Witherspoon Cottage

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1992. 11 historic topographic surveys show this location, the earliest from 1902.

From the record

“Witherspoon Cottage is a historic cure cottage in Saranac Lake, Franklin County, New York. It was built about 1910 as a boarding house and is a square frame dwelling in the Queen Anne style.”
Wikipedia article Witherspoon Cottage, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 86 National Register listings published here for Franklin County · listed in 1992 · category: Building.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 1 building as contributing to the listing.
Address. 3 Kiwassa Rd., Saranac Lake, 12983
When was it listed? November 1992
Category. building
Also known as. Saranac Lake MPS
Town. Harrietstown town
Architectural style. Queen Anne style architecture in the United States
National Register reference number. 92001415 - the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.

Then and now

1902 to 1999

The ground this property stands on, surveyed 97 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet covering Witherspoon Cottage, surveyed 1999

Topographic sheet covering Witherspoon Cottage, surveyed 1902

Fires near this property

64 since 2002

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 64 fires within 5 miles of Witherspoon Cottage between 2002 and 2020, burning about 49 acres in total. 4 started naturally. 3 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause	Fires
Recreation and ceremony	20
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	17
Smoking	7
Equipment and vehicle use	7
Debris and open burning	4
Natural	4
Arson/incendiarism	3
Power generation/transmission/distribution	1
Misuse of fire by a minor	1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
9 September 2010	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
6 September 2008	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
26 September 2011	Debris and open burning	2.8 acres	Fire Department of New York	not named
25 September 2009	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
23 September 2016	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	New York Forest Rangers	SITE 41 FIRE
21 September 2014	Debris and open burning	under an acre	New York Forest Rangers	BIRCH ISLAND
21 September 2013	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	2.5 acres	Fire Department of New York	N/A
19 September 2015	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	SI 59 FIRE

Every fire recorded in Franklin County

Mines and quarries near this property

9 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 9 workings within 5 miles of Witherspoon Cottage: 5 past producers, 3 producers, 1 occurrence. 3 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Granite, Limestone, General, Stone, Crushed/Broken. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
C. C. Harris Property Deposit	Iron	Occurrence
Mayersohn Quarry	Limestone, General	Past Producer	Sedimentary
Torrington Construction Company	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Producer
Saranac Juction Quarry	Granite	Past Producer
Unnamed Quarry	Granite	Past Producer
Cassavaugh Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
D and C Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Trudeau Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer	Sedimentary
Trudeau Sand and Gravel	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer

Every working recorded in Franklin County

Storms near this property

21 since 1993

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Saranac Lake, the town this property stands in, in 21 storm reports between 1993 and 2016: 15 thunderstorm wind, 3 flash flood, 1 lightning, 1 hail. The reports record 2 injuries. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
July 1994	Thunderstorm Wind	Saranac Lake	1 hurt, $500,000	no account filed
September 2003	Lightning	Saranac Lake	1 hurt, $5,000	no account filed
April 2011	Flood	Saranac Lake	$6,000,000	Runoff from heavy rain and snowmelt caused flooding in Saranac Lake Village. Flooding was compounded by upstream releases from locks on Oseetah Lake, which flooded downstream Lake Flower at Saranac Lake Village. Businesses and homes were evacuated, and bridges and the village wastewater treatment plant were damaged.
June 2016	Flash Flood	Saranac Lake	$50,000	Runoff from heavy rainfall flooded and washed out roads in and near Saranac Lake Village in Franklin County. Route 86 was closed by flood waters between Saranac Lake Village and Lake Colby. Several village roads were damaged. Water flooded the intersection of St. Bernard and Academy Streets two feet deep.
July 2014	Flash Flood	Saranac Lake	$50,000	Roads in Saranac Lake Village were flooded and closed.
June 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Saranac Lake	$50,000	Numerous trees down across Saranac Lake vicinity along Route 3 between\|Saranac Village and Tupper Lake.
August 1993	Thunderstorm Wind	Saranac Lake	$50,000	no account filed
July 2013	Thunderstorm Wind	Saranac Lake	$30,000	Multiple trees down across the village with at least one car crushed by tree.
July 2012	Thunderstorm Wind	Saranac Lake	$25,000	Multiple trees and power lines down across the Saranac Lake community.
July 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Saranac Lake	$25,000	Numerous trees down in Saranac Lake and immediate vicinity.
November 2005	Thunderstorm Wind	Saranac Lake	$20,000	no account filed
July 2014	Thunderstorm Wind	Saranac Lake	$10,000	Several trees and large branches downed by thunderstorm winds.
June 2015	Thunderstorm Wind	Saranac Lake	$5,000	Trees downed by thunderstorm winds in Saranac Lake.
June 2011	Thunderstorm Wind	Saranac Lake	$5,000	Trees reported down by thunderstorm winds along Route 3 in Saranac Lake.
August 2006	Thunderstorm Wind	Saranac Lake	$5,000	no account filed
May 2002	Thunderstorm Wind	Saranac Lake	$5,000	no account filed
June 1998	Flash Flood	Saranac Lake	$5,000	no account filed
August 1997	Thunderstorm Wind	Saranac Lake	$5,000	no account filed
June 2006	Thunderstorm Wind	Saranac Lake	$3,000	no account filed
June 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Saranac Lake	-	Trees and power lines downed by thunderstorms winds in Saranac Village.
June 2007	Hail	Saranac Lake	-	Quarter to half dollar size hail reported.

Every storm recorded in Franklin County

Maps showing this location

11 surveys

United States Geological Survey topographic sheets whose coverage includes this point. Matched by taking the coordinate the National Park Service records for this property, then testing that coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet.

1902 USGS Saranac quadrangle1:62500
1904 USGS Saranac quadrangle1:62500 - 10 printings
1948 USGS Ogdensburg quadrangle1:250000 - 2 printings
1951 USGS Ogdensburg quadrangle1:250000
1953 USGS Ogdensburg quadrangle1:250000
1955 USGS Saranac Lake quadrangle1:62500 - 5 printings
1961 USGS Ogdensburg quadrangle1:250000
1978 USGS Saranac Lake quadrangle1:25000
1979 USGS Saranac Lake quadrangle1:25000 - 2 printings
1985 USGS Tupper Lake quadrangle1:100000 - 2 printings
1999 USGS Saranac Lake quadrangle1:25000

Listed places nearby

6 within 8 miles

Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.

Property	Distance	Listed
Distin Cottage	under 500 feet	1992
Magill Cottage	under 500 feet	1992
Schrader-Griswold Cottage	0.1 miles	1992
Musselman Cottage	0.1 miles	1992
Freer Cottage	0.2 miles	1992
Homestead, The	0.3 miles	1992

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 92001415 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Franklin County	All 86 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.