Wiawaka: A Holiday for Working Women
New York
On the western shore of Lake George stands Wiawaka, one of the few remaining women's retreats of its era in the United States. It was founded in nineteen oh three by Mary Wiltsie Fuller as a place where the young immigrant women who labored in Troy's collar factories and laundries could afford a summer vacation on the lake. Troy was then one of the nation's leading textile cities, and the women who sewed its famous detachable shirt collars had almost no path to leisure travel.
Rates were kept low enough for working women to afford. More than a century later, Wiawaka still operates as a nonprofit retreat center on the same Lake George grounds, serving women of all backgrounds.
