Wonder if they have any group photos that include Jack Torrance. 
from the Adirondack Daily Enterprise -
Follensby Park to sell antiques
By BRITTANY BOMBARD, Enterprise Staff Writer
Posted on: Wednesday, August 1, 2007
TUPPER LAKE — Hundreds of antique furnishings from the White Birches, the Adirondack lodge located on the grounds of the historic Follensby Park, will go up for auction Saturday, Aug. 25 at the entrance to the property.
Owned by John McCormick since 1952, Follensby Park is the second-largest piece of privately owned land in the Adirondack Park, boasting 14,510 acres, according to Sue and Kip Blanchard of Blanchard’s Auction Service, based in Potsdam, who will be overseeing the auction.
The White Birches is a 21-room, Adirondack-crafted lodge. Other buildings housing historical pieces from the property include the boathouse, an ice house and a generator house. There is also a caretaker’s lodge inside Follensby Park, which is situated at the other end of the lake-sized Follensby Pond.
The state has repeatedly sought to buy Follensby Park and add it to the Forest Preserve — it sits adjacent to the High Peaks Wilderness Area and includes much of the south shore of the Raquette River — but McCormick has never agreed to a sale. Kip Blanchard said McCormick made it clear, after several inquiries about a possible sale of the property, that it is not currently for sale and that he just felt it was time to get rid of some of the items he no longer needs.
“This is stuff that he no longer uses,” Blanchard said. “And he said he felt it was time to do something with it.
“It’s going to be tough to determine what value is going to be added to the items because of the historical importance of the property. It’s never been up for sale, and everything is top of the line. These are things that can add a lot of value to an item.”
While the gates of Follensby Park lie just off the Stetson Road, Blanchard said it is about an eight-mile drive past the gates to get to the White Birches. This, he said, is why the auction will be held at the entrance to the property rather than on the grounds.
“We felt that the auction needed to be done as close to the property as possible or on it,” Blanchard said. “If you moved it somewhere else, it just wouldn’t have the same feel. It’s the most beautiful setting. We just can’t do it all the way back in there because it’s about a 45-minute drive on a dirt road.”
The White Birches lodge was built in 1913 by the J.E. Barbour family, and in the 55 years since McCormick bought the property, the interior of the camp has remained exactly the same as it looked in the brochure put out the year he purchased it, according to Blanchard, who recently went on site to take photographs.
“The caretaker that has been working for the McCormicks since the 1970s told me that I may be the only person to have gotten photographs inside the gates in the last 25 years.”
The Barbours furnished the entire downstairs of the lodge with Arts & Crafts-style furniture by L&JG Stickley and put Leavons furniture in the bedrooms, according to Blanchard, who added that he read the lodge sleeps 27 comfortably.
“The original furnishings have virtually been untouched over the last 95 years,” Blanchard said.
The walls and the floors are covered with Navajo and Gustav Stickley drugget rugs, trophy fish and big-game mounts. He added that the majority of the fish and game were captured or hunted inside Follensby Park.
The highlight of the auction will be the array of boats, including a 21-foot 1956 Chris-Craft Capri runabout. Other watercraft include a pair of 16-foot Theodore Hamner Adirondack guide boats, a rare William Vassar cedar strip canoe and two PennYan car-top boats.
In 1858, “Follensbee” Pond, as it was then spelled, was the setting for the “Philosophers Camp” where world-famous American scholar Ralph Waldo Emerson spent 10 months writing.
On the Net:
www.blanchardauctionservice.com
from the Adirondack Daily Enterprise -
Follensby Park to sell antiques
By BRITTANY BOMBARD, Enterprise Staff Writer
Posted on: Wednesday, August 1, 2007
TUPPER LAKE — Hundreds of antique furnishings from the White Birches, the Adirondack lodge located on the grounds of the historic Follensby Park, will go up for auction Saturday, Aug. 25 at the entrance to the property.
Owned by John McCormick since 1952, Follensby Park is the second-largest piece of privately owned land in the Adirondack Park, boasting 14,510 acres, according to Sue and Kip Blanchard of Blanchard’s Auction Service, based in Potsdam, who will be overseeing the auction.
The White Birches is a 21-room, Adirondack-crafted lodge. Other buildings housing historical pieces from the property include the boathouse, an ice house and a generator house. There is also a caretaker’s lodge inside Follensby Park, which is situated at the other end of the lake-sized Follensby Pond.
The state has repeatedly sought to buy Follensby Park and add it to the Forest Preserve — it sits adjacent to the High Peaks Wilderness Area and includes much of the south shore of the Raquette River — but McCormick has never agreed to a sale. Kip Blanchard said McCormick made it clear, after several inquiries about a possible sale of the property, that it is not currently for sale and that he just felt it was time to get rid of some of the items he no longer needs.
“This is stuff that he no longer uses,” Blanchard said. “And he said he felt it was time to do something with it.
“It’s going to be tough to determine what value is going to be added to the items because of the historical importance of the property. It’s never been up for sale, and everything is top of the line. These are things that can add a lot of value to an item.”
While the gates of Follensby Park lie just off the Stetson Road, Blanchard said it is about an eight-mile drive past the gates to get to the White Birches. This, he said, is why the auction will be held at the entrance to the property rather than on the grounds.
“We felt that the auction needed to be done as close to the property as possible or on it,” Blanchard said. “If you moved it somewhere else, it just wouldn’t have the same feel. It’s the most beautiful setting. We just can’t do it all the way back in there because it’s about a 45-minute drive on a dirt road.”
The White Birches lodge was built in 1913 by the J.E. Barbour family, and in the 55 years since McCormick bought the property, the interior of the camp has remained exactly the same as it looked in the brochure put out the year he purchased it, according to Blanchard, who recently went on site to take photographs.
“The caretaker that has been working for the McCormicks since the 1970s told me that I may be the only person to have gotten photographs inside the gates in the last 25 years.”
The Barbours furnished the entire downstairs of the lodge with Arts & Crafts-style furniture by L&JG Stickley and put Leavons furniture in the bedrooms, according to Blanchard, who added that he read the lodge sleeps 27 comfortably.
“The original furnishings have virtually been untouched over the last 95 years,” Blanchard said.
The walls and the floors are covered with Navajo and Gustav Stickley drugget rugs, trophy fish and big-game mounts. He added that the majority of the fish and game were captured or hunted inside Follensby Park.
The highlight of the auction will be the array of boats, including a 21-foot 1956 Chris-Craft Capri runabout. Other watercraft include a pair of 16-foot Theodore Hamner Adirondack guide boats, a rare William Vassar cedar strip canoe and two PennYan car-top boats.
In 1858, “Follensbee” Pond, as it was then spelled, was the setting for the “Philosophers Camp” where world-famous American scholar Ralph Waldo Emerson spent 10 months writing.
On the Net:
www.blanchardauctionservice.com
