The Ford Mansion

The Ford Mansion was one of the grandest homes in the small village of Ogdensburgh. Built for Judge Nathan Ford, it was a large two story stone house on a hill facing the majestic St. Lawrence River. Nathan Ford was born December 8, 1763 in Morristown, New Jersey. Although he doesn’t get credit, Ford was the real founder of Ogdensburg. Ford spent his childhood living in his grandfather’s mansion in Morristown, NJ, which later became George Washington’s headquarters during the American Revolution. He served in the war as a Deputy Assistant Quartermaster. Later, Ford was the land agent for Samuel Ogden and was one of the first white settlers of the village.

Samuel Ogden, a land speculator whom the city is named after, sent Nathan Ford to explore the lands he had purchased in 1794. After the U.S. gained control of Northern New York as part of the terms of Jay’s Treaty, Ford and other settlers from Morristown, New Jersey settled here. Ford lived in one of the buildings that had been part of Fort Oswegatchie. He was a judge from 1802-1820 and has been described as “proud, vain and utterly profane in his language.” It is because of Ford that Ogdensburgh became the center of business and government in the newly formed St. Lawrence County. He simultaneously served as chief justice for the county, supervisor of the Town of Oswegatchie and “mayor” of the village of Ogdensburgh, even though it wasn’t incorporated until 1817. He considered Ogdensburgh his and nothing escaped his notice.

After living in Father Picquet’s barracks at the old fort for several years, Ford, a lifelong bachelor, commissioned the mansion. Workers began construction in 1803 and completed it in 1804. Built of fieldstone it was the largest and most prominent edifice in the village. After Ford’s death in 1829 the mansion remained empty for many years until it was sold to the French Catholic Society in 1858 at a cost of $7,000. Father Lemercier not only lived in the mansion, but held mass there as well. The other residents were 2 housekeepers and Lemercier’s nephew.The trustees sold the mansion to the Grey Nuns of Ottawa in 1863. When the sisters arrived, they were not impressed with their housing. The mansion was full of mice and the plaster was crumbling. After hasty repairs the nuns established a boarding school and day school for girls, however the school closed in 1879.

At the request of Bishop Wadhams, the Grey Nuns opened the mansion again as a home for orphans, the elderly and indigent. It was incorporated as the Ogdensburg City Hospital and Orphan Asylum. The number of needy individuals quickly made it necessary to enlarge the mansion with a new stone wing added to the north side in 1894. With a large gift by Mayor George Hall the sisters were able to build a hospital across the street, now Claxton-Hepburn Medical Centerl, which opened in 1902.

The Grey Nuns again expanded the mansion in 1906, adding a fourth floor. At one time it housed 128 orphans, 64 elderly people, and 14 nuns. More renovations were completed in 1911-13, including a new chapel, sunroom and west wing, which were made possible by donations from George Hall, Thomas Spratt, John Hannan and John Howard.

Later the building was renamed St. Joseph’s Home. Both the elderly and orphans were housed there until a new nursing home was built on LaFayette St. Children ceased to be housed there in 1961. The empty building was razed to make way for a new building to house long term patients, which was never constructed. While the Ford Mansion is long gone, the work of Nathan Ford, Father Lemercier and the Grey Nuns lives on.