Fort Ontario | |
Location | 1 E. 4th St. and Lake Ontario, Oswego, New York |
---|---|
Coordinates | 43°27′57″N76°30′29″W / 43.46583°N 76.50806°W |
Area | 36 acres (15 ha) |
Built | 1839 |
NRHP reference No. | 70000426 [1] |
NYSRHP No. | 07540.000009 |
Significant dates | |
Added to NRHP | December 18, 1970 |
Designated NYSRHP | June 23, 1980 |
Fort Ontario is an American historic bastion fort situated by the City of Oswego in Oswego County, New York. It is owned by the state of New York and operated as a museum known as Fort Ontario State Historic Site.
Fort Ontario is located on the east side of the Oswego River on high ground overlooking Lake Ontario.
Fort Ontario was one of several forts erected by the British to protect the area around the east end of Lake Ontario. The original Fort Ontario was erected in 1755, during the French and Indian War, in order to bolster defenses already in place at Fort Oswego on the opposite side of the river. At that time its name was the "Fort of the Six Nations," but the fort was destroyed by French forces during the Battle of Fort Oswego in 1756 and rebuilt by British forces in 1759. [3] : 3
At the conclusion of Pontiac's War, Pontiac urged moderation and agreed to travel to New York, where he made a formal treaty with William Johnson at Fort Ontario on July 25, 1766.
During the American Revolutionary War, a detachment from the 3rd New York Regiment destroyed the fort in July, 1778, after the British abandoned it. The British returned and rebuilt the fort in 1782. There was an aborted attack on the fort by Colonel Marinus Willet in 1783. The British held the fort after the war was over until 1796 after the signing of Jay's Treaty. [3]
The fort was attacked and destroyed by British forces during the War of 1812 in the year 1814. After a period of disuse, new construction was undertaken in part because of tensions with Great Britain as well as to check smuggling activities between Canada and the United States.
During the American Civil War the new construction began at the fort because of fear of British help from Canada to the Confederacy. After the American Civil War it held Company F, 42nd Infantry which consisted of wounded soldiers from the war that had reenlisted in the U.S. Army. Although the fort remained a military base, the fort itself fell into ruin, since funds were used to create more modern quarters outside the fort.
When the United States entered World War I in April 1917, the fort was repurposed as a military hospital, known as General Hospital No. 5. The facility was used to train medical personnel before they were posted to France. [4]
In 1921, the fort again became an infantry base, initially the 28th Infantry Regiment and in 1933, the 2nd Brigade of the U.S. 1st Infantry Division called Fort Ontario home until the brigade was deactivated on June 1, 1940. During this period, some of the historic buildings inside the fort were restored and a golf course was laid out on the grassy ramparts. [5]
In 1940, the fort was refurbished as an induction center for new conscripts with 60 new buildings for 3,000 men, but it was used instead as a base for several National Guard anti-aircraft units. As America entered World War II, Fort Ontario was repurposed again as a training center for African American military police. [6] Later in the war, the fort was home to approximately 982 Jewish refugees, from August 1944 to February 1946. The Fort Ontario Emergency Refugee Shelter was the only attempt by the United States to shelter Jewish refugees during the war. After the end of the war the refugees were kept in internment because of disagreements concerning whether or not to allow them to become United States citizens. In January 1946, the decision was made to allow them to become citizens, and by February all of the Jewish refugees were allowed to leave Fort Ontario. [7]
Although closed by the U.S. Army after World War II, some of the buildings at Fort Ontario are still used for training by the Army Reserve.
The restored fort is open to the public as a state historic site. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1970. [1] In 2010, Fort Ontario was one of the state-funded historical sites named by Governor David Paterson as being potentially unfunded because of the budget crisis faced by New York State. In response, many of the citizens of Oswego and students of the State University of New York at Oswego have joined together in support of the historical site.
Fort Ontario was built with two other forts in the period, Fort George and Fort Oswego.
The present fortifications are built on a pentagonal plan with five bastions, similar to the layout of Fort Jackson, Louisiana. It was designed for heavy cannon mounted en barbette (i.e. in the open firing over the parapet), but howitzers were mounted in casemates built into the ramparts of the bastions. The stone-faced scarp walls of the bastions were also pierced with loopholes for rifle fire, which are of varying design, reflecting the preferences of the different engineers overseeing the construction. Originally, a ravelin protected the side of the fort facing Lake Ontario and mounted further heavy guns. [8]
The current layout of the fort includes Officer Quarters #1, the Powder Magazine, the Enlisted Men's Barracks, the Storehouse, and Officer Quarters #2. There are also two guardhouses by the entrance of the tunnel to the main entrance. [9]
Oswego is a city in Oswego County, New York, United States. The population was 16,921 at the 2020 census. Oswego is located on Lake Ontario in Upstate New York, about 35 miles (56 km) northwest of Syracuse. It promotes itself as "The Port City of Central New York." It is the county seat of Oswego County.
Fort Oswego was an 18th-century trading post in the Great Lakes region in North America, which became the site of a battle between French and British forces in 1756 during the French and Indian War. The fort was established in 1727, on the orders of New York governor William Burnet, adjacent to a 1722 blockhouse that had originally been a way station for French traders. The log palisade fort established a British presence on the Great Lakes.
Fort Stanwix was a colonial fort whose construction commenced on August 26, 1758, under the direction of British General John Stanwix, at the location of present-day Rome, New York, but was not completed until about 1762. The bastion fort was built to guard a portage known as the Oneida Carry during the French and Indian War. Fort Stanwix National Monument, a reconstructed structure built by the National Park Service, now occupies the site.
Fort Henry National Historic Site is located in Kingston, Ontario, Canada on Point Henry, a strategic, elevated point near the mouth of the Cataraqui River where it flows into the St. Lawrence River at the east end of Lake Ontario. The fort and the point on which the fort was built were named after Henry Hamilton, former Lieutenant-Governor of the Province of Quebec.
Fort George was a military fortification in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, Canada. The fort was used by the British Army, the Canadian militia, and the United States Armed Forces for a brief period. The fort was mostly destroyed during the War of 1812. The site of the fort has been a National Historic Site of Canada since 1921, and features a reconstruction of Fort George.
Fort York is an early 19th-century military fortification in the Fort York neighbourhood of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The fort was used to house members of the British and Canadian militaries, and to defend the entrance of the Toronto Harbour. The fort features stone-lined earthwork walls and eight historical buildings within them, including two blockhouses. The fort forms a part of Fort York National Historic Site, a 16.6 ha (41-acre) site that includes the fort, Garrison Common, military cemeteries, and a visitor centre.
Fort Frontenac was a French trading post and military fort built in July 1673 at the mouth of the Cataraqui River where the St. Lawrence River leaves Lake Ontario, in a location traditionally known as Cataraqui. It is the present-day location of Kingston, Ontario, Canada. The original fort, a crude, wooden palisade structure, was called Fort Cataraqui but was later named for Louis de Buade de Frontenac, Governor of New France who was responsible for building the fort. It was abandoned and razed in 1689, then rebuilt in 1695.
Major General John Bradstreet, born Jean-Baptiste Bradstreet was a British Army officer during King George's War, the French and Indian War, and Pontiac's War. He was born in Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia, to a British Army lieutenant and an Acadian mother. He also served as the Commodore-Governor for Newfoundland.
The Battle of Fort Oswego was one in a series of early French victories in the North American theatre of the Seven Years' War won in spite of New France's military vulnerability. During the week of August 10, 1756, a force of regulars and Canadian militia under General Montcalm captured and occupied the British fortifications at Fort Oswego, located at the site of present-day Oswego, New York.
Fort Rouillé was a French trading post located in what is now Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Fort Rouillé was constructed by the French in 1751, building upon the success of a trading post they established in the area a year earlier, known as Fort Toronto. Fort Rouillé was named for Antoine Louis Rouillé, who at the time of its establishment was Secretary of State for the Navy in the administration of King Louis XV of France. It served as a trading post with the local indigenous peoples from the region.
The Battle of Fort Ontario was a partially successful British raid on Fort Ontario and the village of Oswego, New York on May 6, 1814 during the War of 1812.
The Oneida Carry was an important link in the main 18th century trade route between the Atlantic seaboard of North America and interior of the continent. From Schenectady, near Albany, New York on the Hudson River, cargo would be carried upstream along the Mohawk River using boats known as bateaux. At the location at modern-day Rome, New York, the cargo and boats would be portaged one to four miles overland to Wood Creek. This portage, which the Haudenosaunee called De-o-Wain-Sta, was known as the Oneida Carry or The Great Carrying Place in English, and as Trow Plat in Dutch. After relaunching into Wood Creek, the bateaux would navigate downstream to Oneida Lake, the Oswego River, and ultimately Lake Ontario at Oswego. Lake Ontario was the gateway to all the Great Lakes stretching another thousand miles inland.
Fort Wellington National Historic Site is a historic military fortification located on the north shore of the St. Lawrence River at Prescott, Ontario. The military fortification was used by the British Army, and the Canadian militia for most of the 19th century, and by the militia in the 20th century, until 1923, when the property was handed over to the Dominion Parks Commission, the predecessor to Parks Canada. The fort was earlier named a National Historic Site of Canada in January 1920.
Fort George was the name of five forts in what is now the state of New York.
Carleton Island is located in the St Lawrence River in upstate New York. It is part of the Town of Cape Vincent, in Jefferson County.
Fort Brady was a frontier fort established in Sault Sainte Marie, Michigan to guard against British incursions from Canada. The original location of the fort, known as Old Fort Brady, was along the Saint Mary's River. Fort Brady was located at this site from 1822 until 1893, when it was moved to a new location on higher ground, known as New Fort Brady. The fort was located at the new site from 1893 until its close in 1944. The site of Old Fort Brady was designated a Michigan State Historic Site in 1956 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971; New Fort Brady was designated a Michigan State Historic Site in 1970 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972.
The Fort Ontario Emergency Refugee Shelter, also known as "Safe Haven", located in Oswego, New York was the first and only refugee center established in the United States during World War II. From 1944 to 1945, the shelter housed almost 1000 European refugees, predominantly of Jewish descent. The effort was called "Safe Haven". The refugee shelter is now the Safe Haven Museum and Education Center.
The Safe Haven Museum and Education Center is a museum in Oswego, New York that tells the story of 982 mainly Jewish refugees who fled Europe in the U.S. Government "Safe Haven" program. They came to the Fort Ontario Emergency Refugee Shelter in Oswego, New York, in August 1944.