5 Sherman Avenue
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Last updated 06/19/04
Building Name: No. 2
Bemis Place
Street Location: 5 Sherman Avenue, Glens Falls, NY
Use: Original: Boarding House
Use: As of 1980, Multi-family Residential
Date of Original Construction: for
the Bemis family ca. 1895
Architect: E. P. Potter, Glens Falls
Builder: A. W. Thompson, contractors, Glens Falls
Historical and Architectural Importance: The structure was built on the grounds of the Sherman House as a boarding house for patients of the Bemis Sanitarium, as a component of the eight building sanitarium campus. With its twin, No. 3 Bemis Place, it fronts on a small park set back from the street. The building was leased with No. 3 Bemis Place to M. O. and W.W. Brown, (managers of the Sagamore Hotel and the Lake House on Lake George) to run as private boarding houses for the Sanitarium. Interior appointments included several communal parlors and a dining room. Room and board was $7.00 a week per patient. Patients at the Sanitarium were not freely allowed to board or take daily treatments away from Sanitarium property.
No. 2 Bemis Place survives as one of eight Bemis Sanitarium buildings with much of its original integrity, although it is structurally in a state of deterioration. Architecturally, it indicates the comfort patients at the Sanitarium had in a hotel-like setting, kept by competent resort managers. Not only did Bemis propose to cure eye disorders, he also offered a vacation setting for the cure -- the very ingredient, which conceptually separated the 19th century Sanitarium from the 19th century hospital. The buildings and additions designed for the Sanitarium (ca. 1895-96) by E. B. Potter, are a major extant representation of this local architect's work in a transitional eclectic Queen Anne style.
SOURCES:
Name of Collector: Richard C.
Youngken
Collected on: Aug. 4, 1980
Organizations: City of Glens Falls, Community
Development Office
Previous ownership:
Previous occupants: