The Point

On arrival

Champagne at Reindeer Hall

Dinner at The Point is black tie on Wednesdays and Saturdays. The house is the Great Camp that William Avery Rockefeller II built on Upper Saranac Lake, in the Adirondacks, about a century ago, when it was called Camp Wonundra. Today it is a hotel of eleven rooms, and it runs like a house party: one rate, and guests at one or two tables for dinner.

You come up the drive under an arch of bent branches and stop at Reindeer Hall, where someone hands you a glass of Champagne. There is nothing to pay. You settled the whole stay, for two, before you left home. A member of the staff walks you around the property, and the stay begins. If you brought the dog, it is expected too: beds, bowls, treats and a life jacket for the boat come at no charge.

Your room

Ask for the Boathouse

There are eleven rooms in four log buildings, and each has a name, a stone fireplace that burns wood, and a view of the lake. The one to ask for is the Boathouse. The house calls it its signature room and its most requested, and it stands at the water’s edge.

Inside, a canopied king bed stands in the middle of a loft under the beams. A fireplace of native stone fills one end. Wide windows look over Upper Saranac Lake to the mountains. There is a bar of your own in an alcove, a table for two, a soaking tub for two and a shower walled in rock. The floors are heated, so the room works in January too.

Outside, a deck wraps around the building. From its ceiling hang two hammock beds that sway, the house says, like a canoe on calm water. The path down to the Boathouse is uneven: say so when you book if anyone in your party walks with difficulty.

If the Boathouse is taken, ask for Weatherwatch, the former living room of the Guest House, where a chiseled stone fireplace faces a wall of windows on the lake. Or ask for Evensong, which was Mrs. Rockefeller’s favorite guest room, with a new terrace cut into the blue granite. Algonquin was Mr. Rockefeller’s study: his own map of the lake hangs over the fire, and the desk is stocked with letterhead.

7 p.m. · Jacket and tie

Cocktails on the water

At seven the house gathers for cocktails, and the place changes every day: the Great Hall, the Pub, the Boathouse dock, or the glass-enclosed Elco launch, an old electric boat that takes the party around the lake when the weather allows.

On five nights a week, dinner is four courses with paired wines, and the dress is jacket and tie for men, cocktail attire for women. A member of the management sits at the table as host, the way the Rockefellers once hosted their guests. You will dine with strangers. By dessert they have names.

Wednesday and Saturday · Black tie

Seven courses in the Great Hall

Twice a week, the Great Hall turns formal. On Wednesday and Saturday evenings the house requires black tie for men and evening dress for women, to keep the tradition of the Rockefellers’ own dinners, and the chef serves a seven-course tasting menu with paired wines. The executive chef, D’Anthony, came to The Point in 2014 as pastry sous chef and now runs the kitchen.

Dinner is at eight, at round tables under the beams, with candles, china and flowers. Afterward the evening moves to the stone terrace, the sofas of the Great Hall, the pool table and the player piano, or to s’mores at the bonfire.

The Rockefellers dressed for dinner in the woods. Their guests still do.

The next morning · A robe

Coffee at the hour you named

The evening before, someone asks what time you want coffee. It arrives at that minute, with fresh orange juice, muffins and jam in small china pots. Breakfast proper is in the Great Hall: omelets, venison sausage, raspberry pancakes, and a Bloody Mary if the day allows it.

Lunch can be three courses with wine, a picnic on an island, a barbecue at the tip of the peninsula, or a meal at the end of the Blue trail in the log cabin the house calls Camp David. The boats, the trails and the equipment are all part of the rate. In summer, ask for the Hackercraft tour of the lake, which passes the other Great Camps along the shore and tells their stories. There is no television, the Wi-Fi reaches only the Gallery and, if you ask, your room, and phone calls are for your room alone.

Winter · A parka

The ice bar on the lake

The Boathouse is winterized, and the house stays open when the lake freezes. The boats come out of the water and the lake becomes the playground: skating, curling, cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, fat-tire biking, bonfires on the ice. In front of the Lower Boathouse, an ice bar stands on the lake.

Book early, in any season: the house says many of its guests reserve their next stay before they leave. The last thing you do is write a note in the guest book. Then you decide whether to book Wednesday again.