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McCoy Family
“Tidbits”
-By
Janet McCoy, 2003
The McCoy family name is
fairly well-known in the Lake George area. I was able to gather some
information from one living member of the family.
Lucy & Ken McCoy,
natives of the area, purchased one of the finest pieces of property along
Canada Street in the 1940’s and called it the “Mansion House.” Lucy and Ken
purchased this property from Louis Hayden. This estate, which consisted of
approximately five parcels of land, is where the Georgian Hotel is today.
The location of the property started at the current Marine Village and went
up to the Tamarak. The parcels were sub-divided between the McCoys and
Hamilton Traver (Traver had the north end).
The Mansion House
consisted of approximately 17 rooms, which were rented out. In addition,
Ken and Lucy built an additional motel (first one in the village) in
conjunction with the Mansion House and these rooms were rented as part of
the Mansion House. The Mansion House, from what I am told, was one of the
most beautiful colonial mansions in the area. This home contained nicely
decorated sleeping quarters, had an extremely large kitchen and great dining
area. In the cellar was an actual ice house dating back to the Civil War
era, along with part of an underground railroad which was used to transport
slaves from the south and eventually get them to Canada to be freed. The
Mansion House was sold in the mid 50’s to Boris Greenberg and his wife, who
tore down the home to put up the restaurant which is now known as the
“Georgian Room.”
Before taking on this
huge undertaking of the motel business, Lucy worked at a local bank and Ken
was the custodian at Lake George High School for many years and was a great
friend to all of the students. They had two children, Franklyn and Carl.
Ken’s son Franklyn once received a letter from a native of Lake George
stating that his father, Ken, was “more like a guidance counselor to the
kids long before there were actually guidance counselors in the school.”
Franklyn was Postmaster for several years in the
surrounding communities and married Anne Keenan (retired school teacher)
from Glens Falls in 1952. Carl was in the Warren County Sheriff’s
Department as Sheriff in 1956 and his office was at the Warren County Court
House on Canada Street, now known as the Lake George Historical
Association. Carl married Harriet Mulligan and she was the “matron” of the
jail, dealing only with females. Harriet brought daily meals to the inmates
and escorted them wherever they needed to be taken (hospital appointments,
etc.). Carl started the Warren County mounted patrol for the Sheriff’s
Department. This patrol was made up of local men who owned horses. They
marched in parades and did searches in the woods trying to find escapees.
He also founded the boat patrol on Lake George. In the early 60’s, Carl was
approached by a national magazine to do a Camel cigarette commercial. Being
the “colorful” kind of guy he was, he did not refuse! He dressed in his
Sheriff uniform donning a cigarette and was on a full-page color ad, which
appeared in many popular magazines throughout the U.S.
There is much more, of
course, to the family history. Pictures and articles of the Mansion House
and Carl McCoy are in the archives of the old Warren County Court House, as
well as in the safekeeping of the village historical building.
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