Education
After Coulter"s death in 1907, Distin attended Columbia University, graduating in 1910.
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William Distin
Edit Profilearchitect of Saranac Lake Camp designer
Career
Born in Plattsburgh, his family moved to Saranac Lake in 1889. After graduation from Saranac Lake High School in 1900, he was hired by William Coulter as a draftsman. His apprenticeship lasted six or seven years.
After a short period in Chicago, working for South. South. Beekman designing houses, he traveled for a time in Europe.
In 1917, Distin worked for the Army building hospitals in Washington, District of Columbia. After the war, he returned to Saranac Lake to reopen Westhoff"s firm, the latter having moved to Springfield, Massachusetts. In 1920, he designed Distin Cottage for his father, photographer William L. Distin.
After some smaller commissions for camps on Upper Saranac Lake such as Camp Intermission, he designed Camp Wonundra for William Rockefeller in 1934. In 1937 he built "Eagle Nest" at Blue Mountain Lake for Walter Hochschild, in 1940 Debar Pond Lodge, and in 1948, Camp Minnowbrook, in the same area, for Royal Marines Hollingshead.
There were also seven smaller great camps on Lake Placid, and work on the Lake Placid Club.
He also designed the replacement of the original Adirondack Loj, which burned in a catastrophic fire that swept Essex County in 1903.
