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Experience a virtual tour of the Schuyler House. This estate was the northern plantation and country home of General Philip Schuyler both before and after the Battles of Saratoga. The British burned the original house and its outbuildings during their retreat. The present house, erected in 1777 shortly after Burgoyne’s surrender, was the center of Schuyler’s extensive farming and milling operations. Ways to Explore
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Guided, audio-described tour through the Schuyler House Object Transcript with Photo DescriptionsBelow are the Schuyler House Virtual Tour captions for stops and stop photo descriptions. The tour contains 14 descriptions. Each object caption is followed by a stop photo description. This was the physical center of the house. For some, it was a place of welcome. For others, it was a space only to pass through. Who was who?
A entryway to a house with gray patterned wallpaper includes a bench, chairs, a side table with a candle.
Welcome to the 1777 country house of American General Philip Schuyler. Its predecessor was destroyed by northward-retreating British forces after the Battles of Saratoga, but Schuyler rebuilt out of the ashes after the American victory in the battles. The American War for Independence had ravaged the economy and stability of Schuyler's estate and business, and the local community. Each had benefitted the other, but only a rapid rebuild of the estate could save both.
A wood door is open to the outside. To the left, a room is filled with wooden furniture, a fire place, patterned carpet, and patterned wallpaper.
Here the bonds of family and friendship welcomed Philip and Catherine Schuyler, their children, and guests. News and conversations of current events, business, social and cultural experiences, and personal stories were both entertainment and connection to the world around them.
A dining table is set with kitchenware and a basket of biscuits. The table is in a room surrounded by other wooden furniture, including a clock and a piano.
This small room belies the vast scale of Philip's business endeavors, engineering and technological acumen, and economic prowess. Managing extensive land ownership and farming operations, mills on Fish Creek, a village store, and planning for roads and canals all benefitted the Schuylers and the community.
A table is covered with papers, books, writing utensils, glasses, a pipe, and a candle. A chair sits on either side of the table. A cane is leaned up against the wall. A window looks out to green vegetation.
As the family members and their guests ate their meals here, hearty conversation accompanied the food for those at table. For the enslaved servant attending to the family and guests, his silent standing, waiting, watching, and listening were a starkly contrasting parallel experience.
A door leads to the outside. A wooden table with drawers has plates on it. One of the plates has a cake on it. A window looks out to green vegetation.
This large fireplace was the center of the Kitchen life. Meals prepared here by the kitchen staff fed the Schuyler family and their guests, as well as the servants (free and enslaved alike) working in the house and kitchen. Of course, meals were more than just food. They also provided opportunity for communication, socializing, and developing bonds between people. Behind this fireplace, and viewable from outside, were two baking ovens. Commonly called "beehive" ovens due to their domed beehive shape, they were heated by building fires inside the chambers of the ovens. The fires heated the interior layers of brick. That heat, along with hot coals lining the inside of the oven chambers, did the actual baking. Thick, wooden, removable doors helped keep the heat inside. Tasty bread, pies, and cookies could all be baked by the kitchen staff using such ovens.
Metal tools hang off a brick fireplace. A metal frame holds two pots. Another metal structure holds logs. A smaller cooking oven is inside the fireplace.
Located behind the main house, this kitchen was built around the same time as the main house or shortly after. Matters managed from the North Chamber directed work in the kitchen. This was a place of long, tiresome days for the enslaved servants cooking, baking, stocking supplies, mending, doing laundry, and more. It was also the heart of the "kitchen family's" home life. Family, friendships, cultural practices, personal agency in the local economy (via the village store), and connection to the wider world all took root here.
A wooden table in a brick room has two wooden barrels and one basket on top of it. A drying line with cloth pieces on it hangs above the table from the wooden ceiling.
Just beyond the split rail fence at the far edge of the lawn in front of you is Fish Creek. This waterway, adjoining the property, powered Schuyler's 2 sawmills, grist mill, flax mill, and a blacksmith shop. In time, an aqueduct would carry the Champlain Canal over Fish Creek. The quiet creek was a powerful part of the local and regional economy.
From a wooden porch, a green lawn extends out into a wooded area. A wooden structure is on the lawn.
For the younger children, a few would be sharing this small room. An adjoining smaller room added storage space for the family.
A small bed on a wooden frame sits next to a wooden dresser in a small room.
This space raises more questions than answers. Only one small, finished room exists here, and that dates to the ownership of Philip Schuyler II, Philip's grandson (c.1815). Was this storage? A servant's room? Guest accommodations?
A wooden angled ladder climbs up to an attic with a wooden door.
Over a 20-year time period, Philip and Catherine had 8 children who survived to adulthood. With the whole family in the house, several of the older children would be sharing this room. But with most people living in a one-room house that would essentially fit inside this room, separate bedrooms were a luxury experienced by few and reflected the family's wealth.
Two beds on wooden frames sit in a room with white walls and a fireplace.
While Philip's office downstairs oversaw and influenced the estate and local economy, this room, the North Chamber, was Catherine's domain. As wife, mother, and woman over the household, she managed household matters; a role that continued into the next generation.
A small wooden table set with cups and pitchers sits in the corner of a room that has a fireplace and two large windows that look out to green vegetation.
The enslaved workers' long days made a night's sleep here both welcome and needed. How many individuals and families lived here is currently unknown, but further research is underway.
A small bed sits in an unfinished wooden room. Two chairs sit around the bed. A candle sits next to a basket on a table. Clothes hang on hooks on the wall.
Built as a cellar kitchen but rarely used as such, this cellar's main use became storage for cured meats, dry goods, and alcoholic beverages.
Wooden selves attach to a wall hold 3 bottles of varying sizes. Meat hangs from a hook on the ceiling. A wooden barrel is on the floor.
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Last updated: September 13, 2023