The mission of the Hadley-Lake Luzerne Historical Society, as stated in it’s Constitution, is “to discover, preserve and share the history of the towns of Hadley and Lake Luzerne in the Southern Adirondacks of New York State.”

Our offices are housed in the Frances Garnar Kinnear Museum of Local History located at 52 Main Street, Lake Luzerne, NY in the Southern Adirondack Mountains. The building, originally owned by the Garnar Family Leather Tannery (1868-1909), housed their business offices. It later became the residence of Frances Garnar Kinnear, a Garnar family descendant who willed the building to the Hadley-Lake Luzerne Historical Society in 1978 to store museum artifacts. The Society received the building’s deed in 1982. The museum’s artifacts depict the evolution of life and development in the Hadley-Lake Luzerne area across three centuries.

The tannery’s 100 foot, brick smokestack, pictured on the left, is located across the street from the Kinnear Museum in Lake Luzerne. It is all that remains of the tannery that once produced leather for bookbindings used worldwide.