WHITEHALL  , a

village of Washington county, New York, U.S.A., in a township of the same name on the Poultney river and the Champlain Canal, at the head of Lake Champlain, and 78 m. by rail N. by E. of Albany . Pop . (1890) 4434; (1900) 4377, of whom 547 were foreign-born; (1905) 4148; (1910) 4917 . Whitehall is served by the Delaware & Hudson railway, and is the N. terminus of the new barge-canal system of New York state . It is situated in a narrow valley between two hills called West Mountain and Skene's Mountain, and Wood Creek flows through the village and empties into the lake with a fall, from which valuable water-power is derived; there are various manufactures, and the village owns and operates the water works . In 1759, to strengthen the British hold on Canada, a large tract of land at the S. end of Lake Champlain was granted to Colonel Philip Skene (1725-1810), who fought at Ticonderoga in 1758 and in 1759, and who established here in 1761 a settlement of about thirty families which he called Skenesborough and which was patented in 1765 . Skene was a Loyalist, and in May 1775 Skenesborough was seized by a party of American volunteers . In Burgoyne's expedition (1777) Skene and his son, Andrew Philip Skene (1753-1826), served as guides, and Skenesborough was recovered by the British after most of it had been burned by the Americans . At the close of the war Skene's estate was confiscated and in 1786 the place was named Whitehall . In the War of 1812 Whitehall was fortified and was a base of supplies for American operations against Canada . It was incorporated as a village in 18o6 .