Round Lake Historic District

Round Lake is a village of closely spaced wooden cottages on a knoll beside Round Lake in Malta, Saratoga County. It began as a Methodist camp meeting ground, laid out on a wheel plan by Troy civil engineer H. Drube, with streets radiating from a central hub. At that hub stands a 2,000-seat auditorium built in 1884 on the site of the tabernacle tent, with a Stick Style bell tower. Its annex holds a Ferris organ, built about 1847-48 and moved from a New York City church in 1888. Most houses are modest cottages with gingerbread trim, ornate porches and bargeboards. Sixteen camp meetings took place between 1869 and 1877, including a national meeting that drew nearly 20,000 people, and President Grant visited in 1874. Temperance gatherings followed in 1878 and 1880. Later the camp became a summer cultural center, then a year-round community, incorporated as a village in 1968. Tall trees and open parks remain.