Johnson Hall

Johnson Hall is a five-bay, two-story Georgian frame house with an attic and basement, built in 1761-1762 in what is now Johnstown, New York. Housewright Lemal Baker of Schenectady constructed it, and the clapboard siding is rusticated to imitate stone blocks. Two stone blockhouses once flanked the house for protection; the western one survives and is described as the only example of its type left in New York, while the eastern one burned in 1868 and has been reconstructed after archeological work. The house was the home of Sir William Johnson, superintendent of Indian affairs for the northern colonies, for the last eleven years of his life. Treaties with the Six Nations were negotiated here, and Johnson died at the house in 1774 during a conference. The house was heavily altered in the 19th century, then restored after New York State acquired it in 1906 and again in the 1950s. An inventory of furnishings taken after his death guided the interior restoration.