Smith Cottage
Why it's listed
Built around 1903 at 12 Jenkins Street in Saranac Lake, this small frame cottage once served as a private sanatorium, operated as a rooming or boarding house for a single tuberculosis patient. It rises two and one-half stories under a crossed gable roof of pressed tin tiles, with clapboard and shingle siding and two-over-two windows. An open sitting-out porch under a second-story overhang spans two-thirds of the front, beside an engaged conical tower. The porch reflects the simpler means of letting patients take the air, in contrast to the glass-enclosed cure porches common elsewhere in the village. The lot also holds a flat-roofed garage and a small outbuilding. The cottage is representative of the cure cottages that shaped Saranac Lake between roughly 1870 and 1930, and it has changed little apart from a rear extension probably added in the late 1940s. It remains a single-family dwelling and keeps a high degree of integrity.
Significance in brief: The nomination argues it is architecturally significant as a representative example of an unregistered private sanatorium run as a rooming or boarding cottage for a single patient. Its modest open veranda illustrates a simple way of allowing patients to take the air. It is also modest but intact, retaining a high degree of integrity of materials, location and association.
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 92001470, listed November 6, 1992. Summary generated October 2026 (model claude-sonnet-5-5, prompt v1.0-2026-10-29, confidence high).
Key facts
| Address | 12 Jenkins St., Saranac Lake |
|---|---|
| County | Franklin County |
| Listed | November 6, 1992 |
| Reference number | 92001470 |
| Resource type | Building |
| Period of significance | ca.1903-ca.1940 |
| Architectural style | Late 19th & 20th Century Revivals: Queen Anne |
| Criteria |
|
| Areas of significance | Health/Medicine, Architecture |
| Level of significance | Local |
| Status (as stated in the nomination) | Still in use as a single dwelling; the form says it has not been altered since a rear extension was added, possibly in the late 1940s. |
| Acreage | 0.9 |
| Within district | New York Central Railroad Adirondack Division Historic District |
| Coordinates | 44.31781, -74.13938 (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 92001470.
- Nomination form (PDF, National Archives) — catalog entry
- Wikipedia article (used for cross-checking only; text not reproduced here)
- Wikidata Q7545100
- This listing as JSON
Last updated October 2026. Found an error? See the editorial policy for how to report it.