 6th grade in one year. It was a good education and we were made to work.”

It certainly was a time that was much different than today. Thank you for sharing your recollections with us.

“I’m happy to. The one thing I wish is that I had more pictures. It was a way of life that really can’t be described. But that’s the way it was. I’ll certainly never forget walking up the mountain three times a day. Every day.” (Big Smile)

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Remembering September 11th

Sometime in the mid-1970’s my father took me and my brothers to the World Trade Center. We went to the observation deck, stopped at Windows on the World, and generally had an outing for the day. I was probably 10 years old. I remember the spectacular views and how diverse the clientèle was at Windows on the World. It was a day that I’ll never forget. It was one of those places where most people from the NY metropolitan area would go at sometime in their life.

Well recently, I came across one of the tickets from the World Trade Center that we used that day. It says “Adult” so it may have been my father’s. It was at the bottom of an old box of childhood “stuff” that I was going through recently.

So I thought I’d share the actual ticket here.

The ticket is actually smaller than the scanned images above. I blew them up to get a better picture. It was certainly a poignant moment when I found the ticket and realized that that little piece of paper was all that was left from our visit to that wonderful and magnificent engineering marvel.

On this anniversary of September 11, 2001, let us remember those we lost, and let us also remember how we came together to help get America through one of the most difficult days in its history. Let us remember the heroism of the brave men and women who have fought for freedom in Afghanistan and Iraq. And let us all, never forget what happened that day.

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Friends of Historic Huletts Landing: Annual Meeting

Just a quick notice that the FHHL Board of Trustees meeting will be held:

Saturday, August 28 at 9:00 am in the new Huletts Firehouse.
(The children’s sing-along will be on Saturday at the Gallery – the old firehouse)

After the Trustees meeting, the yearly annual meeting will be held and is open to the public.

So if you’re interested in history and want to do something positive in the community, stop by and learn more.

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Diseased Oak Tree Taken Down

Unfortunately, the oak tree near the Casino could not be saved after it lost a large limb last week.

It was taken down on Wednesday, July 21st.

Here is a short video, with some comments by the men who cut it down, on how old it might have been.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzkDlN6RX-Y

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Babe Ruth Learned It Here

With Major League Baseball’s All-Star game this week, I thought this was an interesting post to run today.

The one name synonymous with baseball is: Babe Ruth.

“The Great Bambino” grew up in Baltimore, Maryland and when I was in Maryland this past year, it was major news when the Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore announced that they would be closing Cardinal Gibbons High School once the 2010 class graduated in June.

This school has historical significance because it is home to the field where Babe Ruth learned to play baseball.

The Cardinal Gibbons School occupies the campus of the former St. Mary’s Industrial School for Boys in the City of Baltimore which was opened by the Archdiocese in 1866. It closed in June 1950, and the Cardinal Gibbons School opened in 1962.

So, on a weekend this Spring before the school closed, I stopped by and took some pictures. I brought along some historical photographs of Babe Ruth playing there and tried to find the exact locations where they were taken.

The baseball field young Babe Ruth played on while attending St. Mary’s was still in use this past year. It’s said that, “if Yankee Stadium was the house that Ruth built, then St. Mary’s was the house that built Ruth.”

Only two of the buildings present on the campus remain from the days of St. Mary’s: the fine arts building and the main school building which replaced the former school building which was destroyed by fire in April 1919.

Ruth never forgot where he came from and after he joined the New York Yankees in 1920, he took the St. Mary’s band to major league ballparks to raise money to replace the main school building.

I learned that while the baseball field was a bit different then, I could still find some of the exact spots where the “Babe” learned to play the game.


A grainy picture of St. Mary’s Industrial School for Boys as it appeared in roughly 1890. The building in the center burned down in 1919.

The baseball field as it looks today. The smoke-stack is still in its original position and the original fine arts building can still be seen overlooking the baseball field. Centerfield today is where home plate was located when Ruth played here.


The layout of the field has been reversed over time but nearby buildings, in many cases, are unchanged. The wall behind Ruth (in the picture above) now has a dugout built in front of it.

It certainly was an experience to stand on the same field that Babe Ruth did as a boy. In many ways, it shows how eternal our national pastime is.

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The Autobiography of Mark Twain

Here’s a PBS News Hour segment on the new version of Mark Twain’s autobiography. Twain specified that his entire autobiography could not be published until 100 years after his death. In so far as he died in 1910, this is the year that it will be released.

This is a book that I’m very much looking forward to reading. The segment below is roughly 8 minutes, but it gives a detail account of the autobiography.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wzZhbctI4Q

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Gallery 2010 Opening

The Friends of Historic Huletts wants everyone to know that the Gallery 2010 opening will be Saturday, July 10th from 5 -7 pm. Wine & Cheese will be served. Photography by Tom Keating. Good company. Hopefully some time to reflect on the history of Huletts and meet some new members.