Summary

DescriptionOLD FORT HOUSE FT EDWARD NY v3.jpg	Old Fort House is a historic house located in Fort Edward, Washington County, New York. The house is owned by the Fort Edward Historical Association and is operated as a local history museum. In 1983 it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is the oldest house in Washington County, NY. This is an image of a place or building that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places in the United States of America. Its reference number is 83001826.
Date	Taken on 14 October 2020, 17:18:41
Source	Own work
Author	Mark Kozlowski

Camera location	43° 15′ 40″ N, 73° 34′ 51″ W	View this and other nearby images on: OpenStreetMap	43.261111; -73.580833

Originally built in 1772 by Patrick Smyth from timbers salvaged from the original Fort Edward it was known as “Smyth’s House or “The Patt Smyth House”. The house was the first tavern and the first courthouse in Charlotte County under colonial British rule; Charlotte County was later re-named Washington County, New York in April of 1784.

In June of 1777 the house was the headquarters of Continental Army officers Major General Philip Schuyler and Major General Benedict Arnold. In August and September 1777 it was the quarters of British General John Burgoyne and German General Friedrich Adolf Riedesel, who led a regiment of soldiers from the Duchy of Brunswick attached to Burgoyne's arm. In her memoirs, the Baroness Frederika Charlotte Riedesel, who accompanied her husband, described the Old Fort House as "The Red House".

After the British defeat at the Battle of Saratoga in October 1777 and their retreat northward, Fort Edward and the house returned to American hands. It was placed under the command of Brigadier General John Stark, who had just routed the British detachment that Burgoyne had sent to Bennington, Vermont in August. Stark fortified the house with wooden picket barricades and occupied it as his quarters, with some calling it “Fort Stark”.

After the American Revolution the house was known as Sherwood’s House or Sherwood Tavern. In the summer of 1783 it hosted General George Washington while on a tour of the areas battlefields.

From 1829 to 1832 Solomon Northup and his wife Anne Hampton Northup lived in the house that they described as "the old yellow building". Solomon Northup was an African American man born free in New York State. He had local acclaim as an accomplished fiddler. In 1841 Northup traveled to Washington, D.C. under the promise of a well-paying job in the circus. There he was deceived of his money and the legal documents proving his “free man” status and he was sent in chains into slavery in Louisiana. With the intercession of the New York Governor Horatio Seymour he was able to return home in 1853. Later he wrote the account of his capture and sale into slavery as his memoirs: “Twelve Years A Slave”. After that he traveled the North as an anti-slavery lecturer.

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