There are numerous miniature replications of downtown village buildings from the past. Each one was painstakingly hand-crafted and painted to match their original structures by Saranac Lake native John Wheeler.

Mother and daughter Sue and Kathy Dyer, both Saranac Lakers, recently placed part of Wheeler’s collection, titled “Lost Buildings of Saranac Lake,” in the storefront and they’re excited to show it off.

Almost all of the buildings don’t exist anymore. The ones remaining — like the Loomis Block or the former A&P Grocers where the Enterprise is now — look different than they did back in the day. The rest were lost in fires, torn down to create roads or taken by eminent domain.

Each one is a window into the heydays of Saranac Lake when theaters, hotels and scenic boat tours ruled the town as the industry created around trying to cure from tuberculosis made the population grow.

A miniature replica of the Riverside Inn in Saranac Lake, seen in 1:87 scale, is one of the models of historic Saranac Lake buildings created by John Wheeler. (Enterprise photo — Aaron Marbone)

The Post Office Pharmacy itself speaks of a past time in Saranac Lake’s story. The pharmacy was run independently by the Bevilacqua family for seven decades before its closure in 2019.

Jim Bevilacqua currently owns the building, but doesn’t know what to do with it yet. While it’s empty, he’s allowed the Dyers to decorate the windows to fill the storefront ever since they moved back to town in 2022.

The Dyers said Bevilacqua is community minded, and gave them freedom to display what they like in the windows.

Wheeler’s been creating the wooden models for years. He learned the woodworking trade from his father Donald, who was a finish carpenter, and was amazed how his father put stuff together.

His first Saranac Lake miniature was created in the 1990s, when Historic Saranac Lake was fundraising to restore the Union Depot train station.

A miniature replica of the Colonial Theatre in Saranac Lake, seen in 1:87 scale, is one of the models of historic Saranac Lake buildings created by John Wheeler on display at the Post Office Pharmacy on Main Street. (Enterprise photo — Aaron Marbone)

The models are in HO scale, or 1:87 scale, meaning every foot in real life translates to an eighth of an inch in the models.

As a kid, Wheeler always loved getting train and building models from the store and building them. As an adult, he started doing custom builds.

“I always thought, ‘If I can draw it, I can do it,'” Wheeler said.

He uses historic photos for reference to sketch out the designs of each building.

When Michele Tucker, the curator at the Adirondack Research Room inside the Saranac Lake Free Library, sees Wheeler coming, she knows he’s there looking for reference photos of whatever building he’s working on next.

A miniature replica of the Loomis Block building in Saranac Lake, seen in 1:87 scale, is one of the models of historic Saranac Lake buildings created by John Wheeler on display at the Post Office Pharmacy on Main Street. (Enterprise photo — Aaron Marbone)

A large model like the Riverside Inn takes Wheeler 7 to 8 months to complete. Working with tiny pieces is difficult, but Wheeler said it is “a labor of love.”

“A person must give back to their community. I do this because, if I don’t, our history will be lost,” Wheeler said in a statement on the exhibit.

A self-described “history freak,” Wheeler said he wants to give older generations a chance to reminisce and spark an interest in local history in younger generations.

When he was a kid, his grandparents described what life was like in Saranac Lake when they were younger “to a T,” but for people who didn’t have that oral history, he said it might be lost.

Saranac Laker Tori Vazquez walked by the storefront on Friday and commented on how she’s loved seeing the models on her way into work each day.

A miniature replica of the Berkeley Hotel in Saranac Lake, seen in 1:87 scale, is one of the models of historic Saranac Lake buildings created by John Wheeler on display at the Post Office Pharmacy on Main Street. (Enterprise photo — Aaron Marbone)

“They’re so cool,” Vazquez said. “I love them so much.”

For the Dyers, each building came with a story. They remember watching movies at the Pontiac Theater. Kathy remembers Sue waking her up as a kid to go out into the cold and see the Berkeley Hotel burn in 1981.

Sue remembers the Thomas Boat Landing dock on Lake Flower, where the large double-deck boat “Nancy Carol” gave tours of the waters. The village took the shoreline by eminent domain in 1979.

Sue said the F.M. Bull Drug Store — a building between the town hall and the former Little Italy building — was torn down when the state highway was extended into town in 1957. This building was where Bull opened the first telephone service in town in 1887, starting off with just 10 customers.

Sue said she plans to keep the miniatures in the window, at least until the Saranac Lake Winter Carnival in early February. Kathy said they might keep the buildings there and add a couple Elvis figurines to match the “Music Legends” Carnival theme.

A miniature replica of the Riverside Inn in Saranac Lake, seen in 1:87 scale, is one of the models of historic Saranac Lake buildings created by John Wheeler on display at the Post Office Pharmacy on Main Street. (Enterprise photo — Aaron Marbone)

Each miniature has a note with the building’s name and details of its history. Dyer said there’s lots of information on each one at the Historic Saranac Lake Wiki website.

Video of the Broadway stretch of miniatures can be seen at youtu.be/nb8ft_GNB2A and video of the Broadway and Main Street intersection can be seen at youtu.be/2Pxv1-rLDL0.