November 2010

The Battle of Plattsburgh Association runs the Battle of Plattsburgh Interpretive Center and War of 1812 Museum to preserve the memory of the soldiers of the War of 1812.

On September 11, 1814, American Gen. Alexander Macomb stopped the British advance into the northern states at Plattsburgh, New York. The on-site museum contains original works of art related to the Battle of Plattsburgh and the War of 1812 along with rotating exhibits, including Forgotten Artifacts of the Battle of Plattsburgh-with musket pieces, metal pieces, and ammunition dredged from Lake Champlain. A five-by-fifteen-foot diorama depicts the battlefield from September 6 through the 11, when British and American troops clashed on land and sea.

During the French and Indian War, Ft. Fredric served as a critical French Bastion guarding against British invasions to the north.

Destroyed by the retreating French in 1759, the British occupied the peninsula and eventually built a new and much larger fort adjacent to the old one.

In 1775, at the outbreak of the Revolutionary War, the rebellious colonists captured the fort and secured sorely needed cannons and heavy ordnance. Crown Point was occupied by General John Burgoyne's army in 1777 after the American evacuation to Mount Independence and remained under British control until the end of the war. The ruins of Fort St. Frederic, "His Majesty's Fort of Crown Point," and surrounding lands were acquired by the State of New York in 1910.

Visitors can see the ruins of the original 18th-century structures and in the Visitor Center, view exhibits that interpret the French, British, and American chapters of Crown Point's history. Located across the road is the Lake Champlain Visitor Center, featuring exhibits on the fort’s history and military artifacts from archaeological excavations

The adjacent museum contains two museum galleries featuring a 25-minute film on 18th-century soldier life, and visitors can hike up Fort Nonsense hill nearby, where soldiers built a safe house in the spring of 1777 for defense against British attack. Jockey Hollow Visitors Center, located 5 miles from the fort, features a reconstructed Revolutionary soldier’s hut and mural of the 10,000 troops that camped there during the winter of 1779.

Today, seven-and-a-half acres of the mid 19th-century original estate remain and contain a reconstructed factory building, the facility where Vail and Samuel Morse first tested the electric telegraph, a granary featuring exhibits on early farm machinery, and a 1849 carriage house.

Contemporary collections spill into the 15,000-square-foot addition. The Andrus Planetarium is also on site.

Today, the Museum's collections reflect its mission to provide for development, preservation, and display of 19th- and 20th-century American art and history. The staff regularly organizes special collection exhibits and loan exhibits in which the permanent collections can play a role. Paintings, furniture and decorative arts are also always on view in the six period rooms in Glenview Mansion and its second floor hall and Lifflander Galleries.

The house museum, originally the 1772 home of Patrick Smyth, has been open to the public since 1953 with authentic furnishings depicting the lives of occupants from the 1770s through the 1940s.

Built with timbers taken from the ruins of the French & Indian War fortification Fort Edward, the house was used as headquarters by both British and American generals in the Revolutionary War. Smyth was arrested at the house in 1777 by General Benedict Arnold for being a loyalist to the British Crown. During the Revolutionary War, the house was used by both British and American troops as headquarters. American General Stark erected a stockade fence around the house and for a time the building was called Fort Stark. It was also used by British General Burgoyne for a short time.

The home was used as both American and British headquarters during the Revolution, and was later the residence of Solomon Northup, a freed Southern slave and author. Tours are offered where visitors can explore the home with some of its original furnishings from the residents through the 20th century, an 1874 law office, and the classroom of the Old Fort Campus

From 1756 to 1759, Rogers Island was used as a training ground for Major Robert Rogers, from which the Island takes its name. Here, Rogers trained irregular fighting forces and composed his 28 ranging rules. Fort Edward and Rogers Island were evacuated in 1766 and left to ruin during the American War of Independence, though it was briefly garrisoned until 1777. During the 1800s, the Island was used to train militia for the American Civil War, with the northern tip of the Island being inhabited by civilians.

The visitors center, opened in 2001, houses exhibits documenting the Native American occupation and the history of nearby Fort Edward and artifacts from the Little Wood Creek Archaeological Site, once a Native American village area.

Visitors can tour three floors of period rooms containing furnishings and artwork of the Colonial Revival Movement, which flourished in the 19th Century. Collections include a display of miniature furniture-a gate legged table, chairs and a chest-used as samples by a traveling salesman, silhouettes, War of 1812 muskets, and historic scenes of the Battle of Plattsburgh.

An exhibit on Greater Troy's industrial history is housed in the former office of the Burden Iron Works. Constructed 1881, the distinguished brick Romanesque Revival building contains examples of objects manufactured in the city throughout the 19th century.

The museum is operated by the Hudson Mohawk Industrial Gateway, which also maintains downtown Troy's RiverSpark Visitor Center (where there are additional exhibits about the city's history) and sponsors a regular series of tours, including one that focuses on Troy's large concentration of Tiffany windows. Self-guided walking tours of the city's large collection of 19th-century buildings are also available there.

Visitors can also explore the preserved 19th-century Victorian gatehouses and gothic chapels.