Day 15- 6/6/14 Who was Phillip Schuyler?

Representation of the Schuyler Mansion

Today we had a really busy day! We made so many stops I have a feeling this is going to be a very long blog. The picture above is a representation of what the Schuyler mansion would look like during the time period it was built. This picture above to me represents change, but what we saw of the house was a lot different. There were  not as many trees, more roads and the river is not in view anymore.

Phillip Schuyler was born into a powerful family but improved his family name even more with his career. Phillip did so many things with his life; He was a major-general in the Revolutionary war, both a United States and New York state senator, a delegate to the second Continental Congress, a businessman, and a landlord. Philip Schuyler married Catherine Schuyler who came from a wealthy family. This was a great addition to the Schuyler name. I was so surprised to here that Catherine miscarried two sets of twins and a set of triplets. During this time period it was very unusual for a women to survive a multiple birth or to go on and have children afterwards.

Mirror Located in a parlor in the Schuyler Mansion

This mirror above was in the main parlor of the Schuyler mansion. The main parlor was used for celebrations. Something I found interesting was their was a wedding held in this room and there was also a funeral. This mirror looks very similar to the mirrors we saw at the Peebles Island Art restoration site. The mirrors they had were from Johnson hall and were being restored. It had the same basic shape and it looked like it was made out of the same wood, and the gold on the frame was also very similar. I was wondering if these mirrors were made during the same time period.

One thing I really liked about the mansion was the different wallpaper that was used throughout the house, and the fuzzy wallpaper was my favorite. I was sad we could not touch the paper on the wall but at least the tour guide had a sample we were allowed to pass around and use. The cool thing about the mansion is the people who run the historical site now have many of the bills from the house. This "fuzzy wallpaper" Schuyler bought was almost enough to cover the whole mansion. The wallpaper on the wall is not the original but a replication of the wallpaper. After seeing the bill, they were able to conclude that this wallpaper was most common around the house. When we went upstairs I was shocked to see the wallpaper on the wall was very similar to the wallpaper in the front hall in the Rensselaer Historical Society. After examining the wall I saw that the brand name of the wall paper was on the wall just like in the historical society. I thought it was really cool that this paper was on the wall in the mansion because I thought it was really pretty, and it shows how many materials were common in the capital region area.

It was kind of ironic that the day before we were at the Erie Canal Lock system and the day after we were allowed to see where the idea all began. During the last few years of Schuyler's life he became involved with waterway transportation. In 1792 he became involved with the Northern Inland lock Navigation and in 1796 the company built a 4700 foot canal system with five locks near Little Falls. A year later a two mile canal system was created at Fort Stanwix and connected the Mohawk River to Wood Creek, which wasn't as successful. It was Schuyler's efforts that led to the ideas for others to make the Erie and Champlain canals possible. 

After we finished up at the mansion we went to the Stillwater Blockhouse for lunch. This is a replica of 18th century block houses used during the Revolutionary War. It was nice that we were allowed to get a tour of the blockhouse and look at the different artifacts inside the house. 

After lunch we traveled to the Schuyler house in Schuylerville, which was then called Saratoga. The estate was originally 168,000 granted to seven New Yorkers and Schuyler owned 24,000 acres. In the 1760s Phillip turned a ruined house into a very successful farm with milling and he sold merchandise. This was extremely successful but it was destroyed on October 10, 1777 when the British retreated from Saratoga. After the troops left, Philip began to rebuild the house on this property. We were not allowed to take pictures inside the house which was really upsetting, and I did not enjoy this house as much as the first one either. To me it just seemed like a bunch of stuff thrown in a room. It did not seem like some of the artifacts even belonged in the home or had any connection with Phillip. I also did not enjoy our tour guide, she wasn't too friendly either. Through this program I learned that the way you present information to someone really matters. If you are not that interesting, speak in monotones, and do not know your information then you will really lose interest of the group you are presenting to really fast. 

Saratoga Monument

After the Schuyler House we took an unplanned visit to the Saratoga monument. This monument is so tall it was hard to get a picture of it fully. This monument is a Gothic and Egyptian style build,  and stands more that 154 feet tall. This monument is located near the Village of Victory and has a great view of the Hudson Valley. We were all allowed to go inside the monument and climb to the top, which really scared me because I am terrified of heights. I moved so slow and I felt bad for Kassiana because she was behind me and when she asked to pass me I would not let her because I was scared of being alone so thanks Kassiana for being there for moral support without realizing it. I made it a little more than halfway up and began to have an anxiety attack. Growing up I have had issues with anxiety so this was no surprise to me. Going up I tried to just look at my feet but the stairs were see through so it did not help. The part where I really freaked out was when there was no flooring in between the staircases. Toby saw me having a hard time and tried to encourage me to keep going but I burst into tears so he let me go back down. I was a little disappointed that I did not go all the way to the top because I was so jealous of the "selfie" everyone took at the top and they said the view was amazing. I was proud of what part of the tower I did go up though. Maybe if I visit the monument again I can push myself to make it to the top. 

Dredging Site

The dredging site was the last place we went to today. It was really upsetting they were not working when we got there so there was not a lot to see. After this we went back to sage after a very exhausting day!