Episode Details
Back to EpisodesStorytown, Motels, and Summer Memories: How Lake George Became America's Playground
Description
Long before family vacations meant airport security and resort apps, there was Lake George.
In the 1950s and ’60s, families piled into their cars and headed north to the Adirondacks for cottage colonies, roadside attractions, speedboats, theme parks, elaborate nightlife and days spent on the Queen of American Lakes.
In this episode of ADK Talks, we visit Bolton Landing and the Bolton Museum’s “Welcome to Lake George: Vacation Paradise of the 50s & 60s” exhibit with curator Lisa Hall and Lake George Mirror publisher Toni Hall.
It’s a trip back to an era when Lake George was reinventing itself for America’s newly mobile middle class. Victorian hotels and private estates gave way to motels and vacation cottages. Story Town and Frontier Town became family destinations. Restaurants and nightclubs stayed open into the early morning. And projects like the Adirondack Northway and Prospect Mountain Veterans Memorial Highway made the region easier to reach than ever before.
But there’s more here than nostalgia.
Lisa and Toni reveal how that tourism boom changed Lake George, why the excitement surrounding massive development projects eventually began to fade, and how concerns about growth helped fuel a new appreciation for protecting the Adirondacks.
What you’ll hear in this episode
- How Lake George became a family vacation hotspot
- The motels, cottage colonies and attractions of the ’50s and ’60s
- Lake George nightlife during its mid-century heyday
- How the Northway reshaped Adirondack tourism
- The story behind the Bolton Museum exhibit
- Why Lake George history still sparks strong memories today
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Produced by NOVA