[1] The Old Fort House is a two-story, five-bay, center hall frame building, with a shallow gambrel roof.

It is one of the oldest wooden frame structures in Northern New York and was built in 1772 by Patrick Smyth from timbers salvaged from Fort Edward.

[6] The couple first set up housekeeping in the Old Fort House, which is described in his memoir, Twelve Years a Slave, as "the old yellow building".

The Old Fort House is part of a seventeen-building museum complex with five structures; the Old Fort House Museum, A. Dallas Wait Law Office, Cronkhite Pavilion, Riverside Schoolhouse and Baldwin Barn Gallery open for tours daily in the summer months.

[full citation needed] Each summer the Museum hosts an Annual Country Fair & Antiques Auction.