Lake George, NY
Museums
Lake George Historical Association
It's easy to find the Lake George Historical Association, set on the main drag in Lake George, on the equivalent of Main Street, which is called Canada Street. The building itself is easy to identify, because it has Greek-revival columns. Inside, you'll find historical displays imparting information on a wide variety of historical subjects such as a log cabin kitchen, a dugout canoe, and George, the monster of Lake George. Visit the museum shop for prints and books and other museum trinkets. The Lake George Historical Association is open year round and it's very very cheap, as museums go.
The Hyde Collection
The Hyde collection is a very respected and esteemed art museum, just a fifteen minute drive from Lake George, in Glens Falls. The museum is the former home of Charlotte Pruyn Hyde, who founded the museum in 1952. It's built in Italian Renaissance villa style and it's chock full of Rembrandt, da Vinci, El Greco, Winslow Homer, Whistler, Van Gogh, Renoir, Picasso and the like. The furniture is 1700's-era French antiques and you'll feel like you've stepped into an 18th century palace at this fine museum. There are also three galleries which house temporary exhibits, lectures, classes, and concerts for the general public. There's a museum shop, too. The Hyde Collection is open year round and offers guided tours twice a day. Admission is low, and even lower for seniors and children and certain hours on Sundays are free.
North Creek Railway Depot
Theodore Roosevelt loved the Adirondacks, by the way...he created the Park, in fact. His era was the time of the short-lived train era in the United States, after horse and buggy and before cars took over. The train depot was a major source of excitement, and any time Teddy travelled anywhere, the north Creek Railway Depot was surely involved. Today, a nonprofit organization has taken it upon itself to acquire and preserve the train depot, with the aim of installing a museum and of actually using the depot for tourist train departures. It's located in the town of North Creek, which is a short drive from Lake George. Drive on Route 28 into North Creek and you can't miss it. Bully!
Chapman Historical Museum
Find out all about Adirondacks history at the Chapman Historical Musuem, located just a fifteen minute drive down the thruway from Lake George, in Glens Falls. The building is an 1865 restored beauty, and shows what it was like to live in the southern Adirondacks in the latter half of the nineteenth century. The DeLong family lived here and two generations of their history is wound into the fabric of this museum/house. There's a musuem shop with good history books in it. Admission is so very low and just one dollar for seniors and students. Children under 12 are free. It's located at 348 Glen Street in Glens Falls.
Fort William Henry
This is a restoration of a 1755 fort, built during the French and Indian War. Good place to take kids, since it's a fun way to learn about American history. Its located on Canada Street in Lake George.
Fort Ticonderoga
This fort was originally the site of a French fort called Carillon, built to protect the French fur trade from the British in the eighteenth century. The British captured the fort in 1779, just four years after the French built this star-shaped stone fortress. Then in 1775 Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold and the Green Mountain Boys captured the fort for the Americans. The Americans then used the fort, with its strategic location, to stage attacks on Canada, just to the north. Two years later the fort changed hands again and this time the British had control. In the early 1800s the fort was bought by William Ferris Pell who rebuilt the barracks there and opened it up to tourists. This was the counrty's first restored historic place, older than Colonial Williamsburg, as a restored historic site.
For Ticonderoga is still very well preserved and open to tourists. There are lots of artifacts to explore, along with gunds, swords, and letters. There are period-costumed guides who know lots of info about the fort and that period in time. To get there, just follow the signs from route 22 or Routhe 74 out of the village of Ticonderoga.
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