Harry's Bits and Pieces :: Crown Point/ le fort St-Frédéric

Crown Point/ le fort St-Frédéric

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Gallery: Harry's Bits and Pieces

Album: The Travels

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Album: Crown Point/ le fort St-Frédéric

The forts at Crown Point were built to command the narrow in Lake Champlain between the peninsula of Crown Point on the west bank (New York State) and Chimney Point on the east bank (Vermont)

To the north (downstream), the Lake is quite wide. The mountains in the background are the eastern edge of the Adirondacks.

Upstream (to the south), the Lake is also wide until you reach Fort Ticonderoga (on the New York side) and Mount Independence (in Vermont), where the lake again narrows.

However, between Crown Point and Chimney Point, the lake is VERY narrow.

Immediately above and below the present bridge, the lake widens out very rapidly.

Le fort St-Frédéric, built by the French during the Ancien Régime, was the first fort on the point. Its design is unique in North America.

This massive stone tower featured artillery embrasures on all sides of all floors.

Other buildings inside the perimeter were storehouses, magazines and barracks.

The fort was destroyed during the building of the later English fort and all that remains are earthen ramparts, lower perimeter walls and building foundations.

Storehouse or magazine. All top surfaces have been stablized with mortar.

and there have been repairs to the existing foundations.

Large blocks of stone are scattered around

...and there is a good deal of rubble.

Sue examines some of the excellent signage...

...which is in both English and French, as this site receives a great many visitors from Québec.

The text is quite readable - if a bit lengthy.

Places of particulatr interest are marked, BUT...

The visitor centre is on ground which commands the site of Fort Frédéric. This path takes us up to the site of the later British fort, on the highest point of all.

The path up takes us to the southeast corner of the fort. Note the high perimeter wall and the deep moat, from whence much of the stone to build the fort was quarried.

The wall has been stabilized along much of its length.

Along the south wall, a section has been levelled to permit entrance. This was NOT an original feature of the fort.

The path iinto the fort's interior - a huge level oarade ground, with large buildings planned to occupy all four sides. Only two were completed.

More good siganage, with excellent illustrations...

...and a glossary of fortification terminology. Why don't more forts feature this?

The parade ground is very large - but the fort was intended to be garrisoned by as many as three thousand men!

The cutting at the back left is tghe fort's main entrance. It leads to what was once a bridge over the dry moat and must have been much narrower, and with steeper sides, than is now the case.

I was struck by the excellent craftsmanship of the building walls and how well they had stood the test of time.

The buildings were very impressive, with huge fireplaces. This windswept plateau must have been a dreadful place in a winter storm!

The massive chimneys have fireplaces on all three floors. Only a few years after the first two barracks were complete, fire spread from one of these to destroy both buildings.

The stone steps are still in place.

A third barrack was begun but never completed.

View of the rear of the smaller barrack from the top of the surrounding wall. Note the pockets in the wall to the left.

One of them is used to shelter the fort's massive well.

The whole fort follows the common pentagonal plan.

The rods in the window embrasures and masonry coatings on horizontal surfaces stabilize what is left of the structure.

View toward the narrows from the top of the perimeter wall near the well. The remains of Fort St-Frédéric are visible on this side of the end of the bridge. Notice how the English fort commands both the narrows and the lower land on which the French fort once stood, itself on top of a steep slope above the lakeside.

Gallery: Harry's Bits and Pieces

Album: The Travels

Album: Our June 2007 Tour of American revolutionary War Sites in New York and Vermont

Album: Crown Point/ le fort St-Frédéric

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