Crossroads of a Community

Crossroads of a Community. LaChute Riverwalk. , From the time of the first land survey of the lower falls in 1822, a bridge has crossed LaChute River here, where Spencer Creek once rejoined the main stream. Eventually, the bridge took its name from the planing mill run by B.F. Frazier on the other side of the River starting in 1836. A cast-iron "Cooper patent” arched-truss bridge with a plank deck replaced the old wood bridge in 1874. When it collapsed in 1892, a petition circulated in support of building a stone arch bridge, arguing that the savings on replacement plank decking would soon offset the additional construction cost., The present Frazier Bridge owes its survival to the reorganization of traffic brought on by the expansion of the International Paper Company complex. The bridge carried Main Street across the River until 1960, when construction of an immense building for the "Number 7 paper machine” blocked the road. A new road, Tower Avenue, became the main crossing while Main Street reverted to a footpath between the mill buildings., Top Left Photo: This wayside exhibit stands on the site of the Island Mill Power Station where water piped from the "upper dam” drove hydroelectric generators. Water from the electric generators, as well as the water from the pulp vats and paper machines, flowed back into the River here., Top Center Photo: Benjamin Franklin Frazier lived between the bridge and his furniture shop. He also worked as an undertaker, building coffins from the lumber planed at his mill (in rear). Portions of this shop still survive inside the building across the River., Top Right DrawingThe map of Ticonderoga published in 1876 shows the original path of the River, with Spencer Creek breaking off above Exchange Street (now Montcalm Street) and rejoining the River just above the bridge. Three short years later, the first pulp mill would start an industrial revolution that would transform this landscape many times over., Main Picture: Sir Henry Barnard's sketch of “Ticonderoga Creek” shows the simple wooden bridge, just beyond Spencer Creek, entering on the right. Note the pile of boards issuing from Frazier's Planing Mill on the left, as well as the strolling couple and the woman washing clothes on the riverbank., All images courtesy of the Ticonderoga Historical Society