Post by New York State Parks, Recreation & Historic Preservation

A couple of the basic principles which guide the work of our historic sites: our sites should be accessible to everyone, and should provide a full and accurate picture of the past. This afternoon, Commissioner Moser spent some time visiting two sites who have made great strides towards those goals during her three-day tour of selected Revolutionary War sites in our system. At Fort Montgomery State Historic Site, she toured the extensive work underway to make this battlefield site ADA accessible, and took in the spectacular Hudson River views. At Philipse Manor Hall State Historic Site, she learned how an 18th century site serves 21st century visitors, with multisensory exhibits, Spanish-language tours, and an extensive renovation and reinterpretation that tells the complex story of this site: its wealthy Loyalist owners, the European tenant farmers and enslaved Africans who worked there, and the Indigenous Munsee Lunaape who once lived on the land. It was a great way to close out the first day of this three-day adventure!