Guide to the Saranac Lake Photograph collection

Biographical History

William George Distin was born in 1884 in Montreal, Quebec, the son of William L. and Helen Gra Distin. The family relocated in 1898 to Saranac Lake, N.Y. Distin was a graduate of the Saranac Lake High School and studied for a time at Columbia University's School of Architecture. He also attended the Art Institute of Chicago and traveled in Scotland, England, and France to study architecture. He furthered his training with architect W. L. Coulter and partner Max H. Westhoff, both o Saranac Lake. Distin assisted in designing, detailing, and supervising the building of large Adirondack camps. He assisted Coulter in the design of an amusement hall for Alfred G. Vanderbilt, the new owne of Camp Sagamore.

After Coulter's death and Westhoff's move to Massachusetts, Distin took over the practice. He married Ethel Brown and the couple had two sons, William and Robert. During World War I, Distin was stationed in Washington, D.C. as the Chief Assistant Expediting Engineer in the Hospital Division of Construction. During World War II, he was assigned to design a mining village near Port Henry, N.Y. His civilian work focused on the design of Adirondack camps, lodges, and hotels; howeve he also designed schools, churches, country estates, and houses. In 1960, he was elected for Fellowship into the American Institute of Architects. He became best known for furthering the Adirondack design tradition. In addition to his architectural work, he operated a photography studio in Saranac Lake. Distin died in 1970.

First settled in 1819, in what was then untouched wilderness, Saranac Lake, N.Y. grew slowly throughout the early 1800s, its economy based primarily on logging and the hosting and guiding of tho who came to hunt and fish. By 1876, the village was home to 700 people. The early 1900s saw Sarana Lake's emergence as a fashionable destination resort. The development of a pharmaceutical cur for tuberculosis in the 1950's brought the "curing era" to a close, and set in motion the village's development as a family resort destination.