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Mar 28, 2024 - Thu
Bolton United States
Wind 1 m/s, ENE
Pressure 759.81 mmHg
45°F
overcast clouds
Humidity 89%
Clouds 100%
thu03/28 fri03/29 sat03/30 sun03/31 mon04/01
43/36°F
45/35°F
46/38°F
42/37°F
49/45°F
Mar 28, 2024 - Thu
Bolton United States
Wind 1 m/s, ENE
Pressure 759.81 mmHg
45°F
overcast clouds
Humidity 89%
Clouds 100%
thu03/28 fri03/29 sat03/30 sun03/31 mon04/01
43/36°F
45/35°F
46/38°F
42/37°F
49/45°F

A Bit of Mirror History: Offices Destroyed by Fire

In his piece about Lake George Village as it was fifty years ago, Buzz Lamb recalled passing the offices of the Lake George Mirror, located then in the building that now houses the hardware store on Montcalm Street.

The Mirror’s printing plant was located behind the office building on Iroquois Street, in the building now owned by Dean Howland.

Buzz says that he used to see editor Art Knight sitting at his desk behind one window. Behind the other sat his business partner, Cody Kirkwood.

By 1963, that building was roughly thirty years old. It had replaced one that burned in May of 1934. A photograph taken by Lake George photographer Fred Thatcher, now in the collection of the Bolton Historical Society, appears above.

Not long ago, Warrensburg town historian Sandi Parisi sent us an article from the Warrensburg News about the fire that destroyed the Mirror office.

According to the article, it was one of the oldest buildings in Lake George Village.

The article erred, however, in stating that it was “the birthplace of the Lake George Mirror.”

That honor goes to the old stone store on Canada Street, where the Mirror’s founder, Alfred Merrick, rented offices in 1880.

In 1881, Merrick traded his interest in the Mirror to John L. Tubbs, for decades the editor of the Warrensburg News, for an interest of equal value in a bowling alley. (We sometimes feel that Merrick was the winner in that deal.)

It was as the young owner of the Lake George Mirror, his nephew John C. Tubbs said, that Tubbs “learned the art of ‘sticking type’ from a case and began his career as an editor.”

In 1890, the paper was acquired by W.H. Tippetts, who published the paper from his cottage on Assembly Point.
In 1902, Tippetts materialized in Florida as “a noted European correspondent and New York newspaper magnate.”
He had abandoned the Mirror in 1900, reportedly for reasons of health, and acquired a hotel in St. Petersburg.

Believing that the Mirror was too important to the community to fold, some local businessmen purchased the Mirror from Tippetts and in 1907, turned it over to Edward Knight, the editor of the Essex County Republican.

Knight formed a corporation and raised enough money to purchase the newspaper and, we assume, the building pictured above.

Edward Knight died in 1921. His son, Art Knight, withdrew from Columbia University to come home and edit the paper and run the business, which he did for another fifty years.