What Might Have Been
Summer 2018
Twenty years ago, American Demographics magazine published an article titled “Strong Home Towns.” It was based on a study of the 3,600+ counties in the United States detailing the civic connectedness of citizens in each county and ranking them more or less “strong home towns.” Some of the data they looked at were lengths of [Read More…]
Woodstock: An Original Long Before…
Spring 2018
Outside influences, large and small, tangible and intangible, have shaped Woodstock, NY, for the last 100 years or more. Ideas that crossed the Atlantic in the prior century challenged the accepted orthodoxy of community. Worldly painters brought the beauty of the wild to the city-bound. The affordable publishing and distribution of newspapers and periodicals helped [Read More…]
Street Art: Celebrating the Highland-New Paltz Trolley
Winter 2017
Art evokes feeling. For many of us, trolley images from early last century do just that. They beckon us to imagine riding on them. To think about how they changed the places and people they connected. Now, the Town of Lloyd Historical Preservation Society, whose mission is, in part, to collect and preserve the historic [Read More…]
The Deep Family Roots of an Old Vineyard
Fall 2017
Fall is a great time to discover Ulster County wineries, and we have plenty: Adair Vineyards, Baldwin Vineyards, Benmarl Winery, Brimstone Hill Vineyard & Winery, Cereghino Smith Winery, El Paso Winery, Enlightenment Winery, Glorie Farm Winery, Kedem Winery, Magnanini Farm Winery, Maple Hill Winery, Robibero Family Vineyards, Stoutridge Vineyards, and Whitecliff Vineyard (see Whitecliff listing). This list doesn’t include all the “hobby” vineyards scattered throughout [Read More…]
Where’s Waldo?
Fall 2017
J. Waldo Smith, engineer, and George B. McClellan, NYC Mayor, are each honored on the “McClellan Monument” shown above in an early post card. The structure, near the Ashokan Reservoir dam, commemorates the amazing feat of sending millions of gallons of water per day to New York City from 92 miles upstream in the Catskill Mountains. [Read More…]
A New Paltz Reunion
Summer 2017
Members of the New Paltz High School Class of 1962 were born at the end of World War II. In July we celebrate the 55th anniversary of our commencement into the world at large-a world of great opportunity. Though we’ve changed beyond recognition in many cases, many areas of New Paltz are much the same. [Read More…]
Recasting Recreation
Spring 2017
To paraphrase a mantra of tourism and business developers throughout the world: Happy residents draw visitors. And, I add, businesses. It makes good sense. Residents who like where they live and work usually work and live in very nice places. Who wouldn’t want to visit? It explains why Ulster County has always been a destination. [Read More…]
Winter Tales
Winter 2016
Winter. The thought summons dread to many New Yorkers. To others, it’s the best season–invigorating and challenging. Perspective is often missing in today’s revilers and revelers of winter. We are not that encumbered any more by the season’s bluster. This Winter story begins with entries from a set of diaries begun in 1874 by a [Read More…]
275 of History: Going, Going…
By the Casparus Westervelt House as recorded by Tim Harnett By the time you read this, I may be gone. Since I’m still standing now, though, I have some time to share my story. I was built in 1741 in Poughkeepsie, on King’s Highway between New York and Albany. Now, the Americans call this road [Read More…]
The Elverhoj Art Colony And Its Kindred Spirits
Fall 2016
The frequency of connections among the places and players in Ulster County’s history–from Gomez Mill House’s Dard Hunter to Gustav Stickley and his publication The Craftsman, from the Roycrofters to John Burroughs and Henry Ford,, and from Sticlkey to the Raymond Riordon School, and dozens of other threads criss-crossing our paths, all add to our [Read More…]
October – A Murmuration
Fall 2016
Waiting at the bus stop just after sunset, I suddenly caught a glimpse of a cloud swirling low overhead. Tiny black specks coalesced then spread apart, like a breath morphing across the sky, quickly disappearing in the distance. Breathless myself, I gazed beyond into the turquoise sky, reorienting my brain: That was a murmuration of [Read More…]
John Burroughs: A Lasting Source of Wisdom
Fall 2016
There’s no better time than Fall in the Hudson Valley, and no better guide to the wonders of nature than world-renowned naturalist John Burroughs (1837-1921). Below are listed a few of the many places to learn from him. Burroughs led generations of Americans to see nature and—in seeing and experiencing it firsthand–to love and sustain [Read More…]
The System
Summer 2016
Turning On the $pigot On Friday, May 20, 2016, the New York City Water Board voted to raise the cost of water and sewer services for its users. According to a Wall Street Journal article printed the next day, titled “City Water Rates Going Up,” the rate would increase 2.1% effective July 1st. Since 1980 [Read More…]
Caboose Gallery
Summer 2016
The Hudson Valley Rail Trail Caboose Gallery in Highland began its second summer of operation on Memorial Day weekend. Housed in a 1926 caboose and located alongside the Rail Trail just yards from Walkway Over the Hudson, it is right next to the Rail Trail’s Haviland Road parking lot. It is open to the public [Read More…]
Kerhonkson
Spring 2016
A sign of the times The large green and white New York State DOT “Kerhonkson” sign stood in front of the 1888 Victorian Rhodes house at the intersection of Milton Avenue and Route 9W in Highland for as long as most of us could remember. It directed people to Kerhonkson (NY) via Route 44/55 taking [Read More…]
Beeing Surprised
Spring 2016
Vivian Yess Wadlin with Dena Paige, Beekeeper and owner of Mid Hudson Hives While researching for an unrelated About Town article, I came upon an interesting 1908 New York Times story recounting the costs and causes[1] of forest fires in New York State. Among a variety of fire-causing culprits were the honey bee hunters. In their [Read More…]
A Personal Story
Fall 2015
When I was ten, I attended my first funeral. I did not know why I was there as the woman in the coffin was unknown to me. She was my grandmother. She had been in HRSH my entire life and no one had ever mentioned her, but as I look back, I recall Sundays when [Read More…]
The Hudson River State Hospital 1871–2015
Fall 2015
The Hudson River State Hospital for the Insane, founded by the NYS legislature in 1866, was known through its nearly century and a half to locals by various names including “The Hudson River Psychiatric Hospital,” “Hudson River State Mental Institution,” “Hudson River Psychiatric Center,” “Hudson River State Hospital (HRSH),” and other monikers less publishable, will [Read More…]
Jeanne Wiley: HRSH Student Nurse
Fall 2015
I was in school from September 1972, graduating in December of 1974. We went to school through the summers. The nursing school was being phased out, and the final class graduated in 1977. Oh, so many stories! My favorite memory of the students/patients was from our final semester. We took psychiatric nursing every day: mornings [Read More…]
Kingston Streets
Winter 2014
Imagine the snarl of commuters (and their vehicles) if the rail crossing on Broadway in Kingston stalled them every day. Fortunately, Broadway now dips below the tracks and you zip through unencumbered by rail schedules. The trolley in the postcard image is gone, but you can still see trolleys at the Trolley Museum in the [Read More…]
