Walking Tour of Westport, New York 6 Lake Champlain 4 Miles to Wadhams 5 22 Champlain Ave
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Walking Tour of Westport, New York 6 Lake Champlain 4 miles to Wadhams 5 22 Champlain Ave. 33-37 15 4 Arsenal 50 Camp Dudley Rd 3 Old Rd. Marks Rd. Washington 2 22 14 7 41 Bridge to Vermont 30 49 16 miles 38 40 48 8 142,44,43 56,55 9N 13 , 11, 12 10 9 32 Main St. 47 31 39 45,46 60 Congress St. 65 27,28,29 61 59,58 54,53,52,51 6 Lake Champlain 64 63 62 57 Sisco St. Main St. 26 25 22 k o 5 16 o Stevenson Rd. Champlain Ave. 24 r 33-37 B n Walking Routes through Westport: 23 o 4 miles to Wadhams t g n i 9N s Waterfront: page 5 - .3 miles, elevation change: 70’ 15 i Arsenal 17 o 4 H 19 North Loop: page 7 - 2.5 miles, elevation change: 150’ 50 20 3 Old South Loop:Rd. page 12 - 2 miles, elevation change: 200‘ 22 Washington Detail of2 Start 41 Bridge to Vermont 14 721 18 Cycling or Driving Routes: 30 49 16 miles 11 8 22 Barber Point & Raymond’s Mills Loop: page 25 - 7 miles 48 10 9 32 38 42,44,43 56,55 9N 13 Wadhams: page 27Main - 8 St.miles .5 miles, elevation change:47 50‘ 4 miles12 to I-87, exit 31 31 39 45,46 60 Congress St. 65 27,28,29 61 59,58 54,53,52,51 64 63 62 57 Sisco St. Main St. 23 26 k o 16 o Stevenson St. 25 r B n 24 o t Self-guided Tour of Westport & Wadhams g n i s i 17 o Waterfront: page 3 - .3 miles H 19 North Loop: page 7 - 2.5 miles 20 South Loop: page 12 - 2 miles 18 21 Driving or cycling routes: 22 Barber Point & Raymond’s Mills Loop: page 25 - 7 miles Wadhams (4 miles north of Westport): page 27 - .5 miles 4 miles to Exit 31 Route 9N Overview Begin the tour at Heritage House, the historic Baptist Church1 (1877) on Main Street where welcoming ambassadors, exhibits and video interviews offer the best introduction to Westport. Cross the street to Ballard Park to get your bearings. The view from Ballard Park2* embraces Lake Champlain, the life blood of this town, the source of its prosperity, identity, and even its name. Westport The historic Baptist Church, built after fire destroyed the first grew outward from this intersection in a pattern visible in the style and form church, now the Westport Heritage House, serves as a visitor of the buildings along this self-guided tour. Federal and Greek Revival-style information center along the Lakes to Locks Passage Scenic Byway. Photograph by Virginia Westbrook. houses occupy the nearest lots. Mid-nineteenth-century homes filled in spaces between earlier buildings, and spread out beyond the town center. The fire of This tour will guide you through the 1876 destroyed all the buildings on these two central blocks, so structures at evolution of Westport from its early the center of town date from the last decades of the nineteenth century. industrial and agricultural beginnings Sponsored by the Westport Chamber of Commerce to commemorate the 250th anniversary to a summer resort that has responded of William Gilliland’s pioneer settlement in 1765 and the Bicentennial of the Town of Westport, to dramatic changes in expectations founded in 1815. for rest and recreation over the course Indicates site of historic marker. Homes are identified by name or by original owner, where possible, with of a century and a half. * construction dates in parentheses. Superscript number is the map number. 2 Architectural Style Guide Federal Style - 1790-1820/40 Gothic Revival - 1840-1860 Primary house form for the first fifty years First of the Romantic styles to supplant of the Republic: Simple box with five-bay Greek popularity, drawing on Medieval facade, symmetrical windows, paired end design vocabulary. Introduced by chimneys, decorative moldings, fan lights architects in style books: steeply-pitched set in elaborate front door surround. roofs & steep gables with decorative bargeboard decoration, windows extend Greek Revival - 1830-1850 into gables, can have pointed arches Sometimes called the National style; or molding caps, one-story porches spread by carpenter’s guides and pattern common with flattened gothic arches. books: Pediments and pillars derived from monuments of ancient Greece to Italianate - 1840-1875 invoke the roots of democracy simplified Romantic style derived from Italian forms: to cornices in vernacular versions, two or three stories, low-pitched roof porches or porticos supported by with overhanging eaves supported by columns, doorways flanked with side decorative brackets, often in pairs, narrow lights & often transom lights. windows, often in pairs with large panes, with elaborate crowns, square cupola with large panes or tower not uncommon. Photographs by Virginia Westbrook. 3 French Second Empire - 1855-1885 Colonial Revival - 1890-1955 Stimulated by exhibitions of the latest French Expression of renewed interest in American architecture in 1855 and 1867, this style is antiquities triggered by the Centennial characterized by a Mansard (dual-pitched, Celebration (1876): Symmetrical façade; hipped) roof with overhanging eaves supported accentuated front door, often with crown by brackets, narrow windows with elaborate supported by pilasters or an entry porch crowns; cupolas and towers are common. with pillars; windows often in adjacent pairs. Stick - 1860-1890 Bungalow - 1900-1935 Draws on Medieval English building traditions Favorite form for early twentieth- with steep-pitched gables and overhanging century residential neighborhoods: eaves with exposed rafter ends; emphasis one and a half stories, low-pitched roof on decorative treatment of wall surfaces with broad overhanging eaves, large interrupted with boards (“stick”) applied in front porch with columns supported horizontal, vertical or diagonal patterns. on masonry piers. Queen Anne - 1880-1910 American Four-square - 1900-1920 The most exuberant and most popular of the Two story four-square plan with low-pitched, Victorian styles with an asymmetrical plan and hipped roof with front dormer; styling varies, façade with dominant front gable, steeply- but Colonial Revival most common; broad pitched roof, patterned shingles, towers, single- porch supported by columns; entry either story porches with spindle work decorations or centered or off to one side. grouped columns. Photographs by Virginia Westbrook. 4 Waterfront .3 MILES - Walk down Washington Street to the Marina. The house built by David Clark (1875) overlooks freight houses and sheds at Clark’s Wharf, c.1930. Raymond C. aymond Clark, whose family owned the wharf for two generations, Clark photograph courtesy of Bill Johnston. R called this “dock hill.” He was born in his grandfather David Clark's house,3 (1875) on the right just above the Marina. The Clark family traded When James Allen owned the in lumber, coal, brick and other building materials. steamboat wharf (1854-1870), he created a channel so he could Westport’s first wharf, at the foot of Washington Street brought the goods of float supply boats up to the rear of the world to Westport and the products of Westport to the world for more his store located on Main Street, than a century. Its name changed with the proprietors, but the activity never flagged. Ferries carried passengers to and from the Vermont shore. Canal at lake level on the south side of boats brought loads of coal and left with lumber, iron, bricks, wool, hay and Hoisington Brook. Washington other farm produce. Steam-powered “line boats” stopped here on daily runs St (formerly Mill St) follows the from one end of the lake to the other, or on excursions filled with holiday- course of Allen’s mini-canal. makers. The Ticonderoga, the last great steamboat on the lake, came home to this dock every night from 1907 until 1924. When the Clarks sold the dock to Giroux & Adams (1939) almost all commercial boat traffic had ceased, but recreational boating was on the rise. 5 The new owners replaced the buildings with a large storage shed for personal watercraft (1941). They built a marine railway, repaired the cribbing and added a broad boardwalk around the building. Three changes of ownership later, the Carrolls have created a full- service marina4. They replaced the marine railway with a travel lift, added shower facilities and renovated the arch-roofed “hanger” as a mechanic shop, marine store, offices and a restaurant serving boaters and summer visitors. The Westport Marina commands a view of Courtesy of the Gretna Longware collection, many shoreline features. Adirondack History Museum. When Daniel F. Payne bought To the south (RIGHT) of the Marina stood the Norway Furnace (1869). The Lake Champlain Ore and Iron Company planned to build a tram road to bring ore from the Norway Bed, in this wharf, he controlled the Iron Ore Tract, five miles away, but the enterprise was soon abandoned (1871). Fifty years most of the iron and lumber later, a group of investors hired architect Russell Whitehead to design a Yacht Club alongside production at Wadhams 5 a new dock (1939). Regattas, swimming events, dances, and costume parties kept summer Mills along with interests in folks well entertained. The building burned (1982). Today the traditional French Bistro du Lac “rolling and slitting” mills offers dining in a replica building on the dock in summer. and the nail factory near the To the north (LEFT), the other commercial wharf 6, built by Ebenezer Douglas (1828) ferry dock in Essex. Business extends far out into the lake. Douglas built a brick store above his dock. He also made at the wharf slacked off after potash, dealt in lumber and operated cargo vessels.