Gypsy Heart
Gold Member
The following is an excerpt from New York: A Guide to the Empire State in Tour 26 (NY Route 104):
The FRONTIER HOUSE, Center St., a large, gray stone three-story building, was erected in 1824; the porch was added in the late 1830's. Here, according to tradition, James Fenimore Cooper wrote The Spy. William Morgan, who planned to publish secrets of the Masonic order, was seen by non-Masons for the last time at this inn on September 13, 1826.
The "Morgan Affair" still remains one of the most bizzare unsolved cases in American history to this day. He was kidnapped in nearby Batavia, NY and taken to Lewiston by stagecoach and put in another carriage behind the Frontier House. Morgan was never seen again. Rumor has it he was taken to Fort Niagara, shackled, and thrown off a boat in the middle of the Niagara River.
The Frontier House has remained open throughout the years as some type of restaurant. The most recent tenant was a McDonald's, the only McDonald's in the country to be located in a building on the National Register of Historic Places. However they moved out in December 2004 and it has remained vacant since. Efforts are underway to establish a culinary school on the first floor of the building
It was home to the finest hotel west of Albany, which still stands today and is known as the Frontier House which was built in 1824-5 by Joshua Fairbanks, Benjamin Barton and son, Samuel.
The Frontier House was once recognized as the finest hotel west of Albany, and is Lewiston's premiere historic landmark. Stage coaches once thundered up to its doors when it served as a stop when Lewiston was the center of the "Great Overland Route Across the Continent." The Froniter House is constructed of stone from the Bay of Quinte at the Northeastern end of Lake Ontario. 18 men worked 18 months in laying up the solid stone 30 inch walls.
http://www.historiclewiston.org/history.html
The FRONTIER HOUSE, Center St., a large, gray stone three-story building, was erected in 1824; the porch was added in the late 1830's. Here, according to tradition, James Fenimore Cooper wrote The Spy. William Morgan, who planned to publish secrets of the Masonic order, was seen by non-Masons for the last time at this inn on September 13, 1826.
The "Morgan Affair" still remains one of the most bizzare unsolved cases in American history to this day. He was kidnapped in nearby Batavia, NY and taken to Lewiston by stagecoach and put in another carriage behind the Frontier House. Morgan was never seen again. Rumor has it he was taken to Fort Niagara, shackled, and thrown off a boat in the middle of the Niagara River.
The Frontier House has remained open throughout the years as some type of restaurant. The most recent tenant was a McDonald's, the only McDonald's in the country to be located in a building on the National Register of Historic Places. However they moved out in December 2004 and it has remained vacant since. Efforts are underway to establish a culinary school on the first floor of the building
It was home to the finest hotel west of Albany, which still stands today and is known as the Frontier House which was built in 1824-5 by Joshua Fairbanks, Benjamin Barton and son, Samuel.
The Frontier House was once recognized as the finest hotel west of Albany, and is Lewiston's premiere historic landmark. Stage coaches once thundered up to its doors when it served as a stop when Lewiston was the center of the "Great Overland Route Across the Continent." The Froniter House is constructed of stone from the Bay of Quinte at the Northeastern end of Lake Ontario. 18 men worked 18 months in laying up the solid stone 30 inch walls.
http://www.historiclewiston.org/history.html
