Whiteface Veterans' Memorial Highway celebrates 90 years

WILMINGTON | It's been 90 years since President Franklin D. Roosevelt drove up to town to inaugurate the Whiteface Veterans' Memorial Highway. First suggested over 100 years ago by a Lake Placid entrepreneur, the construction project was dedicated in 1929 by then-governor Roosevelt. Six years later, he returned as the president to cut the ribbon, thus officially opening the highway. At the only stop sign in Wilmington, one will see a marker pointing them up the mountain to the highway. Following Santa's Workshop, America's oldest theme park, and the Atmospheric Science Research Center, is the 1934 tollhouse, where one can not only pay to enter the 5-mile-long highway, but also view exhibits highlighting the historical and natural significance of the area in its visitors' interpretive center. The drive up the highway takes visitors up to the summit of a 4,867-foot mountain, with an increase of elevation of 450 feet per mile. With a 25-mph speed limit, this allows visitors to take in picturesque views that stretch across the Adirondacks and into Vermont and Canada. One can either drive one's own car, bike up, or take a 30-minute scenic shuttle ride. At the summit, a castle, a two-story structure built from native stone three years after the highway opened, comes into full view. Inside, there are restrooms, a restaurant that serves gourmet rustic fare, and a gift shop with locally-inspired gifts and souvenirs. "There was a contest for what to put on top, and people came up with all kinds of things, like an enormous obelisk reaching up to the sky," said Guy Stephenson, founding member of the Whiteface Historical Society (WHS) and former trustee. "But they ultimately decided to build a caste right into the side of the mountain." From there, visitors can choose one of two ways to the very top. The first is by a 26-story, iron-railed summit staircase that climbs a fifth of a mile up a bare granite ridge past vegetation that can be found only at alpine heights. The other is actually by elevator. Also built three years after the opening of the highway, is an elevator tunnel cut into the living granite that carries visitors from the parking lot straight to the summit. "When Franklin Roosevelt came as president, he was wheelchair bound, and the tunnel and elevator hadn't been created, so he never got to the summit. I assumed that maybe he had some influence on its creation," said Stephenson. "It's truly accessible to the handicapped." The elevator car, which can comfortably hold about six to seven adults, rises into the middle of the Summit House at the very top. And when one steps out of the circular stone house, they're welcomed with a spectacular 360-degree view. The WHS held its official celebration during the town's Festival of Colors celebration earlier this month. "There aren't too many communities that have a highway where you can actually drive to the top of the summit," said WHS President Karen Peters. "Wilmington is very fortunate to have it." The Whiteface Veterans' Memorial Highway is open daily from 8:45 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. until Oct. 13. For more information, visit whiteface.com.

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Whiteface Veterans' Memorial Highway celebrates 90 years

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