The Old Lab

One of Saranac Lake's local treasures is the old Saranac Laboratory. It is the first Tuberculosis (TB)lab in the US. Saranac Lake was a major community in the fight against TB, and remnants of this healing history are celebrated. Historic buildings have special plaques, there is a great historical society that regularly shares information on many of these buildings.

Recently the main part of the Laboratory was restored and opened up as a museum. The Library wing has been used for years as a place for social events, chamber music concerts and classic film screenings. It is now a museum housing artifacts from the time the lab was in use from opening up until the 1960s. Some of these include medical equipment, items from cure cottages (where many patients lived as they were being treated) and personal items and crafts from patients and former patients.

I have had the opportunity to visit the old lab on two occasions. Four years ago I was photographing the building and was invited inside and shown around. This was when the museum was still in the planning stages and the area was still unorganized. I learned about how the interior fireproof tiling used after Dr. Trudeau's original lab burnt down in an accident. Second floor doorways that now lead to nowhere used to lead to ajacent buildings demolished long ago.

About a month ago I visited the main area of the lab again, now as a completed museum. It is a small museum, but is very well done. Many of the artifacts are now in cases, the lab equipment is now set up as it used to sit in the days the lab was in use. Blown-up old photographs of scientists working in the lab adorn the walls.

The small size allows for a more intimate interaction with history. The old patient bed with attached telegraph, and wheelchair aren't even roped off. Only one area is shut off from visitor access and there are a few cases, but everything else is approachable. Even the old work table is easy to approach, giving a hands-on approach to history. In a way the experience is rather unique compared to many of the larger museums I've visited where it's hard to have that up close and personal feel with the subject matter.