By Eleen Ballou
Enterprise Staff Writer

(Editor's note: While the old Lake Placid Club is a good setting for a scary Halloween story, the Enterprise reminds readers that it is currently a crime scene and that there will be a round-the-click watch on the building and grounds over the weekend.)

LAKE PLACID-
It had years of history with the rich and famous from all over visiting the Lake Placid Club in its heyday. But now as the buildings lay dormant and decaying and are due to be torn down, all that remains are the memories, and stories - some of which tell of the supernatural. According to local legend, the ghost of the Club's founder haunted the old building for years.
"I turned around a few times to see her standing there," said Francis Sheffield, a former security guard at the Lake Placid Club.
Sheffield worked as a security guard for about 23 years at the Club between the mid 1940s and 1960s. "whenever she would show up, I would be extra careful," he said, adding that it was on those occasions the he saw her that something bad would happen.
Annie (Godfrey) Dewey was married to Lake Placid Club founder Melvil Dewey, creator of the Dewey Decimal system used in school libraries nationwide.
Annie died in the summer of 1922, at the age of 73 at her home near Albany after attending a symphony concert and psychology lecture with Emily Beal.
According to the story, they returned home, and Annie retired as she always did. At about 1 a.m. she rang for her nurse as she had done many times because of ill health. But by 2 a.m. she had passed away. In her typewriter was an unfinished poem to her husband. With her last breath she asked the

Annie Godfrey Dewey

nurse to give the poem to her husband.
Sheffield remembers a night when he went into the main hotel building, having completed his outside patrol. He was ready to start his interior patrol, but stopped at the front desk to talk to the night clerk. It was off season, and no one else was in the building but the two employees.
"He asked me if I wanted to take a coffee break before going on my rounds," said Sheffield. "We were sitting in the front foyer when we heard a terrible crash upstairs. I grabbed my shotguns and headed upstairs."
The noise had come from the public relations room. When he and the night clerk got to the room and unlocked it, they found that all the books which had been stacked neatly in the room, were all over the floor.
There was no way anyone could have gone past the pair to get into the room, he asserted. "If anyone had gone up there, we would have seen them," he said.
On other occasions, Sheffield and other guards reported hearing a baby crying in the theater at center stage. "A lot of them would turn the lights on when they went

through the theater, but I would use my flashlight. I knew she (Annie) wouldn't hurt anyone," he said.
He remembers seeing Annie herself on a few occasions. "I would turn around and she would be there. she was somewhat solid, but kind of misty," he said.
Sheffield also remembers several occasions when the elevator made trips without anyone calling for it - no guests were around, and no one got on or off. And there were strange lights seen outside of the dining room when no one was around.
The dining room was on the second floor near the Founder's Room. Sheffield recalled that was the room where pictures of famous guests and presidents were displayed. There was also a painting of Annie, which was so well done that no matter where one was in the room, it seemed as if she was looking right at them. Her eyes would also seem to follow one as they moved around the room, Sheffield recalls.
During the month of February a special group of guests would arrive for a two-week stay. Known as the Febs, the group held seances in the Founder's Room each trip. Sheffield said he didn't know if they ever conjured up a ghost, since the room was always sealed off during their visit. But whether one believes in ghosts or not, the stories will always remain as part of the history of the Club.