Broadway Historic District

Along Broadway on the St. Lawrence River at the western edge of Cape Vincent, a 22-acre district preserves a group of grand estate properties built between 1815 and 1840. The district has five houses and two early twentieth century outbuildings. Its centerpiece is the limestone Stone House of 1815, a Georgian building constructed for Vincent LeRay, son of landowner James LeRay de Chaumont, who promoted the settlement of the village. Maple Grove (1838) and Beechwood (1840) are neighboring Greek Revival houses with two-story pedimented porticos. The Servants Quarters of 1820 reflects French Colonial building traditions found in Quebec and the Mississippi Valley. French emigres, including officers associated with Napoleon, shaped the area after 1818. The district is described as the only distinct enclave of historic resources in the surrounding multiple resource area and as the village's grandest group of residences. All of the buildings still serve as homes, and the district's unity rests on the scale and classical styling of its large houses.