History, Natural History & the Arts
Senate House State Historic Site in Kingston has reopened its facilities for tours and museum visitors with health and social distancing guidelines to protect visitors and staff.
The Site’s buildings had been closed to the public since March due to health and safety concerns related to the ongoing pandemic. [Read more…] about Senate House Announces Limited Re-Opening
New York State’s 243rd Birthday is coming up on April 20.
That is the day that the convention of representatives, an outgrowth of the New York Provincial Congress, approved the first state constitution in 1777, at Kingston. (Some people say the appropriate date is actually two days later, April 22. On that day, the convention’s secretary Robert Benson, read the new constitution aloud to Kingston citizens in front of the court house. In effect, Benson’s dramatic reading proclaimed the new state into existence.) [Read more…] about 4-20: New York State’s Forgotten Birthday
“I went out after a Christmas tree and some laurel, through seas of mud,” Jervis McEntee of Kingston wrote on Christmas Eve 1881, “to the place where I always go on the cross road between the Flat-bush and Pine bush roads. It rained a part of the time and turned into a snow storm on our return.”
Another year, McEntee’s usual places for a tree were so wet that he settled for a small hemlock on the side of the hill where he lived. It was a hill that offered a panoramic view of the entire village as well as the Rondout Creek and the Hudson River. His father James, an engineer who had helped build the nearby Delaware and Hudson Canal, had built the first house on the hill and the family still lived there. [Read more…] about A Christmas in Kingston in the 1880s
The Hudson River Maritime Museum, the Library at the A.J. Williams-Myers African Roots Center, TMI Project’s Black Stories Matter, the Underground Railroad History Project of the Capital Region, the Harambee Coalition, and the Kingston Land Trust/Pine Street African Burial Ground Project have announced they are seeking proposals for the Conference on Black History in the Hudson Valley, Saturday, October 3, 2020. The conference will be held at the Hudson River Maritime Museum, 50 Rondout Landing, Kingston, NY.
The focus of this conference is the history of Black and African-American residents in the Hudson Valley, including communities and work along the canals and tributaries of the Hudson River. The Conference on Black History in the Hudson Valley is open to researchers of all levels, with special sessions for short presentations of research-in-progress from students and historians alike. [Read more…] about Black History in the Hudson Valley Call for Papers
The Senate House State Historic Site in Kingston is set to celebrate the autumn season with the 18th Century Autumn Festival on Saturday, October 19, from 11 am to 3 pm.
The demonstrations will include meat smoking, pressing apples into cider, blacksmithing, and hearthside cooking. Hands-on activities include dipping candles, making cornhusk dolls, and playing 18th century toys and games. The Third Ulster Militia and First Ulster Militia will be demonstrating 18th century camp life. Entertainment by Stephen Gratto includes juggling, stilt walking, balancing acts and more. [Read more…] about 18th Century Autumn Festival Planned for Kingston
The Senate House State Historic Site is set to celebrate Independence Day on Saturday June 29, 2019 from 11 am to 3 pm.
There will be a ceremony with dramatic readings and songs. The Third Ulster Militia will be encamped on the grounds demonstrating 18th century camp life including hearthside cooking and colonial medicine. In addition, Ben Franklin will perform science experiments and hands-on activities. Musician Mark Rust will be performing patriotic songs. 18th century games and toys will be on hand to try out. [Read more…] about Celebrating Independence at Senate House, Kingston
The Senate House State Historic Site in Kingston, NY, is set to open for the 2019 season on Wednesday April 24. The site will be open to the public Wednesdays thru Saturdays 10 am to 5 pm and Sundays 1 to 5 pm. The site is located at 296 Fair Street in historic uptown Kingston. [Read more…] about Kingston Senate House Opening Day April 24th
The New Netherland Institute has announced the talk “To Serve in a Free Country: Slavery and Freedom in New Netherland” by Sam Huntington, educator at Crailo State Historic Site, has been set for Saturday, April 27th at the Senate House State Historic Site in Kingston. [Read more…] about Slavery and Freedom in New Netherland Talk In Kingston
The Friends of Historic Kingston is set to hold its annual meeting on Sunday, April 28th at 2 pm in the Bethany Hall, Old Dutch Church, 272 Wall Street, Kingston. Use side entrance on Wall Street.
President of the Board, Jack Braunlein, will give the annual report of the organization, followed by the keynote address. The featured guest speaker is Susan Stessin-Cohn, Town Historian of New Paltz who will be speaking on her newest research and publication, In Defiance: Runaways from Slavery in New York’s Hudson River Valley: 1735-1831. [Read more…] about Hudson River Slavery Focus of Historic Kingston Event
The Senate House State Historic Site has announced a celebration of maple season, set for Saturday, April 6th, 2019, from 11 am to 3 pm. Activities include boiling maple sap to syrup, making jack wax candy, baking molasses cornbread and waffles over an open fire, hewing a log into a trough and making wooden buckets and spiles which were used to collect the sap. [Read more…] about Sugaring Off: 18th Century Style In Historic Kingston