As you approach the rustic log and glass front of the Adirondack Store on Route 86, in Ray Brook, between Lake Placid and Saranac Lake, a glance through the window promises memorable browsing. Once inside, you find yourself surrounded by things that please, delight and excite, for every item has been chosen with thoughtful, tasteful consideration. Hanging from the ceiling and walls and resting on the floor are fascinating creations, some helpfully practical, others exquisitely decorative: a unique hammock, lamps, carved animals and birds, log carriers, and delicate flowers encased in plastic blocks. Displayed around you on tables and counters you see things you hadn’t thought about before you came through the door but that you know now you’ll cherish if you decide to buy instead of just look.
You may notice tall, tweedy Tad Sturgis or slim, attractive Linda Sturgis moving from room to room with pleased smiles radiating pride in their visitors’ appreciation, for whether you are a browser or a shopper, you can’t conceal the appreciation you feel for the treasures spread before you by Tad and Linda, proprietors of the Adirondack Store.
Once associated with the Time and Life organization, Tad Sturgis, a Bostonian, served in the OSS in World War II, blowing up bridges, railroads and other military targets behind enemy lines in the China/Burma theater. At home, Linda, a former New Yorker, worked on the development of radar at the Hazeltine Corporation.
Shortly after World War II, the Sturgises came to Saranac Lake for Mr. Sturgis’s health. As he recovered, they found they liked the Adirondacks so much they wanted to stay and raise their two small boys here. So, about 15 years ago, they put their wits to work. What could they do here? What could they sell, and how would they sell it?
In 1955 they began with a simple name and address that would be as familiar as possible and would describe and locate the shop they planned: “Adirondack Store, Saranac Lake, N.Y.” Then they found a real seller—a simple fireplace tool of iron and hardwood made in Minerva by Frank Whitney. They called it the Adirondack Firefork. Its price is still $6 (and by now they’ve sold about 1,500). They put together a mailing list of 400 local names—chiefly summer campers—and advertised by postcard, realizing even at this early stage that they would need to sell as much merchandise by mail as in a store because of the short tourist season.
Today the Sturgises still remember their excitement when the first order arrived from someone they didn’t know—”Not a relative,” says Tad Sturgis, “not even a friend—nobody we’d even heard of. It was tremendous!”
By the summer of 1956 they were ready to move into a store in Saranac Lake, and in 1957 they built their present shop at Ray Brook. Their postcard has grown into an 80-page annual catalogue; their mailing list to 21,000. Their shop has expanded into a six-room complex of activity where mail-order business keeps them humming throughout the year, along with the day-to-day sales in the showrooms. These activities account for three-quarters of their annual business. The other quarter results from pre-Christmas sales in metropolitan areas where Mr. Sturgis and one of his staff display samplings of their wares and take Christmas orders. In October and November 1969, sales were held in Maryland, Buffalo, Detroit, Louisville, Washington and Concord, Massachusetts. All are sponsored by charitable organizations which hold Christmas bazaars in armories, hotels, and country clubs.
Today the attractive log cabin shop in the pine grove offers a warm welcome for the browser, gift-seeker and art lover. Everything you see about you in the Adirondack Store relates to the Adirondacks, the out-of-doors, campers, sportsmen, nature-lovers: furniture, pictures, lamps, glassware, dishes for the loveliest houses and the simplest camps … books and records and games … accessories such as jewelry and neckties and slippers … essentials such as snowshoes, personalized signs, mailboxes, bird-feeders, weathervanes.
A most interesting development—one which Tad would like to expand—is a gallery of paintings by Adirondack artists, past and present. Prints of Adirondack scenes, flowers, and wildlife are also available, framed and unframed. Prices vary from $1.50 and $5 for unframed prints by Frederic Remington and Winslow Homer to $10,000 for a rare oil painting by Arthur Tait.
Linda and Tad Sturgis enjoy finding beautiful things for customers whose good taste is not curtailed by their pocketbooks; so you’ll find something for everyone at the Adirondack Store.
