As the newly appointed historian for the village of Lake Placid and town of North Elba — taking over from Beverley Reid, who retired on Dec. 31 after 20 years — it was Fountain’s job to find out the location of that motel and report back to the person who made the phone call.

“Even Bev couldn’t tell me where this one is,” Fountain said Tuesday, Feb. 15. “It’s a learning experience, that’s for sure.”

Fountain likes the research and solving local mysteries.

“Now I’m curious, too,” she said about the Top Notch, “so I’ll be digging in the newspapers.”

Locals may know Fountain as a school teacher. She retired in 2004 at the age of 55 from the Lake Placid High School after teaching there for 31 years. In her final year, she was teaching advanced placement English for seniors and Regents English for juniors.

“Again, there was so much research in teaching,” she said. “I love that part of it.”

Or people may know Fountain as a member of the Lake Placid Volunteer Fire Department, where she’s been active for 32 years. She is the current secretary/treasurer on the LPVFD council.

“Right now I am fire police because we get too old to fight fires, so they stick you out directing traffic,” she said.

As for the being the new town/village historian, Fountain said she wasn’t sure she wanted the job at first.

“Bev Reid talked me into it,” she said. “The research was very appealing to me, and the job, too, but I also thought the job was a little scary because look whose footsteps I’m following.”

Fountain spent all of 2021 working with Reid to prepare for the historian’s job. It was the same way Reid was taught by her predecessor, Mary MacKenzie, before taking over in 2001. But, even as a Lake Placid native, Fountain said she feels out of touch when it comes to local history.

“Growing up on Old Military Road was like growing up in a different universe,” she said, “so I didn’t know of the things going on in town, and Bev was always right in the middle of things.”

The biggest piece of advice Reid gave Fountain was to have fun with the job.

“She kept saying you’ve got to enjoy it,” Fountain said. “And if people expect an answer right away, just say, ‘I’ve got to research it and get back to you.’ And that’s what I’ve been doing. … They’re not asking me anything about Old Military Road.”

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(Editor’s note: Fountain had already solved the Top Notch mystery by the time this story’s author called her with the answer on Wednesday, Feb. 16. The April 26, 1962, issue of the Lake Placid News reported that Robert Wikoff, of Saranac Avenue, was the owner of the Top Notch Motel. He ran it with his wife Mary, according to their obituaries — Sept. 4, 1986, LPN (Mary) and July 18, 1997, LPN (Robert). His nephew, LPN columnist Naj Wikoff, said Feb. 16 that the motel is the current site of the Placid Bay Hotel across the street from CrossFit Lake Placid.)