Smith's, Paul, Electric Light and Power and Railroad Company Complex

Beside the outlet of Lake Flower in Saranac Lake, a group of four linked elements records the village's electrical history: a brick powerhouse, a terra-cotta office building, a concrete bridge and a dam with its flume. The site had held a dam and sawmill since 1827 and later supplied power to a small electric company. Paul Smith bought that company in 1907, and a new brick powerhouse replaced the old mill in 1908. Smith's son Phelps added the three-story Neoclassical office building in 1927. It has pale gray terra-cotta cladding, fluted pilasters with Corinthian capitals, colored ceramic tile and a glazed frieze showing a city with power lines. The bridge was designed to complement it, and a Works Progress Administration dam followed in the late 1930s. Generating equipment was scrapped during World War II. The village acquired the buildings in 1986 and now uses the office building for municipal offices. The complex was listed for its utility history and architecture.