Walking Tour of Westport NY

32 Pages·2015·0.9 MB·English

Walking Tour of
Westport, New York
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Lake Champlain
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Congress St.
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24 n Self-guided Tour of Westport & Wadhams
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17 oi Waterfront: page 3 - .3 miles
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North Loop: page 7 - 2.5 miles
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South Loop: page 12 - 2 miles
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1 Driving or cycling routes:
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o 22 Barber Point & Raymond’s Mills Loop: page 25 - 7 miles
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mil e 9 Wadhams (4 miles north of Westport): page 27 - .5 miles
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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
grew outward from this intersection in a pattern visible in the style and form
The historic Baptist Church, built after fire destroyed the first
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 houses occupy the nearest lots. Mid-nineteenth-century homes filled in spaces
Byway. Photograph by Virginia Westbrook.
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
the center of town date from the last decades of the nineteenth century.
evolution of Westport from its early
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.
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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.
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Photographs by Virginia Westbrook.
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.
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Photographs by Virginia Westbrook.
Waterfront

.3 mileS - Walk down Washington Street to the Marina.
The house built by David Clark (1875) overlooks freight R
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. 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
than a century. Its name changed with the proprietors, but the activity never
his store located on Main Street,
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.
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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
a new dock5 (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 wharf6, 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. D.L. Allen extended the dock to its Payne turned his attention to
present length when he bought it (1845). D. F. Payne bought it from Allen (1880) the same
producing electricity (1904).
year that he added a fourth hearth to his forge at Wadhams Mills.
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David Erit rebuilt the dock (1920), dredging a channel out into Northwest Bay
so he could run a steam ferry across the lake to Arnold’s Bay. A few years later
(1929) the Lake Champlain Bridge, joining Crown Point with Addison, Vermont,
put most of the ferries on the south end of the lake out of business.
Across the bay, the Sisco Farm hosted religious camp meetings before the iron
furnace left its mark on Furnace Point. Camp Normandie hosted campers there
for many years before it became a family resort.
Elizabeth Lee leads tours around Westport. Here, she Walk north along the lake shore. At Lee Park7, where Hoisington Brook meets
examines the Sisco Furnace ruin at Normandy Beach Club.
Photograph by Virginia Westbrook. the lake, cross the pedestrian bridge under the James Bridge to explore the
quiet, shady nature trail.
The base of Sisco Furnace (1847)
still stands. It could produce up to No evidence remains of the mills that once stood by this stream, named for the
nine tons of pig iron per day with a man who created two ponds for impounding water to run the mills. Barnabas
Myrick operated a saw mill, a tannery, and an ashery that produced potash, a key
continuous blast that lit up the bay
cash crop in the early nineteenth century. He also owned forges in Wadhams.
at night. The company town, called myrick built his house8 (1818), on the hill at the corner of Main Street and
“Jacksonville,” included worker Champlain Avenue. It served as the Union School (1864) for twenty five years,
housing, offices, a store and homes until the Town built a “new school” (1889) below the Federated Church.
for Mr. Jackson and the company
book-keeper. Climb the slope to Main Street, by the Lee Park monument.*
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Take a moment to observe how geography has shaped
this community. Hoisington Brook forms a natural divide,
marked by the bridge. The waterpower potential of the
brook determined that industry would locate here. The two
wharfs determined where freight would arrive or depart.
As a consequence, Westport developed two commercial
centers, one on either side of Hoisington Brook.
The stones facing the highway bridge came from the
earlier stone arch bridge, replaced in 1978. James
Bridge9 is named for Dora James, who ran the nearby
Lee Park Restaurant for many years.
At this point, you can choose to turn left to follow the
North Loop along Champlain Avenue, and up to the
Fairgrounds and Depot (2.5 miles) or go right (and turn to
page 14) to follow the South Loop down Main Street (and
back) and around Orchard Terrace (2.3 miles).
The stone grist mill rose three stories up from its wharf at lake level. The shoreline section
of Washington Street, formerly Mill Street, follows the course of James Allen's delivery canal.
Photograph courtesy of Bradamant Realty.
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North loop

2.5 mileS - From the bridge, proceed north up the Main Street hill.
T
he rambling structure at the corner of Marks Road has a long history of
service to travelers, beginning as a wheelwright shop. Mell Lott ran a stable
and livery10 (c.1900) here in the early years of the twentieth century, with a
wagon painting and repair shop in the loft and a blacksmith shop out back. It
served as a gas station until 1996.
Turn right on Champlain Avenue.
Richards & Weed’s Hotel, a very popular public house, dominated this commercial
district for many years. After it burned (1893), small shops quickly filled in the
empty space. A real estate office next to ernie’s market11, housed the telephone
switch-board for a time. Chazy-Westport Telephone Company12 built their
Firemen hung wet hoses in the tower of the “Old Hose House” first building (1958) to handle the “new” dial phone system. They added a new
to dry them after a fire. The bell that hung in an adjacent belfry
wing (1971) when long distance direct dialing came in. Farther along, the Town
was moved to the new fire station (1960) on Champlain Avenue.
Photograph by Virginia Westbrook. Office Building13 (1928) hosted school events and basketball games, movies and
roller skating. Built by the Lake View Grange (no. 970), this building had the largest
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