All Points North - Navigating the North Country

All Points North
SUNY Plattsburgh
101 Broad Street
Plattsburgh, NY 12901

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Back in the Day

Discovering the North Country's Rich History

Toy Story
Go out the back gate of Oak Street School, and take a sharp left onto Margaret. You’re walking down Memory Lane now. Grade-schoolers in Plattsburgh used to make this trip all the time, an after-class sidewalk to paradise. You don’t have to go far. Just a few steps and you’re there. Be sure you look both ways before crossing the street. Read More

One More Cup of Coffee
Newspapers dating back to the 1960s are visible through the wall of decorative shutters. The light that comes through in slits illuminates the two inch slices of history. The photographs on the walls speak for themselves, and the small verses and graffiti written in sharpie on the bathroom walls display blurbs from the thousands of people that have filtered in and out of the place since it’s opening in the 1960s. Read More

Honoring Native American Tradition
A teepee: a home, protection from the cold, a place to relax, to work and mend. Pointing to the Gods, the universe, under the stars and above the ground, Mother Nature. A symbol, icon to some, the teepee is a staple of Native American people.
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History You Can Digest
In block 50, lot 71 of Bellefontaine Cemetery in St. Louis, lies the remains of a man whose name is forever etched into medical history. An army doctor and physician his entire life, William Beaumont, “The Father of Gastric Physiology,” wrote the study that made him famous in a building on the corner of Margaret and Bridge streets in Plattsburgh. Read More

Beautiful Music
Maria von Trapp is alive and well and living in Vermont. No, not the Maria von Trapp, history’s most famous singing governess, the woman millions of moviegoers link with Julie Andrews and a certain musical called The Sound of Music. This Maria comes first. Read More

A Forest of Knowledge
The trees stand tall and strong — their roots are deep and their branches sturdy. With the soft breeze of Lake Champlain constantly rustling their leaves, they may not look much like a classroom. But these trees and the park in which they grow have educated many for the past 100 years. Read More

Remembering Adirondac
Jim Gereau sits at the end of the bar in the Newcomb House in Newcomb, NY, his calloused hands wrapped around a glass of beer. When he speaks, he is thoughtful and deliberate. Sometimes his eyes stray and it seems as if his mind is elsewhere, and then he smiles as he sums up his memories of his life growing up in Adirondac. “We had everything. It was perfect,” Gereau says, his flannel shirt rising briefly as he shrugs.
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