Located in the city of Vergennes, Basin Harbor resides right next to the majestic Lake Champlain. Named after French explorer Samuel de Champlain—who encountered it in 1609—the body of water itself is rich in history. Indeed, the first people to inhabit its 128-mile-long shoreline were Native Americans of the Iroquois Confederacy, namely the Abenaki and Mohawk. The lake specifically served as an important terminus to the Confederacy’s eastern domain, with the various inlets providing access to both the Hudson and St. Lawrence River valleys. This strategic ability eventually attracted the attention of Great Britain and France throughout the 18th century, which often quarreled over its control. Both sides constructed fortifications all over Lake Champlain, with the most notable being the two French citadels Fort Ticonderoga (then known as “Fort Carillon”) and Fort St. Frederic. The greatest conflict to encapsulate the European struggle over the lake was the North Americans theater of the Seven Years’ War, known today as the “French and Indian War.” Fighting raged across region, as the French gradually worked their way down Lake Champlain from Québec. Capturing the British garrison at Fort William Henry, the French were eventually driven back into Canada in 1759. France would ultimately lose the Seven Years’ War, leaving the contested territory surrounding Lake Champlain firmly in British hands.

Peace was not destined to last, however. Lake Champlain soon became the site for numerous battles between the British and its American colonists, who had begun to settle the region en masse. In fact, some of the first fights of the American Revolution occurred around Lake Champlain, starting with Benedict Arnold and Ethan Allen’s capture of Fort Ticonderoga in 1775. They subsequently turned the British munitions over to Henry Knox, who then sent them east to the Continental Army stationed outside of Boston. The successful surprise attack on Fort Ticonderoga was followed by a frantic naval engagement at a place called “Valcour Bay” a year later. While the American fleet was practically destroyed, the contest nonetheless bought the local American forces enough time to strengthen their defenses throughout the region. The lake would see additional fighting over the course of the war, including British General John Burgoyne’s invasion and subsequent defeat at the Battle of Saratoga. Fortunately, large-scale fighting would drift further south as the revolution progressed, giving the area a respite from constant warfare. Euro-American settlement resumed at a slow pace as such, which gathered energy significantly once the British conceded and recognized the independence of the United States in 1783.

But Anglo-American relations remained tense for many years thereafter. British restrictions on American trade—particularly with Revolutionary France—and territorial friction eventually spawned another conflict called the “War of 1812.” For two years, the British and Americans fought indecisively in a number of theaters—the British managed to defeat another American invasion of Canada, while the United States secured its claim over the Midwest. The British proceeded to mount a counterattack in 1814 though, assaulting the Chesapeake Bay and capturing Washington. At the same time, the British attempted to capture Lake Champlain in an effort to cut New England off from the rest of the country. An American force went north to counter the threat, instigating the Battle of Lake Champlain. The central part of the contest involved a fleet battle, which saw the American squadron completely route the British. Indeed, the bout even saw the destruction of four British ships, as well as the death of their naval commander, Captain George Dowie. (Interestingly, a few American ships used in the fight had actually been constructed at the shipyard formerly owned by Platt Rogers—the first owner of the land that is now home to Basin Harbor.) The American victory had serious ramifications for the outcome of the war. Indeed, the triumph—along with the successful American defense of Baltimore—eventually inspired the British to negotiate an end to the fighting via the Treaty of Ghent.

In the years that followed, Lake Champlain quickly became a site of great economic activity. Industrialists particularly found the area attractive, as the water enabled them to power a group of early factories. The growth expanded the size of several towns throughout the region, too, including Plattsburgh, New York, and Burlington, Vermont. Regional commerce was then augmented more by the debut of the historic Champlain Canal, which connected the lake to the Hudson River. Merchants and sailors subsequently flocked into Lake Champlain like never before, making it one of the most active places in the northeastern United States. But not all of the lake saw the arrival of mass industrialization. Indeed, nearly all of its beautiful coastline remained pastoral for the rest of the 19th century. The preservation of its gorgeous, bucolic landscape inspired many Americans from across New York and New England to observe its beauty. As such, Lake Champlain emerged as a tourist attraction around the start of the 20th century. This desire to visit the lake increased tenfold in the aftermath of World War II. Pent-up demand in the country to travel gave birth to a renaissance for tourist travel to Lake Champlain, making it among the most popular vacation hotspots in the whole country. Lake Champlain has since retained its prestigious reputation as a renowned holiday destination, hosting thousands of people from around the world every year.

Basin Harbor possesses a unique architectural style that can best be described as “eclectic.” Dating to the mid-19th and early 20th centuries, historians today consider “eclecticism” to be part of a much larger movement to fuse together a variety of historical designs. Earlier in the 1800s, architects—particularly those in Europe—decided to rely upon their own loose interpretations of historical architecture whenever they attempted to replicate it. Such a practice appeared within such styles as Gothic Revival, Italianate, and Second Empire architecture. But at the height of the Gilded Age, those architects decided to use historic architecture more literally when developing a building. A few architects went a step further by combining certain historical styles together to achieve something uniquely beautiful. And in some cases, those individuals felt inspired to add a new historical form onto a building that they were renovating—just like Basin Harbor. Ultimately, the architects felt that joining such architectural forms together would give them a new avenue of expression that they otherwise did not have at the time. They also believed that they had stayed true to the earlier forms, so long as their designs perfectly replicated whatever it was they wanted to mimic.

In Europe, this approach first appeared as a rehash of Gothic Revival-style known as “Collegiate Gothic.” The European architects then used such a mentality to influence the unfolding philosophies of both the Beaux-Arts school of design, as well as the emerging Renaissance Revival-style. Many architects in America followed suit, the most notable of which being Richard Morris Hunt and Charles Follen McKim. The American architects who embraced “eclecticism” were at first interested in the country’s colonial architecture. Much of the desire to return to the time period was born from the revived interest in American culture brought on by the Centennial Exposition of 1876. Pride in preserving the nation’s heritage inspired the architects to perfect the design principles of their colonial forefathers in new and intriguing ways. This interest gradually splintered into other revival styles, though, like Spanish Colonial and Tudor Revival. Some Americans even infused the approach with the popular Beaux-Arts aesthetics of France, such as Hunt and McKim. Yet, the birth of Modernism in the 1920s and 1930s eventually ended the worldwide love affair with “eclecticism,” for architects throughout the West became more enchanted with the ideas of modernity, technology, and progress.