Life was anything but easy growing up on Cutler Street during the early 1940s. At the time, the bustling street in Schenectady’s Mont Pleasant neighborhood was crowded with low-income and immigrant families. Poverty was common, and there was seldom time to do anything but work.
Silver Bay YMCA of the Adirondacks is nestled on the western shore of Lake George a few miles above Bolton Landing and just north of Tongue Mountain. It has been attracting visitors for more than a century with its wonderful location, beautiful view, friendly staff and volunteers like Devenger and Halm, and its century-old, 1,100-seat convention center, simply called the Auditorium. The original one had been built 1906-07, but on July 1, 1908, a fire of “suspicious nature” reduced it to ruins. Posted on June 28, 2009.
J.A. Thatcher took this photograph of the workers as they were rebuilding the Auditorium at Silver Bay during the summer of 1909. The original one had been built 1906-07, but on July 1, 1908, a fire of “suspicious nature” reduced it to ruins.
Chip Devenger, a long-time staff member at the Silver Bay YMCA of the Adirondacks, looks out at the Auditorium from the building's second floor balcony.
The Auditorium at the Silver Bay YMCA of the Adirondacks, as seen from the second floor balcony, was designed by Franklyn Edwards. Rebuilt in 1909 after a fire, it has room for about 1,100 people.
Staff member Chip Devenger looks over the interior of the Auditorium at the Silver Bay YMCA of the Adirondacks. Devenger has spent his last 33 summers at the facility.
The Auditorium and Silver Bay YMCA of the Adirondacks have been home to countless national conventions held by various religious denominations as well as the site for numerous college reunions for a century. The Boy Scouts of America also have often called the place home and will celebrate its 100th anniversary next summer at Silver Bay.
