Silver Lake Institute Historic District

Silver Lake Institute is a small summer community of about fifty acres on the eastern shore of Silver Lake in Wyoming County, New York. Several hundred small buildings, mostly cottages, sit on small lots along narrow lanes that converge on Burt Park, a grassy, tree-lined open space that was the original grove where assemblies were held. The historic district includes the park and 72 other properties, with 76 contributing components and one non-contributing building. Most were built between 1873 and 1930 in wood. The earliest cottages, from 1873 to 1885, are narrow gable-front frame buildings with porches and Gothic Revival details. A building boom in the late 1880s and 1890s brought Queen Anne and Eastlake ornament, and later cottages show Colonial Revival and Bungalow influence. Two institutional buildings, Stoody Memorial Hall and the Hoag Art Gallery, date from 1892 and 1895. The district was drawn to exclude heavily altered areas and retains its historic character as a secluded lakeside retreat.