Stockade Historic District
Stockade Historic District | |
Location | Roughly bounded by Mohawk River, RR tracks, and Union St. (original), and 16, 18, and 20 S. Church St. (increase), in Schenectady, New York |
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Coordinates | 42°49′7″N 73°56′47″W / 42.81861°N 73.94639°W |
Area | 82 acres (33 ha)[2] |
Built | 1735–1800 |
Architect | Multiple |
NRHP reference No. | 73001267 and 84002963[1] |
Added to NRHP | April 03, 1973 (original) September 07, 1984 (increase)[1] |
The Stockade Historic District is located in the northwest corner of
It contains a wide variety of Dutch and English 17th- and 18th-century buildings, many with later embellishments and additions. The National Park Service has described it as "the highest concentration of historic period homes in the country," with over 40 older than 200 years. The Stockade was New York's first local historic district,[3] when it was recognized by the city council in 1962.[2]
It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973 and its boundaries were increased slightly in 1984.[1][4] The city and an active neighborhood association, the first founded in Schenectady, work to protect its historic character.
Geography
The Stockade District is a roughly wedge-shaped area at Schenectady's northwest corner, 82 acres (33 ha) in area. It is bounded by the Mohawk on the north, the Binne Kill on the west and the former
On its southeast corner it borders the
The district is largely flat, reflecting the nearby river. It is densely developed, mostly with small two-story attached houses, and is centered on the intersection of Ferry, Front and Green streets, where a circular plaza is built around a statue of Lawrence the Indian, a
History
For the colonial period and afterwards, the history of the Stockade District is synonymous with the history of Schenectady. Later, as the city industrialized and grew far beyond it, the district retained a distinct identity and sense of community within itself.
17th and 18th centuries
A group of Dutch settlers, mostly merchants and fur traders looking to do business with Native Americans, settled the banks of the Mohawk in an area between the present Ferry, Front and State streets and Washington Avenue in 1661. This group of twelve houses surrounded by a wooden stockade, 200 Dutch feet (about 187 feet, or 56.6 m) on a side is considered the founding of the city of Schenectady.[5] After the 1674 Treaty of Westminster ended the Third Anglo-Dutch War the settlement, like all established by the Dutch in New Netherland, came under British control as part of the Province of New York.[2]
The small frontier settlement was almost wiped out in 1690 during King William's War, the first in the series of conflicts known as the French and Indian Wars. French troops and their Algonquin and Sault allies, retaliating for a series of British-backed Iroquois raids on their territory, were on their way to an assault on Fort Orange at present-day Albany when their scouts found that Schenectady's stockade was almost minimally staffed, and changed their plans to attack this target of opportunity.
In the course of the ensuing
By 1692 the community had been rebuilt and repopulated with a mixture of English, Scottish and Dutch settlers.[2] The stockade was rebuilt and by 1704 took in College Street on the east and Cowhorn Creek on the south. The French and Indian Wars continued into the next century, ending in 1763, by which time the stockade had been extended to the river on the north.[5] The costs of retaining control over the North American colonies eventually led Parliament to consider different taxes on the colonial economy to pay the mounting costs. These, in turn, led to discontent in the colonies, and one of the first "Liberty!" protest flags over the Stamp Act 1765 was raised over the Dutch Reformed Church then at the corner of Church and Union streets. The flag now in the Schenectady Historical Society building on Washington Street.[7]
During the
19th century
In the early 19th century engineer Theodore Burr, cousin of Aaron, having built one of the first significant crossings of the Hudson River at Waterford, turned his attentions to the Mohawk. He decided to build a wooden suspension bridge, using planks of local timber as the cables. A triple span across the 800 feet (240 m) of river between Washington Street and Scotia was completed in early 1808 but then washed away. Burr added a fourth span, and this time the bridge stood up to the river.[9]
The Revolution had led citizens to demand services a nation could provide, among them
In 1819 a fire destroyed two hundred buildings in this area. Six years later, during the rebuilding, the
20th century
Connecticut native Elizabeth Gillette moved to Union Street to start her medical practice in 1900. Two decades later, she was elected to the state assembly, the first woman elected to the state legislature from upstate and the only Democrat ever elected to that body from Schenectady's second district.[10] She served a single term and returned to medicine, retiring in 1960.[11]
Theodore Burr's bridge burned down in 1909 and was replaced with the first of the current bridges nearby that carry Route 5 to Scotia. One of the original stone
By the mid-20th century, the neighborhood had gone into noticeable
Preservation
The neighborhood is one of four historic districts recognized by the city of Schenectady. It comes under the purview of its Historic Commission, a seven-member body that meets once a month. Under the city's
Within the neighborhood, the Historic Stockade Association works to organize residents and help preserve not only the historic nature of the neighborhood but its sense of community.[12] It publishes and distributes a newsletter, The Stockade Spy[14] and organizes tours and other special events in the neighborhood.[15] Some other special events in the neighborhood are informal, such as the sing-along to the pink flamingos that a person or persons unknown has been placing in front of the statue of Lawrence every Valentine's Day for the last decade.[16]
See also
- National Register of Historic Places listings in Schenectady County, New York
- Woodlawn, Schenectady, New York
- General Electric Realty Plot
References
- ^ a b c "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. April 15, 2008.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Vanderlipp-Manley, Doris (October 1972). "National Register of Historic Places nomination, Stockade Historic District". New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. Retrieved September 12, 2009.
- ^ "Welcome to the Stockade Association Home Page". The Stockade Association. Retrieved June 9, 2009.
- ^ Dutch Colonization
- ^ a b c "The Stockade Name". The Stockade Association. Archived from the original on March 9, 2009. Retrieved September 14, 2009.
- ^ a b c d e "Stockade History Center Home". Stockade Association. Archived from the original on April 24, 2008. Retrieved September 14, 2009.
- ^ "Give us liberty!". Stockade Association. Archived from the original on March 11, 2009. Retrieved September 14, 2009.
- ^ "George Washington's letters". Stockade Association. Archived from the original on April 17, 2009. Retrieved September 14, 2009.
- ^ a b Schmitt, Jim, "Stockade Spy" (PDF). (754 KB), Stockade Association, May 2005, "Stockade Stopper: Two Cousins Bridge Perceptions", 11.
- ^ "Elizabeth Gillette: 1876-1965". Stockade Association. Archived from the original on March 11, 2009. Retrieved September 15, 2009.
- ^ St. Lawrence County chapter of American Association of University Women, "Women in Politics: Early Women Elected to the NYS Legislature". northnet.org. Archived from the original on January 28, 2010. Retrieved September 15, 2009.
- ^ a b Buell, Bill (February 28, 2001). "Saving the Stockade". The Daily Gazette. Stockade Association. Archived from the original on March 9, 2009. Retrieved September 15, 2009.
- ^ Schenectady Department of Development, "Historic Districts Brochure" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on October 27, 2010. (1.42 MB). Retrieved September 11, 2009.
- ^ "Stockade Spy online archives". Stockade Association. Archived from the original on March 15, 2009. Retrieved September 15, 2009.
- ^ "Maps and Tours Home". Stockade Association.
- Hearst Corporation. Retrieved September 15, 2009.
External links
- Stockade Association website
- Walls Have Ears, online e-bookabout the neighborhood published by the Stockade Association