Posts Tagged ‘Architecture’

Wednesday, October 5, 2016

Westport’s Stone Schoolhouse Celebrates 200 Years

unnamed-1The little stone school house on Dudley Road is more than just the oldest schoolhouse in Essex County, it was the first schoolhouse in Westport. Built in 1816 from local limestone, the small stone school first opened to serve the first settlers of Westport, the Barber and Frisbie families. On October 10, the town of Westport will be celebrating the bicentennial of this small school.

According to nearby Camp Dudley, the Stone School House served local children for 100 years, closing its doors in 1916. During its tenure the school could serve up to 24 children and provide students with a library of 84 books. Now the school is an historic display, capturing a time before centralized school systems. » Continue Reading.


Tuesday, September 13, 2016

Adirondack Architectural Preservation Award Winners Announced

the-restored-barn-at-nettle-meadow-farm-a-preservation-award-winnerAdirondack Architectural Heritage (AARCH), the region’s historic preservation organization, will be presenting its Annual Preservation Awards on Monday, October 3 to eight projects that exemplify the preservation work being done in communities throughout the Adirondacks. These awards are meant to honor the best examples of sensitive restoration, rehabilitation, and demonstrated long-term stewardship by individuals, organizations, local governments and businesses. » Continue Reading.


Thursday, August 11, 2016

Adirondack History: Old Wooden Water Pipes

wooden water pipes 1 When you turn on your kitchen faucet you probably don’t give it much thought, yet it’s a marvel of modern history.

For centuries, to get water into the house it was necessary to fill your buckets from a fast moving stream and lug them home. Later, you might have filled them from a well or cistern, but still had the chore of lugging them back to the house. Every drop of water you wanted for drinking, cooking or washing had to be transported this way and it was a seemingly endless task. In winter, you might have to carry an axe with you so you could break through the ice that had formed overnight. Here in the Adirondacks, wells were sometimes dug right under the house so getting water wouldn’t be quite so arduous, especially in winter. Common indoor plumbing with water to a faucet didn’t arrive in most homes in the Adirondacks until the 20th century. But there were exceptions, one of which was the LeRay Mansion near the town of Leraysville in Jefferson County. » Continue Reading.


Monday, August 8, 2016

View’s House Tour by Boat Casts Off Saturday

great campView’s House Tour by Boat offers an opportunity to tour the interiors of some of the most fascinating camps on the Fulton Chain. Twenty party barges will depart at 10 am on Saturday, August 13, from the Old Forge lakefront to give passengers an opportunity to tour the grounds and interiors of camps that boaters usually only view from the water.

This year’s tour will include visits to six camps along the Fulton Chain. » Continue Reading.


Friday, July 22, 2016

Bluff Point Lighthouse Restoration Celebration Sunday

Roger Harwood, Bluff Point Lighthouse Committee Chair.In honor of the newly renovated Bluff Point Lighthouse on Valcour Island, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYS DEC) in conjunction with the Clinton County Historical Association (CCHA) has announced a formal Bluff Point Lighthouse Restoration Celebration to be held this Sunday, July 24th at the Peru Dock Boat Launch. 

The schedule of events begins at the Peru Dock Boat Launch at 11 am featuring guest speakers from the NYS DEC and the CCHA, in addition to state and local elected officials. Transportation to and from Valcour Island will be provided by the NYS DEC starting at 1 pm. with free tours at the Lighthouse provided by volunteers from the Clinton County Historical Association from 1 to 5 pm. » Continue Reading.


Monday, May 16, 2016

Saranac Lake ‘History Matters’ Speaker Series Expanded

history mattersHistoric Saranac Lake announces an expanded “History Matters” Speaker Series beginning this month. This new series will feature an event each month for the rest of 2016. The expanded series will include presentations by Dr. Ian Orme on the state of tuberculosis today, Dr. Neil A. Holtzman on Dr. Norman Bethune, and Mary-Nell Bockman on historic preservation in Cuba. Dates for each of the presentations will be announced soon.

The series will kick off this Thursday, May 18, with a presentation entitled “Mythbusting the National Register of Historic Places,” which aims to help the owners of historic properties understand the benefits of the register. Rich in history and architecture, Saranac Lake is home to six historic districts and numerous individually-listed properties on the National Register of Historic Places. This means that most of the historic homes or businesses in Saranac Lake are eligible for or already on the National Register. The Register recognizes properties that are historically and architecturally significant in communities across the country. » Continue Reading.


Wednesday, May 11, 2016

Free Historic Walking Tours in Potsdam, Ticonderoga, Bluff Point

Adirondack Architectural Heritage (AARCH), the historic preservation organization for the Adirondack region, will host a series of walking tours this spring in three communities with unique architecture. Free and open to the public, the tours will take place in Potsdam on May 14, Ticonderoga on May 21, and at Clinton Community College at Bluff Point on Lake Champlain on June 4.

Participants will join local experts and historians in exploring the distinct styles, materials and building designs, and the fascinating history of these very different Adirondack places. » Continue Reading.


Tuesday, May 3, 2016

Camp Santanoni: Past, Present, And Future

Santononi

Steven Engelhart, Executive Director of Adirondack Architectural Heritage, will give a presentation on Camp Santanoni: Past, Present and Future at the Lake George Community Garden Club on May 18th.

The Adirondack region of New York State is well known for a rustic style of architecture, best represented by a series of building complexes known as Great Camps. One of the largest of these is Camp Santanoni in Newcomb, Essex County Town.

» Continue Reading.


Friday, April 8, 2016

Fort Fever Talk Explains Ticonderoga Redoubts

redoubt event fort tiFort Ticonderoga’s final Fort Fever lecture for 2016 takes place on Sunday, April 10, at 2 pm with “Building 18th-Century Redoubts” presented by Assistant Military Programs Supervisor Nicholas Spadone.

From theory to practice, the lecture will examine the construction of redoubts along the Ticonderoga peninsula. This program looks at the science and geometry used in the layout process closely followed by American officers. Participants will be able to explore the literature that influenced young officers to make such fortifications in a brand new American Army.

“Building 18th-Century Redoubts” will begin with a presentation in the Mars Education Center and conclude with a walking tour of Fort Ticonderoga’s redoubts, the largest surviving network of Revolutionary War earthworks in North America. » Continue Reading.


Saturday, April 2, 2016

F. C. Moore’s Big Moose Lake Retreat

big moose campIn the late 19th century, the Adirondacks became a prime summer destination for sportsmen and their families who enjoyed the region’s hunting, fishing, and fresh air. By the 1880s, wealthy businessmen were building permanent camps on even the remotest lakes, including Big Moose, near Old Forge. Sometime after 1880, local guides Jack Sheppard and Richard C. Crego built a summer camp on South Bay of Big Moose Lake for F. C. Moore of New York City.

Francis Cruger Moore was born in Houston, TX in 1842. After the Civil War, he headed north to New York City, where through hard work, he became president (1889-1903) of the Continental Insurance Company.

Moore, his step-son Henry Evans, and their wives summered at Big Moose regularly. To reach the camp, Moore and his guests had to travel north to Boonville, NY, and then survive a tortuous 43-mile journey on primitive roads, a rickety wooden-railed railroad (The Peg Leg Railroad), a riverboat, and finally a guide boat across several lakes. Moore invested heavily in the main camp which stood near the present Manse of the Big Moose Community Chapel. By 1889, a second camp was built nearby for the Evanses. » Continue Reading.


Sunday, March 27, 2016

Rock Solid: The Alden Family of Adirondack Stone Masons

BurhansMansionAdirondack architecture often brings to mind the striking use of wood and other forest materials. But stone was also the choice for many structures, from fireplaces and houses to factories, barns, dams, bridges, even castles and towers. It is literally the bedrock of foundations all over the region.

Rarely mentioned are the names and stories of the stone masons who brought these fantastic designs to life from local quarries, fields and river beds. Thanks to research by the Warrensburgh Historical Society, we know something about the Aldens, a family of masons who helped build Camp Santanoni, Camp Uncas, Sagamore, Kamp Kill Kare and many other widely recognized places in the Adirondacks. » Continue Reading.


Thursday, March 10, 2016

Bolton Landing Museum Reopening With New Wing

bolton museum renovationsWith the addition of its new, 1,800 square foot wing, the Bolton Historical Museum will, of course, be larger in size when it re-opens this spring. But it will also be broader in scope.

A partnership with National Geographic and Lakes to Locks, the nonprofit organization dedicated to heritage tourism, will help re-brand the museum as one of several regional Heritage Centers along a byway extending from the Capital District to the Canadian border.

“As a National Geographic-approved Heritage Center, the Bolton Historical Museum will become a destination for travelers interested in place-based, experiential tourism. When they travel, they look for what is distinctive and unique about the places they visit. The Heritage Center creates that connection between the travelers and the place they have come to visit,” said Janet Kennedy, the executive director of Lakes to Locks. » Continue Reading.


Sunday, February 14, 2016

A Visit To Camp Topridge On Upper St. Regis Lake

a visit to camp topridgeIn 1920, Marjorie Merriweather Post, heiress to the Post Cereal Corporation,  purchased a narrow sand and gravel ridge, an esker, on Upper St. Regis Lake. Throughout the 20s she built a rustic retreat in the Great Camp style with 68 buildings, including two boathouses on the lake; separate cabins for kitchens, bedrooms and baths, and living rooms; and two buildings for cooks, maids, caretakers, and guides.

For years the camp was accessible only by boat or float plane. Transporting supplies and people the 2.5 miles across the lake from the nearest road was challenging, necessitating the use of boats of varying speed and power, sometimes human. A funicular, a cable railway, provided access to the top of the ridge from the water. » Continue Reading.


Wednesday, February 3, 2016

Update On Fort Ticonderoga’s 1826 Pavilion Project

Designing the Future for Fort Ticonderoga's PavilionThe design phase has begun for Fort Ticonderoga’s Pavilion, an 1826 historic home and later hotel located on Fort Ticonderoga just east of Fort Ticonderoga. John G. Waite Associates, Architects PLLC, a consultant firm in the field of historic preservation architecture, has been hired to prepare schematic design and design development documents.

The Fort Ticonderoga Association is expected to use the documents in the stabilization and restoration of the building as part of a larger master plan for the site. » Continue Reading.


Tuesday, January 26, 2016

APA Seeks Comments On Great Camp Santanoni

APA Seeks Comments On Camp SantanoniThe Adirondack Park Agency (APA) is accepting public comment for proposed amendments to the Camp Santanoni Historic Area Unit Management Plan (UMP). Camp Santanoni is located north of the Town of Newcomb in Essex County.

The camp covers a total of 32.2 acres of land and includes: the Gate Lodge Complex, the Farm Complex, the Main Camp Complex and the Newcomb Lake Road.

The APA will accept public comments regarding the proposed amendments and how they meet the guidelines and criteria of the Adirondack Park State Land Master Plan (APSLMP). The public comment period will run through January 29, 2016. » Continue Reading.



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