Summer Celebration at Wiawaka, Honoring Nancie Battaglia
Sunday, August 13 | 2:00 – 5:00 PM | Lake George
AARCH’s Summer Celebration is an opportunity for our members and friends to gather and
celebrate our preservation work throughout the region. Your support of this event makes our work possible and we look forward to gathering with you each year at these special places.
This year, we were proud to honor photographer Nancie Battaglia. Nancie was one of the first members to join AARCH in 1991 and is a key supporter of our work, especially our educational programming. A prolific photographer who has covered 12 Olympics, Nancie’s work documenting historic sites throughout the Adirondacks (like Wiawaka!) highlights the partnerships embodied in successful preservation work. Like AARCH, Nancie celebrates the places and people that make the Adirondacks special, and her photographs serve as an invaluable record of our region.
It was fitting that we honored Nancie at Wiawaka Center for Women, the oldest and longest continuously operating retreat for women in America, which has supported women’s artistic endeavors and mental health since it opened in 1902. Philanthropists and women’s rights activists Mary Fuller and Katrina Trask acquired the former Crosbyside Hotel and transformed it into a retreat exclusively for women, catering to young, immigrant female workers from the Capital Region. In 1905 they also began to attract female artists and the site served as a precursor to Yaddo, an artists’ retreat at the Trasks’ Saratoga Springs estate. Today, over a century later, Wiawaka Center for Women continues to enrich women’s lives, providing respite from the hectic pace of life. They use the thoughtfully-designed buildings and landscape to support women’s healing and creativity, continuing the vision of Mary Fuller and Katrina Trask.
Thank you to everyone who joined us amid Wiawaka’s charming buildings this summer to celebrate AARCH’s work and Nancie’s contributions to preservation in the Adirondacks. In addition to hearing from AARCH leaders and honoring Nancie, guests had the opportunity to explore the property on an exclusive tour and enjoy music provided by Martha Gallagher, the Adirondack Harper, and refreshments on the serene shores of Lake George.
Proceeds from this event benefit AARCH’s preservation, education, and advocacy efforts in towns and communities throughout the Adirondack region.
Thank you to all of our Honorary Committee Supporters!
Fuller House ($2,500)
Jan C.K. Anderson
Wakonda Lodge ($1,000)
William & Christine Barnes
Susan Culver Darrin
Ed & Alane Hodges
Anne Mackinnon
Dean & Sandy Melville
Mr. & Mrs. Peter S. Paine, Jr.
Andy & Kathy Prescott
Mayflower & Rose Cottages ($500)
ART Architects, J.B. Clancy
Behan Communications
Sally & Sandy Berk
Tom & Karen Birdsey
Amy Brelia
Edward P. Finnerty
Fire Sky Farm Flowers
Betsy Folwell & Tom Warrington
Rich & Marty Frost
Fred & Gloria Gleave
Bill & Susan Harral
Chuck & Meg Higgerson
Hornbeck Boats
Barbie & John Kimberly
Lorraine & Wester Miga
Rhoda & Paul Morrisroe
Phinney Design Group
PRIDE of Ticonderoga
TRW Architecture & Preservation
Drs. Jim & Colleen Van Hoven
Anne Van Ingen & Wes Haynes
Lake House ($250)
Anonymous
Ausable Brewing Company
Pat Benton
Common Roots Brewing Company
Drs. James C. & Caroline W. Dawson
Martha & Dennis Gallagher
Susan Hearn & Greg Dickson
Highlands Vineyard
Lake Placid Pub & Brewery
Richard Longstreth
Maria P. Russell
Tablecloths for Granted, Ltd.
Erin Tobin & Roger Bearden
Janice Woodbury
