Fort Decker

"Fort Decker" is a stone house built in 1793 from the remains of the fort of that name. It is located on West Main Street in Port Jervis, New York, the oldest building in that city, which it predates by several decades.The original Fort Decker was built by a Frederick Haynes, a Dutch settler, sometime before 1760, during the French and Indian War, as an unofficial defense and trading post. It was one and a half stories high, built of stone and overlapping logs. Haynes left the area for New Jersey around 1775, leaving the fort to his wife's family, the Deckers.On July 19, 1779, during Revolutionary War, when the settlement was known as "Peenpack", the fort was burned during a raid by pro-British Indian leader Joseph Brant. When survivors brought news of the disaster to Goshen, the Patriot attempt to retaliate led to a disastrous defeat at the Battle of Minisink, the only major engagement of the war in the upper Delaware Valley.The current house was built from the remains of the fort in 1793. In 1826, it would house engineers working on the Delaware and Hudson Canal, including John Jervis, whom the city would later be renamed for. It remained in private hands as a residence from then on. In 1903, newspapers reported that the original roof was being removed, and in 1924 the building suffered partial damage from a fire.