The Sagamore Resort history

1882: Myron O. Brown and four other investors created the Green Island Improvement Company as a means of financing the construction of a new resort on the shores of Lake George.

Not long after, Myron Brown led the charge as manager and developer in opening the very first Sagamore Hotel on July 1, 1893.

The larger reincarnation opened in July 1894, and was extremely well-received by the public.

Myron Brown remained on as manager until 1905, when the hotel was leased to C. Allen Linsley, previously of the Hampton Terrace Hotel in North Augusta, South Carolina.

But bad luck befell the resort once more when another on-site calamity damaged it considerably in 1914.

But following the War, several ideas were proposed for the site, and in 1922 those plans finally turned into action…

The Sagamore Resort reopened its doors again in 1923, but guests were slow to come back to the destination.

1928: To help generate interest, the Green Island Improvement Company hired the respected hotelier Karl P. Abbott to manage the resort.

He had overseen the construction of the new Sagamore Hotel which opened on July 1, 1930.

He even approved of legislation from Congress called the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1944 that established a way in which the federal government could both subsidize and supervise the construction.

In 1946, that specific plan involved President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s intention to make good on the creation of a National Interstate Highway System.

1954: Presided over by Vice President Richard Nixon and New York Governor Thomas Dewey, the 46th Annual National Governors Conference was held at The Sagamore Resort.

The initial discussions about the National Interstate Highway System eventually gave rise to the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956, which allocated some $25 billion to develop more than 41,000 miles of interlocking highways.

In 1983, one hundred years after the opening of the first Sagamore, builder and real estate developer Norman Wolgin, of Philadelphia, purchased the hotel with the desire to restore its former grandeur.