Part II: 1900-1914

Chapter 5: The Glens Falls Leadership

The legacy that Dr. Sanford gave Assembly Point was embedded in this leadership as the President of The Lake George Association. He changed from a lonely single ex-ecutive to a team player with primary authority. He became willing to subject himself as the age of cars approached, to the executive leadership of his friend and highly ex-perienced real estate developer, T.S. Coolidge.

The 20th century opened with the death of the oldest of the LGA directors, George Lee. He was also the oldest member of the Coolidges who came from Bolton, directly across Lake George from Assembly Point. The following is a quote by Ernestine Fowler Adamson about George Lee, one of the children in T.S. Coolidge's generation.

"My grandfather, Jonathan Coolidge III, was overseer of the poor and had charge of overseeing the county courthouse at Warrensburg, NY. He found there a young boy, George Lee, who was there because his family could not look after him properly. Jonathan became so attached to the boy that he took him to live with his own family at their home on Coolidge Hill in Bolton. When George was in his early 20s, he and his younger "brother", Thomas (T.S. Coolidge) went to work for O.C. Smith's father in his store at Horicon which was adjacent to the town of Bolton."

After two or three years of introducing T.S. Coolidge to working for customers in a vigorous grocery store, George Lee felt called to Glens Falls where he accepted the role of assistant to one of its wealthiest and most successful businessmen, Augustus Sherman. Within a short period of time, T. S. and his brother, Jonathan, followed George to Glens Falls and George added to his business career by joining them in one of their first business ventures -- a mercantile store which catered to the local farmers' needs with items such as seeds, grain and farm implements.

At this time, activity at Assembly Point was essentially that of coasting and building a small, friendly community of families who came to the tip of the point daily for mail and grocery supplies at the Post Office and store provided for summer residents by Post Master, Dr. Sanford.

In the last days of 1912, the death of another of the directors of the LGA occurred. On December 12, Jonathan Coolidge died. His death reduced the living directors of the LGA to three -- Dr. Sanford, President; Warren Smith (now of Ticonderoga), Vice President; and T.S. Coolidge, Treasurer, who was now freed from some of his lime, paper rnaking and Glens Falls real estate supervision. These three directors agreed on the importance of certain corporation changes that had far-reaching and positive implications not only for Assembly Point but also for the town of Glens Falls.

Two important events took place which soon would change the face of Assembly Point. The first was the coming of the automobile. Assembly Point had previously been the destination of people coming by train from New York City to spend their vacations in the beauty of the Adirondacks. Now, with the advent of the automobile, residents of Glens Falls (many of whom had recently moved from the bustle of New York City to this growing country town) were able to take the relatively short drive up to Lake George and enjoy summer on all the shores of the lovely lake.

The second event was the shift in T.S. Coolidge's attention and commitments from the Jointa Lime Co. and the newly formed Intemational Paper Co. (of which he became a director upon its incorporation in 1901) to preparing the Point for the automobile age.

A directors' meeting of September 2. 1913 brought forth the decision to move the books and business of the LGA from Dove Cottage to Harold Adamson's real estate office, Adamson & Bayle Co., only a handshake away from City Hall and the hub of Glens Falls. It was decided at that meeting that soon a notice would go out in the mail to stockholders that two new directors would be voted to replace those who had died. It also acknowledged that the new purpose for the LGA was to redesign the lots on Assembly Point and authorized Harold Adamson’s real estate corporation to (1) prepare sensible deeds and (2) focus sales activity on residents of Glens Falls and the surrounding areas who could make the hour-long drive to the Point and thus have no problem in using their cottage for an entire summer season.

Within days, Ernest Meyer, who was much pleased to accept the task of surveyor, with the concerned cooperation of T.S. Coolidge and Harold Adamson, the husband of T.S.’s favorite niece, Ernestine Fowler Adamson, designed the famous Meyer map of 1914 (See Appendix).

On this map we can note:

a) Plans for 38 shore front lots roughly 150’ deep by 100’ wide.
b) The 16’ wide shore line paths have disappeared.
c) About 600’ of shore frontage a the top of the Point is to be kept by Lake George Assembly Corporation for steamboat, Post Office, store, and, if needed, car parking.
d) A road roughly a mile in length will be build in back of the shore front lots and in front of the 25’ wide, overnight camping sites south of Crossover Road.
e) There will be five 16’ rights of way from road and back lots to the lake.
f) Finally, the present Otyokwa acreage was divided into two sections: the southern for 20 back lot cottages and the balance for Lake George Association future use.