HauntBound archive · catalog record
Reported phenomena, as catalogued
A 1905 Saranac Lake tuberculosis hospital where coffins left through a basement passage at night—and where dormitory residents later reported a woman in an old-fashioned nightdress in the halls.
5 Franklin Avenue, Saranac Lake, NY 12983
Research updated September 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$$
Overnight guesthouse accommodations; rates vary by room and season
Access
Limited Access
Multi-story Colonial Revival building with stairs; limited accessibility
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1905 · Adirondack tuberculosis cure culture · Mary Prescott's charitable hospital · 3,384 patients cared for 1905–1949 · Colonial Revival architecture by Scopes and Feustmann
In 1901, Mary R. Prescott — a former tuberculosis patient who had recovered at Saranac Lake — began providing care for the severely ill patients Dr. Edward L. Trudeau's sanitarium could not accept. Trudeau's Adirondack Cottage Sanitarium admitted only early-stage cases and patients who could pay; Prescott's operation filled the gap for those in advanced stages without funds.
Prescott established a small cottage on Front Street first, then in 1905 commissioned a purpose-built Colonial Revival hospital at 5 Franklin Avenue. The architects Scopes and Feustmann won the design competition. The building was constructed with a basement passage leading by stone stairs toward the train station — the route by which coffins were quietly removed at night to avoid distressing the other patients above.
From 1905 to 1949, the hospital cared for 3,384 patients, with Prescott personally subsidizing operations to ensure the poorest could receive care. In 1943, the institution was renamed Prescott House in her honor. Financial pressures led to closure in 1949.
The building was then acquired by the Study and Craft Guild for rehabilitation programs, then passed to North Country Community College in 1968, which used it as a dormitory until the late 1970s. In 2017, Debra Thuet acquired the property and converted it to its current use as a short- and long-term guesthouse. The basement kitchen area, which occupies the former morgue space, remains part of the structure.
Sources
When North Country Community College used Prescott House as a dormitory, residents reported encounters with a woman in an old-fashioned nightdress roaming the corridors. The figure appeared solid enough to be mistaken for a real person before vanishing or withdrawing in ways that defied explanation. The building was actively in use during this period — the reports came from students living there, not occasional visitors.
Current guests at the guesthouse have reported unexplained sounds and movement in hallways that stop when they open their doors to investigate. The pattern — activity that ceases on approach — is consistent with the dormitory-era accounts.
The basement is the feature that draws the most sustained attention. Originally the hospital's morgue, it was reached by stone stairs and had direct access toward the train station, allowing coffins to be carried out at night without passing through the patient wards. The decision to route the dead through the building's lower level rather than the main entrance reflects the hospital administration's effort to maintain a semblance of hope among patients who knew their odds. The morgue is now a kitchen; visitors who descend find it entirely ordinary in function but not easily forgotten in history.
Notable Entities
Media Appearances
The former tuberculosis hospital now operates as a short- and long-term guesthouse. Guests stay in rooms converted from the 1905 hospital structure, including spaces near the basement that once served as a morgue with stone stairs down to a rail connection for removing coffins. The hallway activity reported by dormitory residents in the 1960s–70s remains part of the building's history.
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