Lake Placid train station (News photo — Andy Flynn)

LAKE PLACID — The village of Lake Placid was incorporated in 1900, and the town of North Elba was formed in 1849 when it broke away from the town of Keene.

Native Americans spent time in this region before the first European settlers began arriving around 1800, setting up farms around the Plains of Abraham next to the Adirondack Loj Road on state Route 73. While many are familiar with the village’s Olympic history — having hosted the 1932 and 1980 Winter Games — others may not know the layers of history that made Lake Placid the resort town it is today.

The Lake Placid-North Elba Historical Society has a wealth of information it shares with the public year-round. It operates the History Museum at the old train station in the summer months and hosts lecture series in the winter. But it also has a Historic Walking Tour as a downloadable PDF online at lakeplacidhistory.org.

Below are just several stops along the Historic Walking Tour. We’ve included research from the Lake Placid News archives, which can be found online at nyshistoricnewspapers.org. Click on Essex County and choose Lake Placid News. We have digital archives dating from 1914 to 2020.

Lake Placid train station

Olympic Center (News photo — Andy Flynn)

242 Station St.

The train station is the home of the Lake Placid-North Elba Historical Society’s History Museum, which is open from Memorial Day weekend to mid-October.

Built in 1904 by the Delaware & Hudson Railroad and later acquired by the New York Central Railroad, the depot welcomed passenger trains until April 24, 1965. In 1967, Lake Placid sisters M. Frances and Louise Brewster purchased the station from the Penn Central Railroad Corporation and donated the property to the Lake Placid-North Elba Historical Society for use as a museum. The building has been used to tell the stories of Lake Placid’s history ever since.

Once the trains stopped, few people ever imagined they might run again. The Utica to Lake Placid line was restored by New York state for the 1980 Olympic Winter Games, but bankruptcy halted the trains again.

In 2000, the Adirondack Railway Preservation Society began operating Adirondack Scenic Railroad trips from this station to Saranac Lake’s Union Depot. Scenic train rides were offered for the last time in 2016, as the state of New York began turning the 34 miles of tracks between Lake Placid and Tupper Lake into a recreation trail.

Adirondack Community Church (News photo — Andy Flynn)

The first phase of the Adirondack Rail Trail — a 10-mile stretch from Lake Placid to Saranac Lake — was officially opened on Dec. 1, 2023. The Lake Placid terminus is at the train station.

Olympic Center

2634 Main St.

A lot of history was made at the Olympic Center, a complex that features the 1932 and 1980 arenas and the Lake Placid Conference Center.

Designed by Saranac Lake architect William G. Distin, the 1932 Arena was the first building in Winter Olympic history to hold figure skating competition, the curling exhibition and part of the hockey schedule indoors, where inclement weather could not interrupt the program. It was dedicated on Jan. 16, 1932, in plenty of time for the beginning of the Games on Feb. 4.

Palace Theatre (News photo — Andy Flynn)

“This was because Lake Placid provided a huge indoor ice arena for the Games,” stated the official report for the III Olympic Winter Games. “No resort in the world, outside the larger cities, can boast of such a building. Never before had any part of a Winter Olympic program been held under a roof.”

The Fieldhouse was added for the 1980 Olympics, and both arenas held figure skating and hockey competitions that year. Later the 1932 rink was named in honor of 1932 Olympic speedskating gold medalist Jack Shea, of Lake Placid, and the 1980 rink was named in honor of Herb Brooks, the coach of the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team that beat the Soviet Union in the “Miracle on Ice” game before a winning gold medal.

At the northern end of the facility, a conference center was added in the 1960s and was eventually torn down to make way for a new conference center that opened in May 2011. It is home to the Regional Office of Sustainable Tourism/Lake Placid Visitors Center and includes 90,000 square feet of flexible meeting space with 12 breakout rooms and a 9,000-square-foot ballroom.

Palace Theatre

2432 Main St.

The Palace Theatre was designed by John N. Linn of Brooklyn, and it was built in 1926 by local contractor George Bola for the Adirondack Theater Corporation when silent movies were still filling seats. A year later, the first feature-length talking picture — “The Jazz Singer,” starring Al Jolson — changed the movie business forever. A sound system was installed at the Palace in 1929.

For people not familiar with the layout of the Palace Theatre, screen 1 is the largest room with about 300 seats. Featuring the stage and original Robert Morton organ, it has been the main showcase for the theater since it opened as a 925-seat movie palace on May 29, 1926. On June 4, 1926, the Lake Placid News described the scene on opening night as the crowd filled the theater to capacity:

“The buzz of conversation ceased as the special orchestra struck up the overture. The audience seemed to realize that here was something more than a mere theatre opening. In truth it was a dream made real.”

An animated short from 1924 called “Whirligigs” was the first film to be shown at the Palace on opening night. It was followed by a short from 1925 called “The Fighting Dude,” starring Lupino Lane. The feature was a full-length film from 1926 called “It’s the Old Army Game,” starring W.C. Fields and Louise Brooks.

“The Palace orchestra rendered an exceptionally good program in accompanying the screen presentation,” the News reported.

A.L. Anderson was named as the first manager of the Palace Theatre for the Adirondack Theater Corporation. Reginald and Barbara Clark bought the theater in 1961, and the Clark family continues to operate it today.

In 1983, the Clarks closed off the balcony and created a second screen. The grand re-opening was held on June 10, 1983, and longtime resident Kate Smith sang “God Bless America” during the celebration. In 1985, the Clarks divided the upper section in half and opened a third screen.

In 2001, screen 4 was created in a space formerly occupied by a dressing room and part of the original stage, located behind screen 1.

The Palace Theatre made more history on May 1, 2014, when all four screens went digital. The conversion from film began in the summer of 2013 with the installment of an NEC digital cinema projector. The first day the Palace Theatre showed a digital film was June 14, 2013. The movie was “Now You See Me” on screen 2, starring Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson and Morgan Freeman. In October 2013, screen 1 went digital. The last day the Palace Theatre showed a 35mm first-run film was on Easter Sunday, April 20, 2014. The movie was “Rio 2,” on screen 4, and it was the quintessential conversion moment. The rest of the week, the same movie was shown as part of a double feature on screen 1 — in digital format. Screens 3 and 4 were converted by May 1, 2014.

Adirondack Community Church

2583 Main St.

The Adirondack Community Church was designed in 1922. This is the former site of a Methodist Episcopal Church, built in 1888. The Sept. 1, 1922, issue of the Lake Placid News reported on the design of the new building.

“The structure will stand with its longer dimension on the side toward Main Street. At the street side on the Ackerman end will rise a high tower. The structure will be of Gothic design, and from an artistic standpoint, it is expected it will leave but little to be desired.”

The corner stone of the new church, from the Champlain Green Granite Co., was laid on Sunday, Sept. 2, 1923.

A copper box enclosed in the stone included a church yearbook, a Sept. 1 issue of the New York Times, a current issue of the Lake Placid News, a photograph of the pastor, the Rev. Robert L. Clark, a list of contributors’ names and a list of church officials. A service listing for the Adirondack Community Church first appeared in the Lake Placid News in the Sept. 21, 1923, issue, with services in the community room. The first service was held in the chapel of the new church on Oct. 19, 1924, according to the Oct. 17, 1924, issue of the Lake Placid News.