Gateway Monuments

On June 1, 1998 the new Stockade Gateway was formally opened at the corner of Erie Boulevard and Union Street. Four centuries of Schenectady Stockade history are inscribed on the granite monuments there. Many thanks to Stockade neighbor Jean Zegger who researched and wrote each inscription. You can read them below or visit in person.

THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY

The Schenectady Stockade is one of the oldest communities in America. Founded by the Dutch on land purchased from the Mohawk Indians in 1661, it came under English rule three years later.  From the earliest days a timber stockade wall protected the settlement; however in 1690 a massacre and fire destroyed the village in the first of the Colonial Wars. With the help of the Mohawks, some undaunted settlers rebuilt before the new century.

THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

The village thrived with farming, fur trading, and boat building on the Mohawk River bank.  It became a commercial, transportation, and military center.  Schenectadians contributed significantly to the development of the West.  They played an important role during the Colonial Wars and the Revolutionary War, after which the third stockade wall was removed.   Union College, founded in 1795, was first located in The Stockade.

THE NINETEENTH CENTURY

Two events changed the commercial life of The Stockade.  In 1819 a disastrous fire destroyed businesses near the Mohawk River, and several years later the Erie Canal provided water transportation outside the old stockade boundaries.  Businesses rebuilt in a new part of town.  Community life still centered in The Stockade; but the area continued as mainly residential, retaining a diverse architectural legacy of houses, churches, and public buildings. 

THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

In 1962 The Schenectady Stockade became the first Historic District in New York State.  The City established it as a legally protected historic zone under a state enabling act.  In 1973 the United States Development of the Interior entered The Stockade on the National Register of Historic Places.  The national recognition affirms the historical and architectural significance of The Stockade and encourages the preservation of this important part of America’s heritage.