Plattsburgh, New York: The often-overlooked, but must-see roadside Americana, commercial archeology and recycled architecture destination
Notes, photos and some postcards from my recent visit to my second hometown
I lived in Plattsburgh, New York from 1990 until I went to college in 1999, and then on and off until I graduated from Oswego State (a sports rival to Plattsburgh State) in 2003. We moved there because of the Air Force; my Dad was nearing retirement from over 20 years in the service when they closed down Pease Air Force Base in Portsmouth, New Hampshire (what I consider my “first hometown”), and requested Plattsburgh as his last stop because of its proximity to New England and because his father had trained there as an Army recruit just before World War II.
Because of all the interactions I’ve had over the past year through the podcast with people such as the Retrologist, Rolando Pujol, Jeremy Ebersole and the Society for Commercial Archeology , as well as Dustin Regec of Recycled Architecture, I was excited to visit Plattsburgh with fresh eyes, seeing the city with all its documents of the past hidden in plain sight.
A military origin
Plattsburgh Barracks is the most enduring part of the North Country city on Lake Champlain (“The Lake City”) and as such is the centerpiece of Plattsburgh’s story. Sparsely populated in the Revolutionary War era when a naval engagement took place between New York’s shores and Valcour Island, Plattsburgh was officially settled in 1785. Being so close to Canada and on the lake that divides New York from New England put Plattsburgh in a strategic area to repel foreign invasions that had plagued the region since the colonial period, with the War of 1812 Battle of Plattsburgh convincing no one that it could be the last of its kind. The Barracks were established in the 1830s and continuously built up over the next 70 some-odd years.
The early 20th century saw the Preparedness Movement bring up the “Plattsburgh Idea,” which subsequently turned into the ROTC, and tens of thousands of men were trained to be Army officers between the two World Wars there. After the Second World War and the introduction of the GI Bill, the Barracks were briefly known as Champlain College and offered degree programs to veterans. The Air Force moved in in 1953, and that’s what eventually brought my family there in 1990 when the base we had lived on in New Hampshire closed.
The city of Plattsburgh comes across as an extension of the Barracks; tall, proud, stone or brick structures make up government buildings and the downtown businesses, and most of non-French Canadian demographics exist because of one incarnation of the “The Base” or another.
Along the rail and auto road
Plattsburgh’s strategic location has translated into it being the first or last bastion for roadside Americana, depending on from which direction one is traveling from. This makes The Lake City a place with a rich history of American institutions putting down roots.
The railroad age planted three interrelated locations in South Plattsburgh, The Hotel Champlain, Bluff Point Country Club and Cliff Haven, a Catholic Summer School/ resort village. Only one of these locales, which all relied on the railroad to supply visitors, continues its original purpose, the Bluff Point golf course. Hotel Champlain (the second version that was built after the original succumbed to a fire) is now Clinton Community College and Cliff Haven has been a residential neighborhood since 1958. In fact, I lived in Cliff Haven from age 9 to college, and even took a class or two at CCC.
It was the automobile that killed the railroad-based institutions all over the country, and Plattsburgh was no exception. US Route 9 passes or goes right through these three South Plattsburgh places on its way to the Canadian border from New York City by way of Delaware and New Jersey. Tourists from these places had no choice but to travel on Route 9 even after the Interstate Highway era began because the “Adirondack Northway” extension of I-87 would not be completed until the mid 1960s. Route-9, therefore, has plenty of roadside attractions that are comparable with other US routes including US 20 and to a very small extent, US 66.
Several of the Plattsburgh Rt 9 attractions that stand out are beloved roadside Michigan/Texas Red Hot stands. Believe me, my family and I were perplexed to read those words at restaurants in northern New York when we first moved there, but the story as to why these bean-less chilidogs are called Michigans is a long one and I’ll save it for another time (trust me, they’re delicious).
Opening a mile north of Cliff Haven the year after the Catholic Summer Camp closed, Clare & Carl’s sinking Texas Red Hot stand is an institution. However, the first Michigan I ever tried was across Rt 9 at the now-defunct Nitzi’s (the building was turned into one of three McSweeney’s Michigan stands). Gus’ is on the other side of town, occupying space across the street from the city beach and on the way to the ferry to Vermont. The diner opened about ten years after Clare and Carl’s and boasts more seating and a larger menu than the South Plattsburgh stand. But if you order a Michigan at either place you’ll be asked if you’d like your onions “buried” or not, regardless.
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