Restored MacNaughton Cottage at Upper Works welcomes High Peaks visitors

After nearly 200 years and multiple abandonments, historic cottage gets new role serving Adirondack residents and visitors

By Tim Rowland

For being in the middle of precisely nowhere, the MacNaughton Cottage has seen a lot. It was there in the 1830s when some of the Adirondacks’ first industrialists built dams, diverted rivers and built towering blast furnaces in a failed attempt to wring mineral wealth from the High Peaks.

After being all but abandoned, the cottage felt its fortunes rekindle as an age of sportsmen and women devoted the area to recreational pursuits. It watched a vacationing Teddy Roosevelt hastily gather his things for an unplanned wagon ride back to civilization and the U.S. presidency.

It saw the return of industry, as World War II created a deep demand for metals.

It was abandoned yet again, as it deteriorated into a shabby, ignoble existence, part of what curiosity seekers labeled the Ghost Town of Adirondac.

And as of last week, it was officially back to its former, nearly 200-year-old glory, thanks to a $500,000 makeover by the Open Space Institute. “This place is like a blend of eras in a way,” said Peter Karis, vice president for parks and stewardship at OSI. “It’s had several different lives.”

Cottage becomes focal point for Upper Works trailhead

The new role is as an ambassador of sorts, the focal point of a historic and recreational enclave at the Upper Works trailhead that serves as a portal to the High Peaks from the south.

For years, said Newcomb Supervisor Robin DeLoria, he’s been trying with little success to peddle the Upper Works as an uncrowded alternative for hikers venturing into the High Peaks Wilderness. Hikers, though, have told him it adds mileage to the Adirondacks’ most storied climbs, and little headway has been made in breaking the hold of the three, frequently jam-packed trailheads along Route. 73 in the north.

The MacNaughton Cottage — recipient of a 2025 Preservation Award from Adirondack Architectural Heritage (AARCH) — gives non-hardcore hikers reason to drive the 10 miles from Blue Ridge Road on a lonely byway that dead-ends at the Upper Works.

There, said Michaela Roberts, parks project manager for OSI, visitors will find “a park unto itself” with the cottage, a scenic and historic mile-long hike along the Hudson to the remains of a towering black furnace and interpretive signage at the ruins of the Ghost Town of Adirondac.

“You don’t have to have this aspiration of being a 46er to enjoy the Adirondacks, and so this becomes an alternate destination,” DeLoria said.

The town already has a good working relationship with AARCH through the mutual stewardship of Great Camp Santanoni, DeLoria said, and he believes that this relationship will continue to pay benefits at the cottage.

As OSI’s redevelopment of the area is completed, it will give the easement-protected 210-acre property to the town, along with “postage stamp” carve-outs of the caretaker cabin and fire tower on nearby Mount. Adams.

Although its exact use has yet to be determined, DeLoria said the cottage will be finished on the inside to accommodate forest rangers as a staging area with satellite Wi-Fi, and will serve as an outpost of the town’s new visitor/community information center.

After scoping out the historic and recreational space, DeLoria said, “We hope people will come by (the hamlet) for a visit.”

Uncovering historical secrets during renovation

Renovation of the cottage turned up some historical tidbits as it was stripped to a shell and rebuilt. The trimwork was green during the club era, but underneath were traces of the original red, which OSI restored. But in a nod to the club era, Karis said the porch and stickwork railings were returned to the way in which they would have appeared in 1908 when the first known photograph was produced.

With no Home Depot just down the road, builders had to be creative and make do with what they had — perhaps most notably in the cottage’s chimney.

“It goes from rubble from the basement and then it turns to the brick that comes out of the top,” Karis said. “It’s got wood sleepers to kind of hold it laterally together and it’s interesting to see that old craftsmanship.”

Charlie Burgess, OSI’s Northern New York stewardship manager, was also intrigued by a wing of the cottage that was once the Adirondacks’ first bank. The small rectangular building was probably not part of the original architecture, but was moved and incorporated into the cottage at a later time.

Some brick in the otherwise wooden structure proved a curiosity until the rehab provided the answer: With no practical means of transporting a heavy safe into the wilderness, builders filled in the framing with masonry. “It was their way of making a vault,” Burgess said.

Photo at top: Adirondack Upper Works and MacNaughton Cottage, Newcomb, NY. July 2025. Photo by Bill Amos.