Kingston

Rondout National Historic District Walking Tour Planned

July 26, 2017 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

The walking tour of the Rondout National Historic District, offered by Friends of Historic Kingston, will take place on Saturday, July 29, departing at 1 pm from the Kingston Visitors Center, 20 Broadway.

The one-hour tour focuses on the rise of Rondout in the nineteenth century as a thriving maritime village during the era when the village was the terminus for the Delaware and Hudson Canal. The rich legacy of commercial buildings, cast-iron storefronts, homes, and churches built by the various nationalities who emigrated to Rondout is viewed.

Kingston’s Part in World War I Noontime Conversation

June 14, 2017 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Pete Roberts, member of Friends of Historic Kingston (FHK), will host the last of three noontime conversations in the FHK gallery June 16.

The conversations will honor the centennial commemoration of World War I and Kingston’s part in it. Memorabilia from the FHK Archives, the William Anderson Carl Collection, and the Samuel Bernstein Collection are featured including photographs and related materials that depict Kingston’s role in 1917-1918. The American Legion (Post 150) made a special loan of the iconic artwork Columbia by Edwin Howland Blashfield (1919). [Read more…] about Kingston’s Part in World War I Noontime Conversation

Kingston’s Stockade: New Netherlands’ Third City

April 18, 2017 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

The Senate House State Historic Site recently unveiled an new permament exhibit, Kingston’s Stockade: New Netherlands’ Third City interprets the earliest period of colonial settlement in the city, the stockade era. The stockade was built for protection from the Esopus Indians. Governor Stuyvesant ordered the building of the stockade in the spring of 1658.

The original order is owned by Ulster County, and County Clerk Nina Postupack’s office has loaned the order for the unveiling of the new exhibit. In adition, there are other 17th century documents and objects to explore including Native American artifacts, farming implements, and actual pieces of the stockade. Artist Len Tantillo painted a view of what the area may have looked like in the late 17th century. [Read more…] about Kingston’s Stockade: New Netherlands’ Third City

A Short History Of The Hudson River Day Line

February 4, 2017 by Peter Hess 3 Comments

Abraham Van Santvoord, a descendant of one of the earliest Dutch settlers in Albany, was born in Schenectady on December 18, 1784. At the age of 14, he worked with his granduncle John Post who owned a shipping business in Utica. Since, at the time, there were few roadways, and the ones they had were snow covered in the winter and mud bogs in the spring, most shipping was done by water.

Van Santvoord successfully ran a shipping business on the Mohawk River. During the War of 1812, he contracted with agents of General Stephen Van Rensselaer of Albany to store and ship provisions westward on the Mohawk to support Van Rensselaer’s troops planning to invade Canada. [Read more…] about A Short History Of The Hudson River Day Line

Celebrations of NY State’s 240th Birthday Planned

January 5, 2017 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

On April 22nd, 2017 at noon, New York State will be 240 years old. It was on that date back in 1777 that New York’s Constitution was signed in Kingston, New York.

What better way to celebrate that important document that gave life to our State than to organize and conduct brief, unified, community-wide bell ringing event in as many of the cities, towns and villages in the State of New York as possible at their houses of worship and other institutions. [Read more…] about Celebrations of NY State’s 240th Birthday Planned

Chestnut Street, Kingston: The Street That Built NYC

April 23, 2016 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Lowell Thing’s book The Street that Built a City: McEntee’s Chestnut Street, Kingston, and the Rise of New York (Black Dome, 2015) takes a look at the city of New York and the street that built it — or much of it. The street is on a quiet hilltop overlooking the Hudson River a hundred miles north of New York’s harbor.

Chestnut Street’s first resident, James McEntee, was an engineer who helped build the Delaware and Hudson Canal, which brought millions of tons of coal from Pennsylvania to the port at Rondout to be hauled down the Hudson River on barges pulled by steamboats belonging to another Chestnut Street resident, Samuel Coykendall, to fuel a rapidly growing New York City. Seven owners of brickyards lived on the street, and their hundreds of millions of bricks rose skyward in New York while bluestone slabs shipped from nearby Wilbur paved the city’s sidewalks. [Read more…] about Chestnut Street, Kingston: The Street That Built NYC

Rondout National Historic District: A Walking Tour

July 2, 2015 by Olivia Twine 1 Comment

A walking tour of The Rondout-West Strand National Historic District in Kingston, sponsored monthly by Friends of Historic Kingston, contrasts the results of a heartbreaking 1960’s urban renewal project with the gentrification that followed in an area that escaped the wrecking ball.

After the entire east side of Lower Broadway was demolished in 1967 vintage 19th century buildings on the opposite side stood empty, awaiting what seemed their inevitable fate. Luckily, federal funding ran out and what is today the Rondout – West Strand National Historic District was spared. New structures were built part-way up the east side of the hill. The restored neighborhood brings to my mind the painful image of a one-winged bird. [Read more…] about Rondout National Historic District: A Walking Tour

Historic Steamboat Planned For Hudson River

April 6, 2015 by Editorial Staff 10 Comments

In the years between 1807 and 1971, the Hudson River was alive with boat traffic. The great Hudson River Day Liners were perhaps the best known of all the vessels – famous for their elegance and speed. New Yorkers and visitors alike experienced the river and magnificent landscapes from their decks and plush salons.

Now, a New York City nonprofit is planning to restore the S.S. Columbia, believed to be America’s oldest surviving excursion steamship, for service on the Hudson River between New York City and Albany, with stops at Bear Mountain State Park, Poughkeepsie, Kingston, and Hudson. [Read more…] about Historic Steamboat Planned For Hudson River

Hudson Valley Docs From 1911 Fire Being Digitized

February 11, 2015 by Editorial Staff 1 Comment

AT&T has given a $20,000 contribution to support the conservation and digitization of documents burned in the 1911 New York Capitol Fire.

The documents are expected to be conserved and digitized are badly fire damaged and contain information about life in the Hudson Valley in the 1700s, primarily in Dutchess, Ulster, and Orange counties. They have been unavailable to the public since 1911; no timetable for online public access has been announced. [Read more…] about Hudson Valley Docs From 1911 Fire Being Digitized

Uptown Kingston House Tour On Sunday

June 16, 2014 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Tucked away in the Mid-Hudson Valley’s Ulster County is one of New York’s oldest communities – Uptown Kingston. Also known as the Stockade District, a nod to the protective fence that the early Dutch and Walloon settlers built around their settlement, uptown Kingston is a charming, walkable neighborhood of stunning houses dating from the early 1700s to the turn of the 20th century.

A special house tour on Sunday, June 22nd, highlights this “best kept secret” and features some of the neighborhood’s most stunning homes. [Read more…] about Uptown Kingston House Tour On Sunday