One of the earliest acts of the New York Provincial Congress was the promise on May 24, 1775, to repay all monies advanced for the resistance to British domination. When the old colonial government was gradually superseded in 1774 and 1775 by an extra-legal government of committees and congresses chosen by the people, these bodies were met immediately by the problem of financing both the political activities and the military operations. The latter began with the plans to seize Fort Ticonderoga and Crown Point, shortly after the colonists had been electrified by the news of Lexington and Concord. [Read more…] about New York & The Struggle to Finance the Revolutionary War
Kingston
First New State Park Swimming Facility in More Than 20 Years
The new Lake Sophia swimming facility and bathhouse pavilion at Sojourner Truth State Park in Ulster County, NY is the first new State Parks swimming facility in 20 years.
Featuring a swimming area larger than two Olympic-size swimming pools, Lake Sophia will accommodate hundreds of swimmers a day and will be open daily from 10 am until 6 pm through Labor Day weekend. [Read more…] about First New State Park Swimming Facility in More Than 20 Years
Old Hudson Valley Churches Now Community Venues
Due to shrinking congregations and finances, many abandoned church buildings in New York’s Hudson Valley have been reused for other purposes. Some are now apartments or condominiums, fraternity houses, museums, historical societies, businesses and vibrant art venues and community centers. [Read more…] about Old Hudson Valley Churches Now Community Venues
Hudson Valley Loyalists and the Violence of Revolution
In many respects the American Revolution was a civil war pitting Americans loyal to the Crown against other Americans loyal to the vision of a new nation they sought to create. Neighbor fought against neighbor, brother against brother, father against son. One of the epicenters of this desperate struggle was New York’s Hudson Valley.
Suffering for the Crown: The Hudson Valley Loyalists and the Violence of Revolution (University of Virginia Press, 2026) by Kieran J. O’Keefe details the extreme violence, persecution, and displacement experienced by white, Black, and Native American Loyalists during the Revolution. [Read more…] about Hudson Valley Loyalists and the Violence of Revolution
19 NY Places Recommended for State and National Registers
The Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation (State Parks) has announced recommendations by the New York State Board for Historic Preservation to add 19 properties and districts to the State and National Registers of Historic Places.
The nominations include a nineteenth-century church in Jefferson County that developed and promoted Universalism in Upstate New York, a pre-Revolutionary War house owned by seven generations of the Hulse family on Long Island’s North Shore, and additional documentation for New York City’s Hotel Chelsea recognizing its significance as a center of LGBTQ cultural and creative life. [Read more…] about 19 NY Places Recommended for State and National Registers
Rangers Respond: Missing Child, Brush Fires, Overnight High Peaks Rescue, Ill, Injured and Lost Hikers
Hot dry weather and lack of rain remains a wildfire concern around state. Since May 4th, New York State Forest Rangers fought two brush fires. In Saratoga County a wildfire began with ashes dumped outside, and a two-acre fire of unknown origin in Warrensburg damaged a structure.
Rangers also provided overnight assistance of two lost hikers in the remote Cold Brook Pass in the Adirondack High Peaks, and aided in locating another near Indian Pass Brook. On May 8th they participated in the search for a missing eight-year-old in Allegany County. Those reports and more are below, provided by DEC: [Read more…] about Rangers Respond: Missing Child, Brush Fires, Overnight High Peaks Rescue, Ill, Injured and Lost Hikers
Matthewis Persen House Museum Closing for 2026 Season
The Ulster County Clerk’s Office has announced that the Matthewis Persen House Museum will be closed to the public for the 2026 season while critical roof restoration work is completed.
Located at the historic intersection of Crown and John Streets in Uptown Kingston, the Persen House is one of the oldest and most significant buildings in Ulster County, NY. [Read more…] about Matthewis Persen House Museum Closing for 2026 Season
25 Properties Recommended to State, National Registers
The New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation (State Parks) have announced recommendations by the New York State Board for Historic Preservation to add 25 properties and districts to the State and National Registers of Historic Places.
The nominations include an intact 1905 metal casting foundry complex in Hudson, an 1873 house that reflects Syracuse’s layered history of immigration, urban renewal, and grassroots historic preservation, a cohesive group of Colonial Revival apartment buildings in Kenmore built during the 1920s and 1930s suburban housing boom, and an amendment to the 1971 nomination for Revolutionary-era Senate House in Kingston to include its 1920s commemorative museum annex. [Read more…] about 25 Properties Recommended to State, National Registers
The Great Bull Market in Kingston: An Early Supermarket
The Great Bull Market on Smith Avenue at Grand Street in Kingston, NY, was an all-in-one shopping experience, one of the area’s first true “supermarkets.”
At 22,000 square feet, it was the largest retail market in the Hudson Valley between New York City and Albany when the first location opened in 1933. [Read more…] about The Great Bull Market in Kingston: An Early Supermarket
OSI Supports Hudson Valley Environmental Programs
The Open Space Institute (OSI) has announced the 2026 recipients of its Malcolm Gordon Fund Awards, an initiative supporting environmental education programs, experiences that connect people to the land, and efforts to inspire the next generation of nature lovers in New York’s Hudson Valley.
For its 32nd annual round, awards were given to programs including a gardening tool-lending library in Rosendale, free guided river exploration for young people and families in Newburgh, and more. [Read more…] about OSI Supports Hudson Valley Environmental Programs
State Parks Outlines New Investments Hoped for 2026
In support of the goals outlined in Governor Kathy Hochul’s State of the State and executive budget, New York State Parks has announced support for several initiatives they say are designed to create jobs, enhance state park experiences, improve access to outdoor recreation and preserve state history. [Read more…] about State Parks Outlines New Investments Hoped for 2026
Nothing of Insignificance: Adventures in Journalism
In Nothing of Insignificance: Adventures in Journalism (Bushwack Books, 2025), Brian Hollander, former editor of the Woodstock Times, celebrates Woodstock with 40 essays.
From his very first article, a profile of Kingston pool hall legend Buster Ferraro, Hollander has searched out the unexpected stories that give Woodstock its character. [Read more…] about Nothing of Insignificance: Adventures in Journalism
The Ecological Impacts of 200 Years of Hudson River Dredging
The navigable portion of Hudson River provides a unique ecosystem with highly diverse habitats, despite being dramatically impacted by 200 years of dredging, retaining walls, and industrial development.
More than 85% of the river’s islands have been eliminated and most of the river’s side channels have been filled in. About half of the river shoreline between Troy and the Mario Cuomo Bridge (formally Tappan Zee) has been engineered. [Read more…] about The Ecological Impacts of 200 Years of Hudson River Dredging
The Newburgh-Beacon Bridge: A History & Engineering Primer
The most traveled of the New York State Bridge Authority’s bridges, the Newburgh-Beacon Bridge carries more than 25 million crossings a year on Interstate 84.
In February 1951, NYS Assembly Majority Leader Lee B. Mailler of Cornwall introduced a bill calling for test borings to be conducted for a bridge over the Hudson River between Beacon and Newburgh. [Read more…] about The Newburgh-Beacon Bridge: A History & Engineering Primer
Revolutionary New York in Eight Documents
Readers of New York Almanack can expect to see lots of coverage of events related to the America 250 commemoration over the next year or so. The events and programs are likely to be mostly based around major events, such as the Battle of Saratoga.
But there might be another way to gain perspective on the American Revolution in New York, one that focuses on some original documents. A few revealing documents are noted below. They illustrate a pattern that will recur in New York history: our state sometimes hesitates but then assumes a leadership role in effecting change. [Read more…] about Revolutionary New York in Eight Documents
The Wallkill River Railroad Bridge in New Paltz
The Hudson River Valley Greenway has recently committed $75,000 to support a historic preservation feasibility study for the 325-foot former railroad bridge over the Wallkill River at Springtown Road in New Paltz — a crucial connector on the Wallkill Valley Rail Trail (WVRT), which is part of the Empire State Trail. [Read more…] about The Wallkill River Railroad Bridge in New Paltz
Stonework: Masonry Restoration at Senate House in Kingston
This season, Senate House State Historic Site located on Fair Street in Kingston, NY, is undergoing a large capital restoration project. During the Revolutionary War, New York’s First Constitutional Convention met here, where it adopted the first New York State Constitution on April 20th, 1777. [Read more…] about Stonework: Masonry Restoration at Senate House in Kingston
Hudson River Defenses in the Revolutionary War
The Hudson River is not a place that’s conducive to a leisurely scuba dive. The water in the Hudson is very murky, cold, has uninviting currents, and ship traffic, so underwater archaeology in the Hudson River has mainly relied on remote sensing to image the river bottom.
According to Dr. Daria Merwin, an underwater archaeologist by training and Co-Director of the Cultural Resource Survey Program at the New York State Museum, initial surveys have mapped roughly 300 anomalies that may represent historic shipwrecks and there are already a few known sites from the American Revolution in the Hudson River. [Read more…] about Hudson River Defenses in the Revolutionary War
Ulster County, NY, Colonial Dutch Archive Now Online in English
In 1652, the first Anglo-Dutch colonists began arriving in the fertile lowlands of the Esopus River Valley in what is now Ulster County, NY, where the valley passes close to the confluence of the Hudson River and Rondout Creek at modern-day Kingston.
Their earliest colonial records, written in an archaic form of Dutch by colonial secretaries not known for their gifted penmanship, are now freely available online in their entirety in English for the first time. [Read more…] about Ulster County, NY, Colonial Dutch Archive Now Online in English
New Netherland Settlers’ Biographies Go Online
The first set of individual sketches under the New York Genealogical & Biographical Society‘s New Netherland Settlers initiative has now been completed and published online in an interactive, interlinked format.
These initial 50 biographical sketches reflect the full range of the New Netherland Settlers initiative, which aims to document all people who resided within the boundaries of the colony prior to 1664. Individual sketches are being published online as they become available. [Read more…] about New Netherland Settlers’ Biographies Go Online