Lake George is a place that looks as if the surrounding mountains cracked open to make room for a deep blue lake. It is a place for both play time and for pondering, where most anything looks promising. It is also a place where, at the turn of the 19th century, women working long days in the laundry and the garment industry could come for a low-cost vacation.

That's because Wiawaka Holiday House, which was founded to support working women, subsidized vacations. Today it continues to make room for working women in programs for professional development, personal growth, creativity and studies of the labor movement. Many women educators come to the center - which still offers sliding scale payment for housing, food and programs - to learn from poets, photographers, drummers, quilters, historians and authors. Programs are held in rustic buildings scattered on the property, which is on the National Register of Historic Places. One building is named after Beatrix Enos, a former Troy teacher.

Members of the American Labor Studies Center are hoping to strengthen ties with Wiawaka since discovering its role with working women, according to Paul Cole, the center's director.

"They have a historical mission of serving women," said Cole, who was a longstanding secretary-treasurer of the New York State AFL-CIO and member of the NYSUT Board of Directors.

Kathleen Donahue, NYSUT vice president who chairs the ALSC, agreed.

"Wiawaka provided a place for working women a long time ago, and continues that mission today," she said. "It's an opportunity for women from varied professions to get together and support each other, to discuss goals and aspirations in peaceful surroundings."

Donahue noted the connection at Wiawaka between the history of labor in America and the history of women laborers, "especially in this part of the state."

She and Cole attended a presentation at Wiawaka by historic preservationist Rachel Bliven that centered on efforts of working women to improve their conditions, particularly Kate Mullany and the Collar Laundry Union she founded in Troy - the nation's first bona fide all-women union.

The American Labor Studies Center has its offices in the Kate Mullany House in Troy, also a National Historic Landmark.

Its purpose is to promote labor studies curriculum to K-12 teachers to give students a picture of the role workers play in political, economic and cultural life.

Wiawaka's charm lies in its relaxed style, with lake breezes wafting through numerous screened porches. Meals are served community-style.

Speakers and workshop presenters are as likely to bring along bathing suits, books and guitars as they are to carry hefty academic and work credentials.

To learn more about Wiawaka, log on to www.wiawaka.org. For the labor studies center, see www.labor-studies.org.

- Liza Frenette