{"nrhp_refnum":"95000947","name":"Merrillsville Cure Cottage","other_names":["Merrillsville Town Hall"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"Jct. of Co. Rt. 99 and Old NY 3","address_restricted":false,"city":"Merrillsville","county":"Franklin County","state":"NY","lat":44.52181929300008,"lon":-74.01413284299997,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1995-08-10","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Health/Medicine","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A small one-story frame tuberculosis cure cottage built c1900 in the crossroads hamlet of Merrillsville, Franklin County, New York. It was moved in 1920 to its current site at County Route 99 and Old State Route 3 and now serves as the town hall.","why_significant":"The nomination argues it is a distinctive and exceptionally intact example of a cure cottage, a domestic building type adapted for tuberculosis patients, with features such as a glass-enclosed sleeping porch, wide thresholdless doorways and a four-room plan. It is also tied to the Adirondack cure industry and to a local sanatorium run by the Merrill family. Its relocation and later use as a town hall did not compromise its integrity.","narrative":"Built around 1900 in Merrillsville, in Franklin County, New York, this small shingled cottage once housed tuberculosis patients. It was part of a cure facility run by Elmer and Margaret Merrill, which also had a large main lodge and tent platforms. The cottage is a one-story frame building with a broad front gable roof and a glass-enclosed porch across its full width. Inside, four equal rooms each gave a patient direct access to a porch. Sliding glass panels, wainscotting, and wide doorways without thresholds reflect the fresh-air treatment popularized in nearby Saranac Lake. When the facility closed in 1920, the town of Franklin bought the cottage and moved it to the crossroads, where it has served as the town hall ever since. The main lodge was later lost to lightning. Alterations have been modest, including a records room that conceals one porch, and the original cure features remain largely intact. It is valued as a well-preserved example of a cure cottage and for its link to the region's health industry.","period_of_significance":"c1900-c1920","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":null,"criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"In use as the Merrillsville Town Hall since 1920; one of four rooms was converted to records storage in 1971, a reversible alteration, and the building has no water.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:51:50.760106-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NY/95000947.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/95000947/9b1c25fc34-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/95000947/9b1c25fc34-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Mwanner","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Merrillsville_Cure_Cottage.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Mwanner</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Merrillsville_Cure_Cottage.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/75317838","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merrillsville_Cure_Cottage","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q14706939"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/new-york/franklin-county/merrillsville-cure-cottage-95000947/"}