ROUND LAKE – Wandering through the village of Round Lake, it’s hard not to be curious about the stories behind the ornate and eccentric-looking homes and cottages.
This weekend, some of those homes will be open to tour thanks to the return of the Round Lake Home Tour. More than a dozen charming Round Lake will be open to tour on Saturday, June 10, as part of a fundraiser supporting the historic auditorium.
It’s the first time that the tour has been held since 2007 and each of the featured homes has recently had significant renovation work done, though many still maintain their historic appearance.
“It’s a small village with a lot going on,” said Lydia Hoffman, a longtime resident of Round Lake and an organizer of the tour. Part of that is thanks to the auditorium, which stretches back to the beginnings of Round Lake’s tight-knit community.
It started out in 1868 as a Methodist summer camp known as the Round Lake Camp Meeting. Believers traveling from Troy and other areas set up hundreds of tents throughout the 40-acre area. Established along the Rensselaer and Saratoga railroad line, the first meeting drew roughly 8,000 people, and eventually, the meetings grew to 20,000, according to some reports. Among the most notable visitors was President Ulysses S. Grant, who came in 1874.
The heart of the camp was the speaker platform, which was eventually turned into the glass-enclosed auditorium seen today. The 300-seat auditorium has remained at the center of the village and holds everything from concerts to theater performances and community events.
It also boasts a David Ferris Tracker pipe organ dating back to 1847 that was brought to Round Lake in 1888. It’s the largest and oldest of its kind in the country and was designated a National Historic Landmark several years ago.
However, the auditorium is in need of renovations and repairs. It’s overseen by the village, with assistance from the not-for-profit Association to Preserve, Protect and Plan Round Lake, which is organizing the fundraising tour.
“We have a master plan in place and significant work needs to be done to stabilize the building and then we have some ambition about how to make it more usable,” said Lydia Hoffman, who is the group’s president. “We want to keep the place viable.”
The bell tower is in need of repair. Some of the posts need to be stabilized, as do one of the walls and some of the trusses that are pressing on the organ. Once the major repairs are done, the group hopes to improve the concessions stand, along with the restrooms.
“We are doing this fundraiser tour to hopefully add to the pool of funds for those ambitions,” Hoffman said.
The tour is a mix of historical and new, displaying some of the most recent renovations the historic homes have undergone.
Hoffman noted that the sounds of electric saws, hammering and drilling are a constant in the village during the summer, as homeowners embark on restoration projects around the village. However, it’s encouraging rather than frustrating.
In the late 1960s and 1970s, the village was in disrepair, Hoffman said, adding that the village was first incorporated in 1968, when the Methodist community’s lease on the land came to an end.
“It had kind of a rough reputation . . . A lot of really memorable buildings got torn down and not replaced,” Hoffman said.
However, the village looks quite different these days thanks to residents like Bob Connors, who has lived in the village since the 1970s. His home, which was among the earliest built in the village, is among the 13 on the tour.
He and his late wife Linda bought it years ago but rented it out for a long time before moving in.
“It turned out the house needed almost everything. So they totally rebuilt it and it looks almost the same as it did before with a few notable differences,” Hoffman said.
The chimney is new but they’ve kept the aesthetic of the wraparound porch. Inside, the home is dotted with antiques from the Connors’ career as antique dealers. In recent years, they put on an addition, with a main bedroom with a fireplace. Connors also purchased the small home behind theirs and has been renovating that as well.
Another home along the tour boasts a similar age. Located not too far away from the auditorium, Ben and Becky Comish have spent the last few years renovating their home, which is a mix of Victorian, gothic, folk and Eastlake styles. The roughly 2,000-square-foot home features two sizable porches, one on the first floor and another on the second.
“We love old houses and preserving them,” Ben Comish previously told The Gazette. “We feel strongly that if you have a historic house, there is a certain amount of inherited responsibility that comes with it in the form of preserving the structure in its original form, or at least as best you can.”
They’ve done a lot of repair work on the framing of the upstairs porch, replacing the floor of the downstairs porch, repairing rotted columns and repainted the exterior.
Another impressive stop on the tour is Cindy Van Wyk’s home, a spacious Victorian-style home with an ornate turret on one side. A former bed and breakfast, when Van Wyk purchased the home several years ago, it was in need of serious repair. The turret had severe water damage and structural repairs needed to be made.
Not only were those repairs made but Van Wyk also renovated the kitchen and touched up the exterior as well, which is a mix of yellow, green and blue.
The tour also includes historic churches in the village, as well as some newer homes and homes in the middle of renovation projects. The auditorium will also be open for attendees to explore.
“We’re just doing what we can to raise funds, but also some visibility to get people to come and attend our concerts, see what it’s all about. There’s really something for everyone,” Hoffman said.
The tour starts at 11 a.m. and runs through 5 p.m. on Saturday. Tickets are $30 and can be purchased online ahead of time or on the day of the event. Parking is available in designated lots that will be set up for the event. For more information visit roundlakeauditorium.org.
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