Camp Uncas. Source: Michael Franklin Realty. A friend sent me the notice from the Architectural Digest magazine: Camp Uncas, the second great camp built in the Adirondacks by William West Durant, is for sale for 2.7 million.
This camp was William's attempt at perfecting what he was becoming good at: a vernacular style of architecture. It's a gentleman's hunting camp - or manor - handsome and masculine.
Why was he was so enthralled with the characters and places in the book Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper? Uncas is the name of one of the main characters in the book. And he renamed the lake Uncas sits on to Mohegan, in deference to Uncas' Native American tribe.
Around the same time that William was busy building Uncas, he was also making plans for Camp Sagamore. The name Sagamore means 'great chief' in Algonquin and Sagamore was also a character in Cooper's book. Interest in this story must have been a national pastime of adventurous souls in the 1800s. In 1885 Theodore Roosevelt built a second home on Oyster Bay, NY and named it Sagamore Hill.
It may be that while growing up Last of the Mohicans was a sensational read for William who was looking for adventure, or he was enamored by a sentimental tribute to lost native American tribes, and, following the trend set by Roosevelt, immortalized the fictional characters by naming buildings after them.
I picked up the Last of the Mohicans (1826) at the local library and tried to read it, thinking it might shed light, after all, we are influenced by what we read. Reading the book lasted about one week. I was so bored with the language, I lost all interest. Not only that, I felt I needed an interpreter.
Something about the Last of the Mohicans just didn't work for me. I had no patience with the prose and went right to Sparknotes to find out what happens. Someone suggested I watch the movie instead. I may do that.
This camp was William's attempt at perfecting what he was becoming good at: a vernacular style of architecture. It's a gentleman's hunting camp - or manor - handsome and masculine.
Why was he was so enthralled with the characters and places in the book Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper? Uncas is the name of one of the main characters in the book. And he renamed the lake Uncas sits on to Mohegan, in deference to Uncas' Native American tribe.
Around the same time that William was busy building Uncas, he was also making plans for Camp Sagamore. The name Sagamore means 'great chief' in Algonquin and Sagamore was also a character in Cooper's book. Interest in this story must have been a national pastime of adventurous souls in the 1800s. In 1885 Theodore Roosevelt built a second home on Oyster Bay, NY and named it Sagamore Hill.
It may be that while growing up Last of the Mohicans was a sensational read for William who was looking for adventure, or he was enamored by a sentimental tribute to lost native American tribes, and, following the trend set by Roosevelt, immortalized the fictional characters by naming buildings after them.
I picked up the Last of the Mohicans (1826) at the local library and tried to read it, thinking it might shed light, after all, we are influenced by what we read. Reading the book lasted about one week. I was so bored with the language, I lost all interest. Not only that, I felt I needed an interpreter.
Something about the Last of the Mohicans just didn't work for me. I had no patience with the prose and went right to Sparknotes to find out what happens. Someone suggested I watch the movie instead. I may do that.
Dock at Uncas. Source: Michael Franklin Realty.
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