Trout River is a border crossing connecting Elgin, Quebec to Constable, New York on the Canada–US border, most prominently featuring the Trout River Border Inspection Station. The crossing can be reached by New York State Route 30 on the American side and by Quebec Route 138 on the Canadian side.
Historically, Trout River was the primary crossing of the Trout River, NY port of Entry. This distinction is due to the fact that the U.S. Customs and Border Protection defines a port of entry as 'any designated place at which a CBP officer is authorized to accept entries of merchandise to collect duties, and to enforce the various provisions of the customs and navigation laws'. This means that the border stations of Fort Covington and Churubusco are facilities of the Trout River Port of Entry.
There are several buildings near this crossing that were built prior to the establishment of the US-Canada border in 1842. These include a former duty-free shop and two residences.
US Border Facilities at Trout River
The Trout River Border Inspection Station is one of seven existing border inspection stations built on the New York - Quebec border between 1931 and 1934. In 2014 it, along with others around the country built during this period, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Architectural Significance
Border Stations are associated with four important events in United States history: the imposition of Prohibition between 1919 and 1933; enactment of the Elliott-Fernald Public Buildings Act in 1926 which was followed closely by the Great Depression; and the popularity of the automobile whose price was increasingly affordable thanks to Henry Ford's creation of the industrial assembly line. The stations were constructed as part of the government's program to improve its public buildings and to control casual smuggling of alcohol which most often took place in cars crossing the border. Their construction was also seen as a means of giving work to the many locally unemployed.
The Trout River border station is one of the best preserved in New York. While the border stations have all sustained systematic alterations, they have retained, in varying degrees, most of their original fabric. This station is on both exterior and interior a fine example of the building type, its character defining features well-maintained and intact. The building was designed by the Office of the Supervising Architect under James A. Wetmore, during the tenure of Treasury Secretary Andrew W. Mellon, and constructed from 1931 to 1932. At the time of its construction, Louis A. Simon was Superintendent of the Architectural Section. Border stations were constructed by the federal government in New England along the border with Canada during the 1930s and several common plans and elevations can be discerned among the remaining stations. Trout River shares with the others a residential scale, a Neo-colonial style, and an organization to accommodate functions of both customs and immigration services.
History
The era of Prohibition begun in 1919 with the Volstead Act and extended nationwide by the ratification of the Eighteenth Amendment in 1920, resulted in massive bootlegging along the Canada–US border. In New York, early efforts to control bootlegging were carried out by a small number of Customs officers and border patrol officers who were often on foot and horseback. In many cases New York Custom Houses were a mile or so south of the border and travelers were expected to stop in and report their purchases. The opportunity to remedy this situation and support enforcement of the Prohibition laws was offered by enactment of the Elliott-Fernald Public Buildings Act of 1926 which authorized the government through the Treasury Department to accelerate its building program and began its allocation with $150,000,000 which it later increased considerably.
Trout River was west of the so-called Rum Trail which made Route 9 the chief path of entry for bootlegged liquor in upstate New York. Bootleggers however, ran liquor across the border at Trout River and it was a vulnerable spot for smuggling . At the time Prohibition was repealed, the Trout River border inspection station had been in operation for two years. However, the end of Prohibition did not mean the end of smuggling, as the public had developed a taste for Canadian liquor and its bootleggers had discovered the money that could be made smuggling raw alcohol into Canada where prices for it were considerably higher. Trout River continued to operate to interdict this activity.