Written by JIM RICHMOND
Musing down memory lane my mind goes back to Sundays, about 60 years ago. Back in the day, my parents and I, joined by my Uncle Frank and Aunt Bea, would climb into our old Plymouth and venture forth on that classic tradition of the 1950s - the Sunday Afternoon Drive. Riding along the backroads of Saratoga County and beyond, my uncle, who was unable to drive, would call out the signs he’d see along the roadside - every eatery, church, and small business caught his attention. One time, driving south along the Mohawk River we heard him shout out “general store!” and “Amity Church!” We were in Vischer Ferry.
Over the years since I had rarely passed that way again, except for travels to the nearby Bowman’s Orchard during the fall apple picking season or a bite at the VFGS. Little did I know that I would come back and see it in a whole new way… and become immersed in its charms.
There is no better way to describe “the Ferry” as local residents call this quaint hamlet, than to refer to the two official names associated with the area. The Vischer Ferry Historic District, and the Vischer Ferry Nature and Historic Preserve.
Together they describe the unique characteristics of this community.
“Historic” certainly describes Vischer Ferry. Long before the Dutch arrived, Native American tribes of the Mohegan and Iroquois nations fished and hunted along the banks of the Mohawk River for hundreds of years. Dutch settlers arrived in the mid-1600s, establishing first farmland and then homes on the north side of the river. The area became known as Vischer’s Ferry, named after one of the first families to settle along Stony Creek.
Three-hundred years later the community still lives, having passed through many eras. Each pause in its passage through time was renewed by new opportunities, sometimes a result of external serendipitous events, other times by the imagination and just plain hard work of the hamlet’s leading citizens.
In the 1820s Vischer Ferry came to life when the Erie Canal was dug on its doorstep, bringing canal boats and canallers from near and far. At its peak 300 canal boats traveled through Lock 19 every day! John Woodin, born in 1890, who served as the last lock tender on the old canal captured the excitement of the times. “There were blacksmiths, there were boatbuilders and I remember my father telling me that when he went to school it was like music to his ears to hear those hammers on the anvil.”
The canal was the lifeblood of the community for over 100 years, bringing enterprising craftsmen and businessmen that erected the Greek Revival homes that radiate out from the corner of Vischer Ferry and Riverview Roads, the hub of the hamlet. However, the construction of the railroads along the river, in the years after the Civil War provided an alternative means of travel for both people and freight. The canal now brought visitors eager for a day away from their work in the factories sprouting up in the growing cities of Schenectady, Albany, and Troy. Vischer Ferry turned to tourism for several decades around the turn of the 20th century, welcoming families to travel by boats along the canal, or by railroad terminating with a short ferry ride across the Mohawk. Upon arrival they might enjoy a picnic along the banks of the canal. Even this pleasant era passed when the automobile provided weekend vacationers the freedom to choose their own destinations.
Many small hamlets across the nation essentially disappeared when first the railroads and then the interstate highways passed them by. Saratoga County was not spared from this development and many former thriving crossroads now only live on in photographs or our imagination. Vischer Ferry was not entirely immune from this trend, but it survived and now thrives as a small but vibrant community.
How did this happen? First Visher Ferry retained its backbone – Amity Dutch Reformed Church founded in 1802, the mid-19th century Greek Revival homes, the Vischer Ferry General Store -newly revived but built on the site of the first store serving the community since the 1790s. Even the “new” Vischer Ferry Fire Company serves the area from its building on the location of the tavern and hotel built in 1795.
However, the revival is not just due to the survival of the old buildings. Generation after generation, the community’s enterprising residents deserve much of the credit. Recently, four members of the Vischer Ferry Association came together to reminisce about their efforts in the 1970s to revitalize the community once again.
The group formed both the Vischer Ferry Historic District and the Vischer Ferry Nature and Historic Preserve alongside the old canal. John Scherer, longtime Clifton Park Town Historian summed up their accomplishments. “When you look at it, it was amazing that this group of people came together, a group of people with a lot of talent, and they really created something special.” That special community still lives on.
Jim Richmond is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Saratoga County History Center at Brookside Museum in Ballston Spa and recently directed the film Vischer Ferry – A Forgotten Crossroads.
ABOVE: Chris Nafis' Greek Revival home, built 1833
Photo by the author
LEFT: Vischer Ferry Street Scene ca 1910