A history of Plattsburgh,
since 1785
Postcards, papers and photographs of Plattsburgh from public archives, woven together by decade. Neighbors fill in the gaps.
The story
from WikipediaRead it all ↗Plattsburgh was founded by Zephaniah Platt in 1785 after he was granted the land by George Clinton. Platt, who was from Poughkeepsie, New York, established the new city of Plattsburgh to buffer emerging American interests in the Saint Lawrence River valley and Lake Champlain valley after the American victory in the American Revolutionary War. The centralized American authority proclaimed Plattsburgh in 1785.
On March 3, 1815, an act was passed by the New York State legislature incorporating the Village of Plattsburgh out of an area that was formerly the eastern part of the town. The first village elections were held on May 2 of that year.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Timeline
built from the dates on the items belowFinish Plattsburgh’s story
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
0 of 10 decades since 1900 have photos 🔁Retake an old view"U.S. Custom House and P.O., Plat…, 1869: stand where they stood+15 📦Share a family photoSign in to add one+10Famous people from Plattsburgh
See all 55 →
Plattsburgh, decade by decade
25 historic places in Plattsburgh
Plattsburgh has 25 listings on the National Register, and they protect 151 historic buildings, because Court Street Historic District alone counts 51.
Where they are
When they were listed
Then & now
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as Battle of Plattsburg (1816) and it appears here side by side.
🔁 Retake this view · +15Stories next door
nearby towns’ historyFrom Wikimedia Commons (4) and the Library of Congress (1). Images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.