Water Over the Falls

St. Regis Falls was carved out of the Adirondack woods. The settlers who cut the trees, cleared the land and built their homes, and lived one day at a time, facing many of the same challenges we face in the 21st Century. The town grew to include industry, a railroad depot, churches, schools and an undefeated high school basketball team. Author Paula Lavoy has talked to old-timers who heard the local legends first hand from their ancestors. Unable to keep these wonderful vignettes to herself, she has compiled Water Over the Falls: St. Regis Falls History to share these nuggets of history, otherwise lost forever. Living in a log cabin that her father built on the banks of the St. Regis River, Lavoy published the first edition not knowing it would sell out and she would have to order a second printing. That edition also sold out and this is her third effort at conveying the rich tapestry of life that has become the modern hamlet of St. Regis Falls, situated in the Town of Waverly, Franklin County, New York. Lavoy is also the author of Looking Back Upstream: St. Regis Falls and Its Past.—Susan Tobias, past President of Westville Historical Society