Guide to Historic Sites
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Guide t o Historic Sites of the Hudson River & Champlain Region Great American Places ® NEW YORK ’S HUDSON RIVER AND LAKE CHAMPLAIN REGION In celebration of the 400th anniversary of Samuel de Champlain's and Henry Hudson's exploration of New York —and their encounters with Lenape and Iroquoian peoples— the editors of American Heritage have selected the top historic sites along the watercourses they gave their names to. See our 400th ANNIVERSARY CALENDAR on page NY 10— chockfull of exciting events! Champlain Valley ALBANY COUNTY Transportation Museum Located on the grounds of the former Plattsburgh Air Force Base, the museum Historic Cherry Hill contains examples of vehicles, boats, and Home to the Van Rensselaer-Rankin railroad cars used in the Champlain Valley, family—one of the clans known as the including Native American canoes, barges, “Hudson River manor lords”—from ferries, and a rare restored 1915 luxury 1787 to 1963, the Georgian-style estate Type 82 Lozier automobile, at one time l l i contains more than 20,000 objects and H the most expensive car in America. (518) y r r e www.cvtmuseum.com 30,000 manuscript documents amassed h 566-7575 or C c i over five generations. Visitors can take r o t s i guided tours of the mansion or participate H in programs, such as the “Behind-the- Cherry Hill, once home to the Van Rensse - Scenes Murder Investigation Tour,” which laer-Rankin manor lords, now houses a COLUMBIA COUNTY examines the 1827 murder of John Whip - museum filled with artifacts from early Al - ple at Cherry Hill. (518) 434-4791 or bany history. www.historiccherryhill.org Clermont State Historic Site Ten Broeck Mansion cannons in the War of 1812. A small In 1777 British troops burned the home of museum features exhibits on the fervent patriot Robert R. Livingston Jr., Completed 209 years ago by Gen. evolution of large artillery and the but his wife rebuilt it between 1779 and Abraham Ten Broeck, the New York arsenal’s role in the war. Visitors can 1782 as an agricultural showplace. Guided Militia commander at the Battle of view 60- to 120- millimeter Abraham tours of the estate’s formal gardens, bridle Saratoga in the fall of 1777, the Federal- Tank mortars as well as a British 24 paths, and exhibition galleries leave from style home has since undergone two major Pounder surrendered on October 7, 1777 the visitors center. (518) 537-4240 or renovations in the Greek and Victorian at the Battle of Saratoga. (518) 266-5805 www.nysparks.com styles. Visitors touring the 12-room house or www.dmna.state.ny.us/historic can see family portraits, period furnishings, FASNY Museum of Firefighting and walk the lush gardens. (518) 436-9826 Funded by the Fireman’s Association of the or sites.google.com/site/tenbroeckmansion State of New York, the 50,000-square-foot USS Slater CLINTON COUNTY museum features 90 historic fire engines, along with equipment, and memorabilia Moored on the Hudson River, the representing more than 300 years of local 1,200-ton, Cannon-class vessel is the The Alice T. Miner Museum firefighting history. A new exhibit, Lest We only World War II destroyer escort still Forget: Honoring the Memory of the Fire - afloat in American waters. Complete Alice, the wife of railroad industrialist fighters of September 11, 2001 , features with original battle armament and William H. Miner, purchased the 1824 personal artifacts of 9-11 firefighters. (877) configuration, the onboard museum stone house in the early 1920s as a place 347-3687 or www.fasnyfiremuseum.com spreads across four decks—more than to store her collection of artwork of the 80 percent of the ship—and gives visitors Colonial Revival Movement, which Martin Van Buren a sense of a sailor’s daily life through the flourished in the late 19th century. National Historic Site display of artifacts and memorabilia Collections include a display of miniature Lindenwald, a 36-room, restored Federal - donated by sailors and their families. (518) furniture—a gate legged table, chairs, ist-style house, was home to President Mar - 431-1943 or www.ussslater.org and a chest—silhouettes, War of 1812 tin Van Buren following his retirement in muskets, and historic scenes of the The Van Schaick Mansion 1841. Visitors can take a ranger-guided Battle of Plattsburgh. (518) 846-7336 or tour through the house museum, which Situated at the strategic junction of the www.minermuseum.org Hudson and Mohawk Rivers, the Battle of Plattsburgh Interpretive 18th-century brick mansion served as a Center and War of 1812 Museum military headquarters during the French and Indian War, the Revolutionary War, On September 11, 1814, American Gen. Alexander Macomb stopped the British and the War of 1812. The restored, g n i t advance into the northern states at h Dutch colonial house museum contains g i f e r Plattsburgh, New York. The on-site mu - i 18th-century furniture donated by Alice F f seum contains original works of art related o Shelp, a Van Schaick descendant, and fea - m u e to the Battle of Plattsburgh and the War of s tures rotating collections from the New u M 1812 along with rotating exhibits. A five- Y York State Museum. (518) 235-2699 or N S A www.vanschaickmansion.org by-fifteen-foot diorama depicts the battle - F field from September 6 through the 11, Watervliet Arsenal when British and American troops clashed This 1939 “Pathfinder” and more than 80 Completed in 1813, the nation’s oldest on land and sea. (518) 566-1814 or other vehicles are on display at Hudson, cannon manufactory supplied large-caliber www.battleofplattsburgh.org New York’s Museum of Firefighting. NY 3 contains original wallpaper and furnish - ley and his family, the Queen Anne-style ings, as well as campaign memorabilia house features an interior space designed from Van Buren’s presidency and thou - by Joseph Burr Tiffany, Louis Comfort sands of other objects. (518) 758-6986 or Tiffany’s cousin. Three generations have www.nps.gov/mava left the 35-room mansion filled with books, letters, photographs, furniture, paintings, Olana State Historic Site n o i t art objects, and other personal artifacts. a v Hudson River School painter Frederic r e www.wilderstein.org s (845) 876-4818 or e r Edwin Church lived in the two-story, Per - P c i r o sian-style villa between 1861 and 1900. t s i H Visitors can view the art that Church col - & n o i t lected, including paintings by Martin John - a ESSEX COUNTY e r c son Heade and Arthur Parton, and bronze, e R & plaster, and marble pieces by sculptor Eras - s k r Crown Point State Historic Site a P tus Dow Palmer. The villa also contains f o e During the French and Indian War, Ft. c furniture and art that Church purchased i f f O Frederic served as a critical French bastion during his trips to the Middle East and Eu - S Y rope. (518) 828-0135 or www.olana.org N guarding against British incursions to the Victorian artist Frederic Church north. Destroyed by the retreating French Shaker Museum and Library incorporated Moorish arches and ornate in 1759, the British occupied the peninsula The museum celebrates Columbia Middle Eastern décor into Olana, his and built a new and much larger fort adja - County’s strong heritage of Shakers, Catskill mansion. cent to the old one. The visitors center fea - an 18th century religious sect most noted Staatsburgh State Historic Site tures exhibits on the fort’s history and for the violent shaking that took place military artifacts from archaeological exca - during worship, as well as the hymn, The 65-room Beaux-Arts mansion, reno - vations. (518) 597-4666 or www.nysparks.com “Simple Gifts.” Visitors can see Shaker vated during the 1890s, was home to the Lewis-Livingston family line from 1792 Fort Ticonderoga National Historic furniture, textiles, tools, and agricultural Landmark and the King’s Garden machinery. (518) 794-9100 or until 1938. Located on the ground of the www.shakermuseumandlibrary.org Margaret Lewis Norrie State Park, one of The French began building Fort Carillon the Civilian Conservation Corps’ signature on the Ticonderoga Peninsula in 1755 as a projects of 1933, the home is filled with means of maintaining military control over 17th- and 18th-century French-style furni - Lake Champlain. A relatively small garri - wwDw.UshaTkCermHuEseSumSandCliObraUry.oNrg TY ture, oriental rugs, silks, and artwork. (845) son here defeated a much larger British 889-8851 or www.staatsburgh.org force that attacked it in July 1758 during Vanderbilt Mansion the French and Indian War. During the Eleanor Roosevelt National Historic Site Revolution a bold attack by Ethan Allen National Historic Site and Benedict Arnold brought the fort, now The Gilded-Age, 54-room mansion, nes - called Ticonderoga, into American hands. In the two-story, stucco cottage located on tled on 211 acres overlooking the Hudson, The powder magazine and warehouse the 180-acre campus, First Lady Eleanor was the seasonal home between 1895 and now contain the new Deborah Clarke Roosevelt helped run Val-Kill Industries, a 1938 of Frederick Vanderbilt, a railroad Mars Education Center, where visitors can furniture factory that provided rural men industrialist, and his family. The 1898 attend lectures. The museum contains ex - with work during the Great Depression. home retains most of its original furnish - amples of the fort’s extensive collection of After Val-Kill closed in 1936, the cottage ings including the ornately carved wooden firearms, powder horns, maps, and docu - served as a retreat, and ultimately as her dining room ceiling.