AboutTown

The globe in my New Paltz Campus School fifth-grade class- room clearly showed the Panamanian isthmus; Mrs. Compton, head-enlightener, pointed out that a channel was dug to connect the two oceans. Shipping options increased. Ho Hum. Not until the book, The Path Between the Seas, by David McCullough, made it onto my reading list that [Read More…]

The list below requires a little explanation. For instance, Rosendale is listed as a hamlet, but that is the common name for the village running along Route 213. The Town of Rosendale, however, encompasses many hamlets and the village of Rosendale is just one. Acccording to the town’s website, others are Binnewater, Bloomington, Bruceville, Cottekill, [Read More…]

This article is edited, corrected, and shortened from its original publication in About Town, Summer edition 1993 Head west from Rosendale village on Route 213 and after the Turco Water Company caves, make a right at the Brooklyn Bridge. OK, so it is not precisely the Brooklyn Bridge. It is a replica of John and [Read More…]

For two hundred years, Perrine’s Covered Bridge has crossed the Wallkill River at Rifton in the Town of Esopus just four miles north of the New Paltz village. In the early nineteenth century, it was one of three bridges within a 10 miles span of the Wallkill in the Town of New Paltz, which had [Read More…]

Had enough of current events for a while? Travel back in time to the small towns and villages of early Ulster County. The books below are a great way to learn your local history and not over-tax your stressed-out brain. Vintage pictures with just enough text to tantalize you into wanting more. Other great reads [Read More…]

April rains left there dirt roads of York Colony muddy and dangerous to the rider in the night. Part of the journey was by road, but many miles were swampy path or closely wooded virgin forest. The first rider had arrived hours before, soaked and exhausted. He could go no farther. “The British are attacking–destroying, [Read More…]

Owney was a stray. He wandered into the Albany Post Office in 1888 and became a legend. He began traveling with mail wagons, then went farther and farther afield. He visited Japan, Mexico, Suez, Algiers and many other exotic places. His postal friends, fearing he would get lost, furnished him with a vest and put [Read More…]

Many an immigrant was drawn to the beauty and fertility of the hills of New York’s  Town of Marlborough. Most seekers came as laborers, stonemasons, and farmers, but others put down roots here after already attaining prosperity in other fields. United States Patent Office patent # 92,966 was awarded to Dominick La Valle regarding “Design [Read More…]

It is difficult to imagine how William and Maurice Wurts developed the concept for and then actually constructed the Delaware & Hudson (D&H) Canal System that ran from Honesdale, PA, to Kingston, NY, using the power and technology of the day–primarily men & draft animals and picks & shovels. The Wurts brothers’ main objective had [Read More…]

Captain William Tompkins I love it when things come full circle. One of the last ferry men, William E. Tomkins, was the chief engineer of the Poughkeepsie Highland Ferry Company. Captain Tompkins was the grandfather of local resident Linda Smith. Linda and her husband, Matt Smith, have been instrumental in reclaiming the land that once [Read More…]

Highland has a few magical spots which remain unsullied by time’s aggressive fingers. If you walk down Mile Hill Road, for instance, the incline becomes steep and you’ll eventually come to the crux of a “y.” At this point, the Twaalfskill Creek, which has raced down Mile Hill with you, gushing with the spring thaw, [Read More…]

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…]

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…]

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 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…]

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…]

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…]

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…]

With its gold-embossed New York State seal, engravings of the first proposed Hudson River crossing and the one constructed, the hand-colored invitation shown below, reads: “The Governor of New York Cordially invites Mr. John F. Wadlin to witness the ceremonies incident to the opening of the Mid Hudson Bridge at Poughkeepsie, New York on Monday [Read More…]

Ulster County is a place of aqua-plenty. Sometimes, far too much. Most of the time however, water has positively shaped our lives as producers, consumers, recreationists, musicians and artists, students, and lovers of beauty. From its rivers, streams, vernal pools, cave lakes, Binnewaters, canals, and wetlands, we have so much water that we send millions [Read More…]

A few images from the treasure trove that is Beers 1875 Atlas of Ulster County, NY. The entire atlas has been digitized by Ulster County and others. The atlas contains demographic information for each town; maps with property owners’ names; sites of hamlets, schools, churchs and hotels long gone and some still existing; and etching [Read More…]

Marion Borden’s mansion sits on a hill over-looking the Wallkill River Valley with the Shawangunk Mountains looming large in the distance. It is a commanding view of what her family christened Home Farm. It was to become a retreat for the Borden Family for generations and to become a model dairy for the nation. One [Read More…]

Ulster’s harvest has changed dramatically in the past 70 years. Growing up on what had been my grandparents’ farm at the intersection of the towns of Esopus, New Paltz, and Lloyd, we were surrounded by dairy, poultry, and fruit farms. In the 1940s my father turned away from farming to work as a heavy equipment [Read More…]

Few buildings can boast the varied American stories that took place in the Gomez Mill House. You’ll meet five important families whose tenancy spanned not just the centuries, but impacted important epochs of history in ways that continue to reverberate. In 1654, Luis Moses Gomez’s ancestors fled the tyranny of the Spanish Inquisition. In 1705, [Read More…]

Marlborough On My Mind Marylou Mahan’s book, Marlborough On My Mind, published in 2009, is broken in to handy bite-size chapters and subchapters covering everything from education, spiritual life, famous and infamous individuals, local families, work, and finally, it brings us up to the planning for the quadricentennial celebration of Hudson’s trip up the river. [Read More…]

After you’ve strolled over Walkway Over The Hudson, drive or walk to Haviland Road’s abrupt end at the Mid Hudson Bridge. There, be prepared for Bertolozzi’s percussive serenade, known simply as “Bridge Music.” Composer Bertolozzi’s amazing offering uses only the sounds he produced by striking different structural parts, cables, railings, beams, of the Mid Hudson [Read More…]

Ten years ago, SUNY New Paltz Professor Bill Rhoads asked me if I knew the location of “Rock Nest,” the Highland (Town of Lloyd) home of artist Lilly Martin Spencer. I did not, nor was I familiar with the artist. As it turns out, I should have been, and for a number of reasons. From [Read More…]

An About Town reader in Chicago sent me a magazine article about postcard collecting. Since I am of (mostly) Austrian ancestry, it was interesting to note that postcards were invented in the Austro-Hungarian empire around the time of our Civil War, (probably more correctly called the War of Secession?). The article went on to say [Read More…]

It’s hard to imagine that a man could live on a farm for a hundred years and not have been born there. A man, over 100, who has no need of glasses to read this print, a man, over 100, who has an impish smile filled with perfect, natural teeth. It’s hard to imagine a [Read More…]

Hudson Valley residents and visitors are never deprived of outdoor excursions and Ulster County in particular has a delicious collection of places to picnic. Make it your goal to head to each one before school’s back in session.   Minnewaska Lake and State Park are part of the Shawangunk Mountains — or “The Gunks,” to [Read More…]

Pack up all your cares and… whoa! grab your picnic basket. Have I got a great place for you! In addition to the delightful places to picnic highlighted in Lindsay Pietroluongo’s article, there are two more not to be missed. Both are in West Park, west of Route 9W off Floyd Ackert Road. Fittingly, a series [Read More…]

New Paltz is old. We know that because it has the stone houses of Huguenot Street and the Elting Memorial Library building on Main. With this rich “stone house history” we often overlook other interesting 19th century structures in our village. Many of these still gracefully serve us in a variety of ways. To honor [Read More…]

“It is our hope that The United Methodist Church of Milton and Marlboro will continue to serve as a beacon of light in our communities for many generations to come.”   As the War of 1812 between Great Britain and the experiment in freedom known as America started, a more hopeful endeavor occupied a pious [Read More…]

Skip the Winter Blues by soaking up sun and staying active year-round. New Yorkers may not be able to jog outside in shorts and a tank during December like West Coast-ers can, but Southern Ulster County is abundant in hiking trails and nature preserves. Winter hiking lovers will argue that the best time of year [Read More…]

The natural clay deposits along the Hudson were just one more resource awaiting the entrepreneurial spirit to turn earth-formed materials into fortunes. Rich farm land, blue stone, limestone, peat, Shawangunk grit, timber, furs, scenic beauty, fresh air, water power, potable water, ice, and more provided the raw materials to build an individual’s prosperity—and the nation’s. [Read More…]

The first thing newcomers notice about Ulster County is how green it is—how trees fill every vista. It is said there are more trees here now than 100 years ago. With a land and water area of 1,161 square miles, Ulster boasts some of the largest tracks of woodlands and forested areas in New York. [Read More…]

When determining land boundaries, surveyors tell us there must be a “point of beginning.” That said, we turn our attention to the township of New Paltz. But first, a little bit of history. The late Beatrice Hasbrouck Wadlin, former town historian, stated in her book, Times and Tales of the Town of Lloyd: “Prior to [Read More…]

The colorful and inspirational individuals who lived in, and often shaped, the Town of Esopus over the past two hundred years have included a former slave, ship captains, millionaires, preachers, a presidential candidate, a world-renown naturalist, world-shaping entrepreneurs, a world-famous walker, and many philanthropists. Below are a few.   Truth Today, the Town of Esopus [Read More…]

On March 11, 1888, no one knew the falling flakes were anything more than a late-season snow. But by March 14th, everyone knew it was destined for the record books. It was the “Blizzard of ’88.” Phoebe Baxter Quimby of Marlboro was concluding a visit to nearby Plattekill. To make it home, Phoebe’s brothers ended [Read More…]

About a hundred yards east of Cliff Inn, near what is now the Minnewaska State Park Preserve entrance, a black shale unpaved road branched off to the right from the highway and looped back around to the highway about a half-mile later. Midway on the loop Lyons Road went off to the right and dead [Read More…]

A New York Times’ article of 1903 tells of a $12,000 purchase by John Arbuckle of 282 acres of farm land in New Paltz, NY. According to the late Peter Harp’s Horse and Buggy Days, the first purchase by Arbuckle was of the Deyo Farm, and shortly after he purchased the Helena Smedes’ and six [Read More…]

Mark and Ray Huling had a trained seal (actually a sea lion) act in the Barnum and Bailey Circus. In the 1920s, both men moved to Kingston where Mark set up the Seal College on Route 28, west of the Esopus Creek. He had four seals and you could visit the college for twenty-five (25) [Read More…]

It’s Spring and salamanders are on the march. They are looking for love in all the damp places: Woodlands, streamsides, swamps, ditches, leaf litter. However, if you see a bright orange one with two rows of small red dots ringed by black on its back, relax, it may not be looking for love. It is [Read More…]

There are over 3,100 counties in the Untied States. A study about them, done in the mid-1990s titled “Strong Home Towns,” was published in American Demographics magazine. The study defined a strong community as one in which the people are long-time residents, are civically engaged, have deep family roots and ties, have business interests, maintain [Read More…]

  1974, Fire! Flames rose from the oil soaked railroad ties as charred debris rained down on the buildings, roads, and properties in Poughkeepsie. Our vantage point, on the West shore of the Hudson River, was about a half mile north of the burning railroad bridge. We viewed the fire from the site of Bellevue [Read More…]

Archery is “taught by Chief Crazy Bull (Ta Tan Ka Witko)—grandson of the heroic warrior of the Sioux, Sitting Bull…” That’s from the opening paragraph of a four-page brochure, Authentic American Archeryproduced by The Raymond Riordon School, Highland, Ulster County, New York, informing prospects this won’t be education-as-usual. Ulster County has had a number of [Read More…]

                                          All postcards and images from the collection of Vivian Yess Wadlin.

As the bounty of the season rolls in, gardeners’ thoughts transform. Worry over the fate of tender seedlings and the year’s insect pressures is replaced by gratitude as the sweet tomatoes and peppers of late summer fill the harvest basket, as the crunchy cabbages and succulent broccoli of fall take your garden eating into winter. [Read More…]

Esopus: Shaupeneak Trials Coming from the south, Shaupeneak Trialhead is on Old Post Road (a left off Route 9W just north of Black Creek Apartments and Black Creek Road). Then, cross the railroad tracks and it’s on your right. Burroughs Sanctuary and Slabsides While you are in this neck of the woods, go south on [Read More…]

A retrospective of Joseph Tubby (1821-1896), a nineteenth century Kingston artist noted for his paintings of local landscapes, is open at the Friends of Historic Kingston Gallery. Tubby was a disciple of the Hudson River School and painted in that style throughout his career. Born in England, Tubby moved to Rondout as an adolescent when [Read More…]

Considered an unrivaled engineering feat, the bridge was the first to span the Hudson. When opened in 2009 for the Hudson Fulton Celebration, it will be the longest pedestrian bridge in the world. Thanks to the Board of the Walkway, the Dyson Foundation, and Bill Sepe, whose dream it always was.        

When his parents purchased their farm on July 23, 1921 at the intersection of the towns of New Paltz, Esopus and Lloyd, seven-year old Louis Yess, had no idea of the once world-celebrated man living a few miles away. The neighbor, Edward Payson Weston, was a world famous perambulator (walker). He lived on “the Rifton [Read More…]

One of the most admired figures in any community is the local artist, and our area has been playing hosts to renowned artists for hundreds of years. The first local artists, the Hudson River School painters, began their work nearly two hundred years ago, as landscape painters. Despite the name, they were widely traveled and [Read More…]

April 18, 1906 Many people remember and many more will remember, if only briefly, the San Francisco earthquake of 1906. It occurred at 5:13 in the morning on April 18th, an 8.25 on the Richter scale, on an otherwise clear day. It was a catastrophic event that brought down buildings and killed people. The earthquake [Read More…]

Introduction by Marianne Williams History, for my husband, Walter Williams, was not just a subject to be studied in school. It was, for him, a way of connecting with all that had gone before him and passing it along to those who would come after. Williams Lake Hotel was his business but it was also [Read More…]

(In this letter several dashes indicate illegible passages or words in the original script.)   An Irish Political Exile’s View of America: TIM O’DRISCOLL IN ARCADIA ON THE HUDSON – AND THE LAVISH DISPLAY AT THE HOME OF JACK HANLON From the Irish Magazine (Dublin), 1817. Letter to Mr. (“Watty”) Cox, From New York   [Read More…]

Many recall the scene in Hitchcock’s The Birds. An occupied park bench, behind it a playground jungle gym. A single crow silently alights on the structure. Then another. And another. Finally, the bars of the jungle gym are just rows of large, silent black crows. This wasn’t like that. Outside my house the crows were [Read More…]

A Half Century Of Fine Dining Doesn’t Just Happen… It takes hosts dedicated to knowing their guests, their guests’ tastes, and by treating everyone who enters with an indefinable, yet genuine “welcome.” It takes people like the Ruoffs. The Ruoff family at the Mountain Brauhaus Restaurant in Gardiner, have done it flawlessly for 50 years [Read More…]

It’s early February and the wild turkeys are starting to strut their stuff (as opposed to late November when they strut their stuffing). Their communications are similar to a cork slowly turning in a wine bottle and signify about the same thing–love is in the air. I watched two males trying to out-fluff-up and out-tail-spread [Read More…]

My father grew up outside New Paltz in the 1920s and 30s. In those days, trees were an economic asset and knowing your trees was essential to a family living off the land. Tulip trees were cut to take to the basket factory in Highland. Locust was cut for posts. Hardwoods for furniture. Walking in [Read More…]

While traveling in Connecticut we (by chance) visited a museum featuring American Indian tribes. There on the wall with the photos of other honored elders from various tribes was a picture of someone I recognized. Roy Black Bear. Although I had not been in his museum, I had seen him at functions in the community. [Read More…]

The distinguished gentleman to the left is Alton B. Parker. The snoozing, nevertheless distinguished-looking, gentledog is Senator. Judge Alton B. Parker ran against Teddy Roosevelt in 1904 for the Presidency of the United States. Parker declared his candidacy and did much of his campaigning from the porch of his lovely Hudson river home, Rosemont (now [Read More…]

The geologic undulation running north and south on the west side of the Hudson in Esopus is called the Marlboro Mountains. I call it seclusion with a view. In fact, two quite spectacular views within a short walk—to the east the Hudson River and Dutchess County, and to the west, the Shawangunk and Catskill Mountains. [Read More…]

During the thirty years in which I practiced veterinary medicine-first in High Falls and then in Stone Ridge-thousands of office calls and surgeries occurred, the details of which have left my memory. There are however a few that, because of their unusual nature, will forever linger in my mind. Take for instance, the time a [Read More…]

In May of this year, the Economic Development Committee of the Town of Lloyd (Highland) unveiled the conceptual drawings for the redevelopment of a portion of its Hudson River frontage. The drawings were the culmination of community meetings seeking public input of ideas for making the river front accessible and interesting. Currently, much of the [Read More…]

· A wounded Great Blue Heron spent several days in our lake providing a riveting spectacle as she followed the sun around the shallow end. You could walk quietly within ten feet, sit down, and watch her feed on small fish, salamanders, frogs, and polliwogs. When she disappeared, our end of the lake was quite [Read More…]

In the 1950’s, before the owners fenced and sealed it, you could walk deep into the abandoned cement mine beside Route 213 just outside the village of Rosendale. A moist, steady 52-55 degree-air poured from the mouth of the cave, summer and winter. It was often our destination in the early evening of a hot [Read More…]