Riverside Park

The History of Riverside Park 

The specific spot we now call Riverside Park started as the location of Blood’s Hotel, later known as the Riverside Inn.

Opened in the 1860s by Orlando Blood, the hotel was the third one built in the village of Saranac Lake. Blood eventually sold the hotel to Wallace Murray, an early village president (what we now refer to as the mayor), who then expanded it.

The Inn was extremely successful, drawing both visitors and local community members. It was quite large for the time, featuring 61 bedrooms, a barbershop, a pool parlor, a barroom, and a dining room that could seat 130 people. A veranda was constructed on the outskirts of the building and was enjoyed by famous visitors, including author Mark Twain.

Murray was also involved in village improvements, receiving a $5,000 contract to clear the stumps from what was then a logging mill pond. This was part of a project made possible by Governor Rosewell Flower, and the pond was subsequently renamed Lake Flower in his honor.

From Inn to Park

Due to the Great Depression, the hotel closed, and the building was torn down in 1934. The village purchased the property in 1936 and decided to turn it into Riverside Park.

The Village Improvement Society (VIS) took over responsibility for the property. Between 1937 and 1938, Philip G. Wolff, a Cornell landscape student, designed and supervised the construction of the park. Notably, the final park incorporates four smaller parks that the VIS had acquired between 1918 and 1937: Riverside, Seymour, Prescott, and Mullen.

By the late 1950s, the costs of maintaining Lake Flower parks, including the Prescott Park swimming beach, became more than the VIS could manage. The Society transferred its Lake Flower parks to the village "to remain parks in perpetuity," and the VIS now serves in an advisory role.

Following the rise of impromptu concerts in the park in the 1980s, a permanent bandshell was built for performances.



Adirondack Daily Enterprise, July 15, 1995: Landscape architect leaves legacy to village By ALICE WAREHAM

Adirondack Daily Enterprise, April 29, 1989: From Blood's to Riverside, this hotel thrived By JOHN J. DUQUETTE