Mary Hotaling

Mary B. Hotaling Obituary

Mary B. Hotaling passed away surrounded by her family at her home in

Saranac Lake, NY, in the Adirondack Mountains, on September 1, 2023.

She is predeceased by her mother and father Evelyn and Charles

Baumgart and her brother Thomas (“Tom”) Baumgart.

Mary is survived by her husband of 57 years, James Hotaling; daughter

Ann Caroline Hotaling (Jacopo Surricchio); daughter Elizabeth Ida and

grandsons James McAuliffe and Thomas McAuliffe; brother William

Baumgart (Nikki); nephew Andrew Baumgart (Krystal); nieces Shara

Hussain (Shaz), Hallie Lovell (Roger), and Anna Schmitt; cousin Peter

Gölzhäuser; brother-in-law Bill Hotaling (Gladys) and family; cousins in the

Chicago area; former son-in-law Joe McAuliffe; and many friends and

associates.

She was a co-founder of Historic Saranac Lake and Adirondack

Architectural Heritage (AARCH), appointed by Governor Mario Cuomo to

the New York State Board for Historic Preservation, and a former Town

Historian for the Town of Harrietstown. Mary retired as Director of Historic

Saranac Lake in 2009.

Born in Indianapolis, Indiana, and raised in the Midwest, “Mary B” was

impressed with the architecture and landscape when she moved east in

1965 to marry her husband Jim, after she took a brief solo tour of Europe,

and they spent two years living in the Rittenhouse Square area of

Philadelphia, PA. Their early family years were spent in Evanston, Illinois,

and Denver, Colorado, followed by Saratoga Springs, New York. In each of

these unique communities she admired the public spaces and local

character. That admiration grew into her life’s work when she learned

about the tuberculosis curing history of Saranac Lake and dedicated the

rest of her life to exploring and preserving that history.

Impressed by the quality of numerous intact cure cottages in Saranac Lake,

Mary became a driving force behind historic preservation in Saranac Lake

and the Adirondack region, and was particularly devoted to researching

and writing about the lives of Dr. Edward Livingston Trudeau and the

architect William Coulter.

A graduate of Glenbard High School in Glen Ellyn, IL, and the University of

Illinois Urbana-Champaign, she later went back to school at 50 years old to

earn a Master’s Degree in Historic Preservation from the University of

Vermont. She was also awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters

from Paul Smith’s College in 2004.

Mary was an editor, historian, historic preservationist, and author of the

book A Rare Romance in Medicine: The Life and Legacy of Edward

Livingston Trudeau (North Country Books, 2016), and graduate thesis

about the architectural works of William Coulter. She was involved in many

other projects on local history, including the book Cure Cottages of Saranac

Lake, Architecture and History of a Pioneer Health Resort (authored by

Philip L. Gallos), and the film This Was Heaven, Really.

Mary appeared in several TV programs about the Adirondack region,

including The Forgotten Plague: Tuberculosis in America, part of the PBS

American Experience series. She was delighted to be part of the work to

shed light on the stories of those who cured including composer Béla

Bartók, and Adirondack great camps such as the Coulter-designed Eagle

Island Camp. She cherished her time as a member of the Reviewers Club,

established in 1909.

A celebration of Mary’s life will be held on September 23rd from 1:00 to 4:00

p.m. at the John Black Room in the Saranac Laboratory Museum at 89

Church Street. In lieu of flowers, please make a memorial contribution

https://www.historicsaranaclake.org/in-memory-of-mary-hotaling.html to

Historic Saranac Lake, at 89 Church Street, Suite 2, Saranac Lake, New

York 12983. Friends and family are also invited to share a memory, leave a

condolence and sign the online guestbook at

https://fortunekeoughfuneralhome.com under the current services tab.