Best Historic Sites in Upstate New York for America’s 250th
America turns 250 this year, and there’s no better way to celebrate the SemiquincentennialĚý than by visiting places that document and bear witness to the nation’s history.
Upstate New York is rich with it—from Revolutionary War forts to those that tell the stories of the Indigenous nations, abolitionists and suffragists who shaped the nation alongside its founders.
University faculty shared their recommendations for historic destinations worth a visit, spanning a range of time periods, perspectives and driving distances from campus.
What follows is organized by distance, from sites under an hour away to those requiring a longer road trip (but still under four hours). Admission prices, hours and programming vary by location, so check ahead before you go—and consider making a day (or weekend) of it.
Under 1 Hour Away
, associate professor of Native American and Indigenous studies and associate professor of English in the , recommends visiting the Haudenosaunee Cultural Center right in Syracuse, which is focused on telling the story of the native peoples of central New York.
“It would allow visitors to better understand the composition and history of the Haudenosaunee (Six Nations) Confederacy and how it related to settler politics and cultural challenges to its identity leading up to the Revolutionary War,” he says.
Just an hour away in Rome, is the fort that , Distinguished Professor and chair of the in the , says is worth a visit.
“Initially built by the British during the French and Indian War, the fort was occupied and reconstructed by American troops in 1776,” he says. “The fort was successfully defended from an attack by British troops, Loyalists and Native Americans in August 1777.”
Stevens says a visit to the fort would also help visitors better understand the military and diplomatic relationship between the Haudenosaunee and colonial governments.
“This was an important site for maintaining the balance of power in the Northeast and would also be the site where two important treaties would set the tone for Native and settler relations before and after the Revolution,” he says.
Another spot not far from Syracuse that DeCorse recommends is Fort Ontario State Historic Site in Oswego.
“Fort Ontario was originally erected by the British in 1755, as one of several forts to protect the east end of Lake Ontario,” he says. “It was destroyed by American forces in 1778, but subsequently rebuilt by the British in 1782 and held until the determination of the US-Candian boundary in 1796.”
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, professor of history and senior associate dean for academic affairs in Maxwell,Ěý says to consider visiting this national historic park just under an hour away in Seneca Falls. It’s on the site of the first convention devoted to women’s rights in 1848, which saw attendees that included Frederick Douglass, Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
“The park includes a museum, monument and a reconstructed Wesleyan Chapel, the site of the meeting,” she says. “Be sure to be there for one of the talks by a park ranger. Also, plan to see a park ranger talk at ˛Ô±đ˛ą°ů˛ú˛â.”
Another car ride under an hour away is the Oneida Community Mansion House, which was established in 1848. Faulkner says the Oneida Community was a successful Utopian experiment in communal living, eventually becoming Oneida Limited, the tableware company, after its dissolution in 1881.
“The mansion features regular tours, including occasional haunted or behind-the-scenes tours,” she says. “Founded by religious perfectionists, they extended their utopian experiment into the marriage relation itself. The Mansion House also offers rooms to stay in for a weekend getaway.”
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Grant Reeher, a political science professor in Maxwell and senior research associate at the , says you should stop in Auburn to visit both the Harriet Tubman Home and the Seward House Museum.
Both the and the historic home of William Henry Seward, who served as governor of New York, a U.S. senator and secretary of state in the Lincoln and Johnson administrations, speak to the Civil War and the struggle to end slavery, Reeher says.
“One gets a sense of the contingency of the American experiment over the years, and the fact that individual people are essential in understanding the ongoing story of that experiment,” he says.
1-2 Hours AwayĚý
If you plan to head west from Syracuse, Faulkner says you should consider this site in Rochester, which served as a home base for Anthony’s national leadership of the women’s rights movement. It’s also where she was arrested for registering and voting in 1872.
“The house offers tours and other programming,” says Faulkner. “Right down the street is a statue of Anthony and her fellow activist and Rochester-resident Frederick Douglass having tea.”
East from Syracuse, Stevens says this site explores the diplomatic relationship established between the Haudenosaunee and the British Crown before the American Revolution.
“It would help visitors better understand why choosing a side during the Revolution was so difficult for the Haudenosaunee Confederacy,” he says.
2-3 Hours Away
Stevens says there is no singular site in the area that offers visitors the opportunity to learn about the , the “the scorched-earth war of ethnic cleansing launched against the Haudenosaunee general populace in 1779 by orders of George Washington.”
Instead, there are dozens of road-side signs marking the sites of former Haudenosaunee communities destroyed by Sullivan and his fellow soldiers in the campaign, to tribes who sided with the British, and a victory monument at Newtown Battlefield State Historic Site in Elmira.
“This campaign was a key part of the legacy of the Revolutionary War for today’s Haudenosaunee communities,” says Stevens.
A three-hour drive from Syracuse will bring you to another of DeCorse’s recommendations: Old Fort Niagara in Youngstown, which is maintained now by a nonprofit as a state park and museum.
“Although the United States was ceded the fort after independence, the British stayed until the determination of the US-Candian boundary in 1796,” says DeCorse. “Across the border is Old Fort Erie in Fort Erie, Ontario, built by the British in 1764 to defend Upper Canada during the American Revolution and the War of 1812.”
In 1779, Fort Niagara, held by the British, was where some 2,000 Haudenosaunee refugees—most of them women, children and the elderly—fled to escape the violence of the Sullivan-Clinton Campaign.
“Huddled outside the walls of the fort, many would die of exposure or hunger during the extremely cold winter of that year,”ĚýStevens says.
, political science professor and associate dean for research in Maxwell, says the drive to the Teddy Roosevelt Inaugural Site in Buffalo should be on your agenda.
Roosevelt is one of just four presidents who took the presidential oath of office outside of Washington, D.C. He was sworn in following the assassination of President William McKinley in 1901. Roosevelt was climbing the when he got word McKinley had been shot by an assassin at the Pan-America exposition in Buffalo. Roosevelt traveled to Buffalo, where McKinley died, and where he was sworn into office at the home of a friend by a federal judge.
“The site in Buffalo has history of both that event and Roosevelt’s life and presidency,” Gadarian says. “It’s small and doable in a few hours and close to some nice places in downtown Buffalo.”
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Reeher says if you’re looking to witness the “range and the grandeur of the physical nation” a visit to the Niagara Falls State Park, two and a half hours away, is “a must.”
“It’s one of those places that whatever you’ve read and whatever pictures you’ve seen, you need to experience it firsthand to appreciate it,” he says. “It’s similar to the Grand Canyon or Mt. Rushmore in that way.”
3-4 Hours Away
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DeCorse says these two historic sites, both situated on Lake Champlain, are the most impressive Revolutionary War period forts in New York. Both sites are under four hours from Syracuse by car and only about a half hour from each other.
Both were the sites of 18th-century French forts captured by the British in 1759, and DeCorse says they are a testament to the Anglo-French colonial rivalry for control of the region at the time.
“Fort Ticonderoga was captured on May 10, 1775, by the Green Mountain Boys, led by Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold, and His Majesty’s Fort at Crown Point was captured days later,” he says. “These were the first American victories of the Revolutionary War and the cannon from these forts provided badly needed artillery for the fledgling American Army.”
Fort Ticonderoga’s historic site offers visitors living history demonstrations, reenactments and scholarly programs. Crown Point State Historic Site, which has the preserved ruins of two forts, has an interpretive center with displays of archaeological materials from the site.
If you’re in the area, DeCorse says there are numerous Revolutionary War historic sites, including and the on Lake George, just south of Ticonderoga.
If you’re looking for more stops on your travels recognizing American history, , associate professor in the , says the following sites, listed by region and distance to Syracuse, are worth a visit:Ěý
- (Central New York; under 1 hour)
- (Central New York; under 1 hour)
- (Finger Lakes; under 1 hour)
- (Central New York; under 2 hours)
- in Rochester, NY (under 2 hours)
- (Greater Niagara; under 3 hours)
- (Buffalo; under 3 hours)
- (Buffalo; under 3 hours)
- (Greater Niagara; 3 hours)
- (Great Barrington, Massachussetts; 3 hours)
- (Springfield, Massachussetts; 3-4 hours)
- (Adirondacks; 4 hours)
- (Adirondacks; 4 hours)
