Westport, NY

Westport is an Essex County town on Lake Champlain’s western shore, 41 miles south of Plattsburgh and inside Adirondack Park. The 2020 census counted 1,320 residents. The town stretches from the lake toward the Adirondack high country, with the Northway, Amtrak line, and Champlain shoreline converging near its center. The Westport train station and lake access make the town a stopping point between the Adirondacks, Vermont, and Montreal.

Westport’s best-known object began as a local experiment. Thomas Lee developed the Westport chair here in 1903, the design later recognized as the Adirondack chair. Camp Dudley, founded in 1885 and moved to Westport in 1891, remains a major summer institution. The Essex County Fair has used its grounds here since the nineteenth century, and The Mill now occupies an 11,000-square-foot renovated grain mill for exhibitions and performances. Westport is a lake town with a working railroad history, a long summer-camp tradition, and a chair design that traveled far beyond the Champlain shore.