Larom-Welles Cottage
Why it's listed
Set on a wooded 1.2-acre lot at the base of Mount Pisgah, this three-story shingled house at 110 Park Avenue in Saranac Lake was built around 1905 for the Rev. Walter Larom, priest at St. Luke's Episcopal Church, and his wife Caroline. It has a stone foundation, a jerkin head gable roof, a veranda, a sleeping porch, and a second-story cure porch with sliding glass windows, an early canvas floor cloth and beadboard wainscoting. These porches mark it as a cure cottage of the kind built during the village's tuberculosis-treatment boom. A small laboratory behind the house was built about the same time for Larom's physician brother. Later the house was the home of Dr. Edward Welles, a thoracic surgery pioneer on the Trudeau Sanatorium staff, who conducted animal surgical experiments in that laboratory. The property was recognised for its architecture and its link to health and medicine. It has since been divided into six living units.
Significance in brief: The nomination argues it is an intact, representative example of early twentieth-century cure cottage architecture from Saranac Lake's first tuberculosis-cure building boom. It is also tied to health and medicine: Dr. Edward Welles, a pioneer in thoracic surgery, lived here and carried out animal surgical experiments in the rear laboratory.
Machine-generated summary. This summary was generated by a language model from the official nomination document and has not been reviewed line by line by an editor. It may contain errors. Check the source document before relying on any detail. Source: nomination document (PDF) · National Archives catalog entry. NRHP reference 92001478, listed November 6, 1992. Summary generated October 2026 (model claude-sonnet-5-5, prompt v1.0-2026-10-29, confidence high).
Key facts
| Address | 110 Park Ave., Saranac Lake |
|---|---|
| County | Essex County |
| Listed | November 6, 1992 |
| Reference number | 92001478 |
| Resource type | Building |
| Period of significance | ca.1905 - ca.1940 |
| Architectural style | Shingle Style |
| Criteria |
|
| Areas of significance | Health/Medicine, Architecture |
| Level of significance | Local |
| Status (as stated in the nomination) | The house has been converted to contain six living units; a modern storage building on the property is noncontributing. |
| Acreage | 1.2 |
| Within district | New York Central Railroad Adirondack Division Historic District |
| Coordinates | 44.33394, -74.12886 (NPS GIS) |
What listing means for this property
National Register listing is honorary for a privately owned home: it does not by itself restrict what an owner may do with their own money, and it does not require public access. Restrictions come from local landmark or historic-district ordinances, which are separate (how they differ).
Owner-occupied houses are not eligible for the 20% federal rehabilitation tax credit, which applies to income-producing buildings, but many states offer credits for homeowners. Listing also opens the door to preservation easements and to buying a plaque. Start with what listing means for homeowners, renovating a listed house and selling one.
General information, not legal or tax advice. Rules change; confirm with your State Historic Preservation Office or a qualified adviser.
Sources and further reading
- National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places database (snapshot May 2026), reference 92001478.
- Nomination form (PDF, National Archives) — catalog entry
- Wikipedia article (used for cross-checking only; text not reproduced here)
- Wikidata Q6489736
- This listing as JSON
Last updated October 2026. Found an error? See the editorial policy for how to report it.