The Trading House by L.F. Tantillo ©

The Trading House by L.F. Tantillo ©

The first recorded European structure in New York State, built in 1614, known to the Dutch as Fort Nassau

Fort Nassau

In 1614 or 1615, only a few years after Henry Hudson’s exploration of the area, Dutch traders constructed a fort at what they knew to be the crucial fur-trading nexus on the North (i.e., Hudson) River. They built it on an island, just a stone’s throw from the western shore, within easy reach of the Indians who, as an early report put it, “come to this river to trade from the interior.” They named it Fort Nassau, after the leading noble family of the Netherlands, the house of Orange-Nassau. Its dimensions—58 feet on each side—suggest that the consortium of traders had hopes of serious trade with the natives. But in their desire to be right among the river traffic, the traders were too eager: the island (later called Castle Island, which has long since been attached to the mainland) flooded every spring, and the traders were forced to abandon it in 1618. It would be three years before commercial interests in the Netherlands had organized themselves into a more cohesive enterprise that could exploit the North American territory. Soon after, the West India Company would renew the quest for a permanent settlement in the area.

While Fort Nassau was shortlived, it has an important role in history. By erecting it on the site of the future city of Albany six years before the Pilgrims founded the Plymouth Colony to the north, the Dutch signaled their claim to the area and their intention to establish a presence. While a footnote to history, then, Fort Nassau would also be the harbinger of all that was to come in the Dutch colony.