Abstract
This thesis addresses the historic landscape of Fort Ontario, a 40-acre state historic site in the City of Oswego, New York overlooking the confluence of the Oswego River and Lake Ontario. Research was funded by the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation to support its management of the cultural landscape.
During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the importance of the fur industry led to numerous conflicts between the English and the French for control over the Mohawk-Oneida-Oswego river system. The confluence of the Oswego River and Lake Ontario was a key entry point to this river system and the battle for control of this location resulted in the construction of a fort there by the British in 1756. The existing pentagonal stone fort was constructed by the British in 1782, and turned over to the United States in 1796. Through 1946, the site was an active federal military reservation used as a defense installation, a training base, and housing for Jewish refugees from the Holocaust during World War II. In 1946, the fort was turned over to the State of New York and in 1949, a portion was designated as Fort Ontario State Historic Site.
The thesis consists of volume 1 (site history) and volume 2 (existing conditions and evaluation). It documents the physical history of the site, and identifies the landscape features, characteristics, values, and associations that make the site historically significant. The thesis recommends that the period of significance encompass the period from 1755 to 1954 to include the entire military history of the site as reflected in the existing landscape, as well as early state improvements in adaptation to a historic site.
This thesis is available at SUNY ESF’s Moon Library – Thesis Call Number H485