Welcome To Crown Point State Historic Site

Welcome To Crown Point State Historic Site. Bienvenu Au Site Historique De Crown Point Dans L'Etat De New York. , Crown Point is the site of two major 18th-century fortifications: France's Fort St. Frédéric and Great Britain's fort at Crown Point. The ruins of these forts have survived substantially unchanged since the late 18th century and have been separately designated National Historic Landmarks by the U.S. Department of the Interior-the highest form of protection and recognition a historic resource can receive. We encourage you to begin your visit by exploring our museum, which includes a video orientation and exhibits. , , Crown Point Connections , Today, Crown Point State Historic Site interprets the French, British, and Native American people who all left their mark on this peninsula. , , Lakes and rivers were the highways of colonial North America. The Richelieu River, Lake Champlain, Lake George, and the Hudson River formed a nearly perfect line of water- ways from Montréal to New York City. Battlefields, forts, parks, and museums all along this historic water course offer opportunities to explore the history of the people that once lived, traded, and sometimes fought here. , , The Ruins Of Fort St. Frédéric , Chaussegros de Léry, the king's engineer in New France, drew plans for Fort St. Frédéric that included this image of the beautiful stone fort. , , Between 1734 and 1738, the French built an awe-inspiring stone fortress at Crown Point called Fort St. Frédéric. French settlers created a thriving community around the fort that they were forced to abandon in 1759 because of the approach of a large British army. Rather than allow the fort to fall into British hands, the French blew up the fort, leaving it a ruin. , , Built on the site of the present-day Champlain Memorial Lighthouse, Fort St. Frédéric's windmill ground wheat into flour and helped support the burgeoning French community. , The British Fort At Crown Point , In 1759, Lieutenant Thomas Davies painted this scene of the British army encamped at Crown Point. The British fort under construction appears in the distance at the end of the peninsula. , , As soon as the British occupied Crown Point in 1759, they began constructing one of the largest forts they would ever build in North America. Over the next several years, they built a massive, pentagonal fortification with walls over 20 feet high. Designed to house up to 4,000 men and withstand attack by enemy artillery, the fort met its end in 1773 when an accidental chimney fire burned out of control and reduced the fort to ruins. , , The National Historic Landmark designation states that the "Crown Point fort, in its ruined but unaltered state, is probably the finest existing architectural and archeological type specimen in the United States of a superior example of 18th-century military engineering.” The Georgian style barracks are worthy of preserving as authentic ruins.