Ogdensburg, NY

Ogdensburg: the Eastern Home of Frederic Remington

The ocean is three states away from Ogdensburg, N.Y., but ocean-going container ships, naval vessels, and cruise liners pass this town’s shores for much of the year. That’s because the town lies on the shores of the St. Lawrence River, a major shipping route between the Great Lakes and the Atlantic.

The Oswegatchie River completes its run from the Adirondacks here at the St. Lawrence, the two rivers providing the city with four miles of waterfront and strategic battlegrounds during the American Revolution and the War of 1812. Testament to the city’s 250-year history, grand buildings still grace the downtown, including the 1809 Custom House (the oldest federal government building in the U.S.), and the castle-like 1897 New York State Armory.

The columned porch of the whitewashed 190-year-old mansion a block south of the St. Lawrence is ideal for ship watching. The mansion—once known as the Old Palace of Ogdensburg—a treasure in its own right—is the only museum in the country dedicated entirely to Frederic Remington, an artist best known for his depictions of the Western frontier. What many don’t know is that, while Remington traveled widely in the West, he was just as fond of New York’s north country scenery.

“Ogdensburg is the center of Remington’s northern experience,” says Laura Foster, curator at the Frederic Remington Art Museum. Born in 1861 just 20 miles south, in Canton, 48 years later he was buried there. He lived in Ogdensburg as a teenager, maintained relationships with his friends here even when New York City became his base, and frequently returned to explore the surrounding landscape.

“In the summers of the 1880s and 1890s, Remington came to Ogdensburg, having already established his reputation for drawing,” Foster says. He would head to nearby Cranberry Lake, an area of old growth forest on the edge of the Adirondacks, where one summer he completed an important early commission: 450 pen-and-ink sketches for Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s Song of Hiawatha.

Later, he bought an island in the Thousand Islands (where the St. Lawrence meets Lake Ontario), maintaining a studio there and entertaining his friends and family from New York.

After Remington’s death, his widow, Eva, moved to the mansion in Ogdensburg, which then belonged to a friend. It was through her efforts, and those of her sister and Remington’s friends and family, that the house became a memorial to the artist in 1923. Visitors now find works here from every stage of his career, including illustrations, watercolors, oils and bronze sculptures, plus artifacts from his studios and personal belongings such as books and furniture.

Mayor William Nelson, an Ogdensburg native, calls the museum one of the area’s jewels. “Ogdensburg used to be an old mill town. It has now transitioned into high-tech businesses and is moving forward: tourism is a big part of that, (and) the museum is one of the cornerstones.”

The people of Ogdensburg feel a strong relationship with the museum, he says, partly because the city owns some of the collection through Eva’s original donation, but also because the museum strengthens the community’s economic development and recruitment efforts. “When you can show people a world-class cultural attraction, it makes a difference,” Nelson says.

He notes that with a population of 13,500, the city prides itself on being a small, friendly place where everyone knows everyone else. To encourage visitors to linger, the city is revitalizing the waterfront and recreating an original settlement, Fort La Presentation.

In the meantime, the museum’s restoration three years ago of a Victorian home next to the mansion has created new gallery and exhibit space within a wing linking the two historic houses. In the Victorian home, community meeting areas host wedding receptions, visiting naval officers on a Great Lakes tour, and county mayors’ meetings.

“The museum transformed the house to become a place of community activities,” Nelson says. “It’s continuing to strengthen the relationship with the people of the community.”

Freelance writer Yvonne Jeffery Hope lives an hour from Ogdensburg, in Ottawa, Canada.

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