Newburgh is the first expansion for Urban Archive outside of New York City. Urban Archive, a technology non-profit, had their start in 2016 working with three institutional partners and only a few hundred archival photographs.
Today, Urban Archive’s free iOS app features more than 80,000 geolocated images sourced from more than two dozen organizations. The Urban Archive mobile app now includes over 140 images of historic Newburgh, provided by five Hudson Valley institutions. In addition to archival photos, the app includes curated walking tours, audio tours, and DIY then-and-now photo recreations.
Situated 60 miles north of New York City, Newburgh includes one of the largest historic districts in New York State with architectural styles representing three centuries. The Urban Archive mobile app now includes examples by local architect Frank E. Estabrook whose specialty was public buildings and schools; the AME Zion Church Frederick Douglass visited in 1870; the endangered Dutch Reformed Church – an 1835 Greek Revival “temple” that is on the World Monuments Fund’s list of the “100 Most Endangered Sites.”
Like many industrial cities, Newburgh suffered through the mid-20th century losing jobs, taxes, investment and over 1,000 structures to a failed urban renewal program. Some of Newburgh’s lost notable buildings are also included in Urban Archive.
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Loved the Newburgh of my childhood when I visited my grandmother in the fifties. It’s very say to see how destroyed it became