Fire consumes section of White Pine Camp

PAUL SMITHS | Fire erupted in a workshop at White Pine Camp Sunday night and spread to what used to be servants' quarters, now called the Lodge Building on the historic 115-year-old property. Amy Quinn and husband Andrew Quinn, of Lake Placid, had rented the Guides Cabin section of the Lodge Building for their 23rd wedding anniversary. They discovered the blaze and called authorities. Andrew Quinn, owner of Desperados in Lake Placid, knew the property, Amy Quinn said. "As a student at Paul Smith's College, he had surveyed it in the 1980s." Paul Smith's College owned the historic property from 1948 to 1983. "We had just cooked a steak dinner and we were talking when Andrew stopped and said 'what's that noise?'" Amy Quinn relayed in an interview with the Sun. It was a crackling sound. "Andrew was a volunteer firefighter in Keene for 25 years, and he knew that noise, it perked his ears up, distinctly. He ran out ahead of me and yelled 'the workshop is on fire,'" Amy Quinn said. The workshop building was about 25 feet behind the Lodge Building they were staying in. "He actually tried to go in, and he saw a gas-powered trimmer and turned around. He knew the risk from his prior training. I was on the phone with 9-1-1 and went back into our cabin and grabbed armloads of stuff and threw it in the car," Amy Quinn said. Mr. Quinn ran in to get an armload as well. They got into the car and, within another minute, saw the lodge catch fire. "Our cabin was engulfed within 60 seconds of him getting out of there. It was like dominoes, the fire spread so fast. If it had been nighttime and we'd been sleeping, we might not have gotten out." The Lodge Building and the workshop were destroyed in the blaze. But firefighters. led by Paul Smiths-Gabriels Volunteer Fire Department, contained it and spared the main Great Room building along with the Ridge cabins and other historically significant outbuildings. Mrs. Quinn received word from one of the associates on Monday morning. "The fire, which started in the woodshed-toolshed building, rapidly spread to the servants' lodge row of buildings and both buildings, including Otis, Guide, Osgood, Longfellow, and Kirkwood (rentals) are judged to be a total loss. "'Fortunately, and thanks in part to the new hydrant system, the innkeeper's quarters and Great Room as well as all the ridge cabins have been spared," Amy Quinn shared via email. Built between 1907, when plans were put in motion, through 1910, the historic Great Camp had several wealthy owners. It was purchased in 1993 by Howard Kirschenbaum, a local author, and well-respected Adirondack historic preservationist. White Pine Camp Assoc. was founded four years later and the property is shared by about 40 ardent owners. The association had completed historic restoration in 2018, updating all of the lodge rooms and rustic cabin quarters, Great Room, grounds and unique tea house, and walkways original to the property. Paul Smiths-Gabriels Fire crew were busy getting the company's gear back in order on Monday morning but said told the Sun no firefighters were injured in the blaze. Amy Quinn said that she placed the 9-1-1 call at 7 p.m. The fire crews were out until wee hours Monday and received mutual aid from departments throughout the Tri-Lakes area. The historic Great Camp is often referred to as "The Summer White House" of U.S. President Calvin Coolidge, who spent summer months there in 1926. Designed with dozens of outbuildings, it was commissioned in 1907 by a New York City banker Archibald S. White and his wife, Olive, who had enjoyed spending time at Paul Smith's nearby hotel. The camp was built on a peninsula encompassing 35 acres on the shores of Lake Osgood, now called Osgood Pond. New York architect William Massarene designed the camp and, according to the Camp Assoc. history, White later hired architect Addison Mizner "to design several additions and alterations to some of the buildings. White Pine Camp was one of Mizner's first commissions." Amy Quinn said the Guides cabin was exquisitely appointed. "There was a beautiful four-poster bed and inlaid dresser in the cabin with a perfectly curated bookshelf," she said. The Quinns had arrived Saturday evening and had planned to stay through Tuesday.

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Fire consumes section of White Pine Camp

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