IMPORTANT!READ THIS FIRST!Before you press ‘Start’, please read this Introduction to the audio tour first. You can also listen to it. Scroll down the text: at the bottom you can touch the audio icon. The Introduction will give you a short history of Schenectady’s Stockade and its Dutch roots, and it will provide you with a brief explanation as to how to use this audio tour.Welcome to the audio tour in the Historic Stockade of Schenectady, New York. IntroductionSchenectady, the northwesternmost settlement of New Netherland, was founded by the Dutch in 1661.Van der Donck's 1656 map of New Netherlandshows Schenectady’s strategic location. The name Schenectady meaning “beyond the pines,” describes the nature of the portage route between the Hudson and Mohawk Rivers. Schenectady’s location at the entrance to the Mohawk River-Great Lakes corridorhad an important influence on the development of the western frontier. The founding Dutch were entrepreneurs, interested primarily in fur trade, and they realized that for business success there had to be toleration of cultural and religious differences.  In 1664 Jacques Cortelyou, a French town planner hired by the Dutch Governor General Peter Stuyvesant, laid the town out in a grid pattern. The principal streets of the Stockade, Church and Union, were as wide then as they are now. Church Street is so called because the Dutch Church, originally built near State and Church Streets, has always occupied land on this street.The young settlement was attacked on the evening of February 8, 1690. While 60 men, women and children were killed during the 1690 Massacre, 27 men were captured and taken to Canada. By 1693 Schenectady was being rebuilt by Dutch, other European and Mohawk survivors. The 1663 Miller map shows the rebuilt fort with houses, barns and two Mohawk longhouses, as well as a large Mohawk fort nearby with five more longhouses. The records of Schenectady’s first church show a growing congregation of Europeans, Mohawks and a few blacks by the beginning of the 1700s. There are baptism and new member listings from a mix of local families that also reflect the social hierarchies of the day.  Today, the Historic Stockade is a residential village within one of America’s oldest cities, Schenectady, NY. The Stockade has more than 40 pre-Revolutionary War houses, elegant and historic churches, all within a walkable area bordered by College Street on the east, Union Street on the south and the Binne Kill and Mohawk River to the west and north. Over the years, the streetscape has been transformed as Dutch Colonial and Georgian houses were turned in to Federal style dwellings and large lots made way for more buildings and people as the city grew. Throughout the neighborhood, despite the difference in age, the buildings have been blended by time into a unique area. As you walk around you’ll notice historic markers which show the location of early forts and stockades as well as plaques on homes which reflect people and events important to the Schenectady history. The tour starts north of Washington Avenue at the Mohawk River. Once you are there, press Start. Enjoy your walk in the Historic Stockade of Schenectady!