Historic Saranac Lake has invited visitors to step back in time to explore the 1920s with a new exhibit Wednesday, May 31 at the Saranac Laboratory Museum. “The Roaring Twenties: Check in to a Grand Hotel” explores the decade through the context of a grand hotel of the era and celebrates the upcoming reopening of the restored Hotel Saranac. Visitors can explore spaces in the 1920s hotel such as a guest room, a ballroom, and a speakeasy.

Local artists, Hannah Gochenaur, Morgan Paul, and Maria DeAngelo painted the mural backdrops. Pendragon Theatre Costume and Set Designer, Kent Streed, consulted on the project early on, helping to brainstorm key theatrical features.

The exhibit incorporates local history, images, historic film footage, and artifacts from other local historic hotels such as Paul Smith’s Hotel, the Algonquin, the Berkeley, the Grand Union, the St. Regis, the Riverside Inn, and the Saranac Inn.

Grants from Humanities New York supported consultations with Molly Berger, Ph.D., author of Hotel Dreams: Technology, Luxury, and Urban Ambition in America, and with Sara Hume, PhD, Curator and Associate Professor at the Kent State University Museum.

Visitors to the new Roaring Twenties Exhibit can also see the permanent exhibit on science and patient care in the main laboratory space at the museum. Admission is $5, members of Historic Saranac Lake and children are free of charge.

Founded in 1980, Historic Saranac Lake is a not-for-profit architectural preservation organization that captures and presents local history from their center at the Saranac Laboratory Museum. The Saranac Laboratory Museum is located on 89 Church Street in downtown Saranac Lake. The exhibit is slated to stay on display through the end of the summer season of 2018.

Image courtesy Karen Davidson and Peter Seward.