Westport

Understand

Tiny Westport is cottage country and the birthplace of the Adirondack chair, originally a "Westport plank chair" designed by Thomas Lee in 1903 and patented by carpenter Harry Bunnell in 1905.

The original chair is simple in design. One plank of hemlock, pine or cedar is cut into eleven pieces and assembled as a distinctive wooden outdoor chair which tilts slightly back. Popular among cottagers, the patents for the chairs have long expired and woodworkers in many faraway places (including a few Amish communities) have readily adopted the basic designs.

While there have been endless knockoffs, ranging from Ontario's "Muskoka furniture" of similar construction to the mass-market composite, resin or recycled plastic imitations of the wooden original which turn up at hardware and lumber dealers nationwide, some of the original wooden chairs are still made in the Adirondacks region and shipped far and wide.

Get in

Westport is accessible by car or boat, as it is located on Lake Champlain.

By train

• Train operator:

• Route stopping at Westport:

• Adirondack operating daily between Montreal and New York City including stops along the way in Saint-Lambert, Rouses Point, Plattsburgh, Westport, Ticonderoga, Saratoga Springs, Schenectady, Albany (Rensselaer), Hudson, Rhinecliff, Poughkeepsie, Croton-on-Hudson, and Yonkers.

By bus

• A connecting Amtrak Thruway Motorcoach bus stops in Westport runs to/from Lake Placid.