Vivian Yess Wadlin
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…]
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…]
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…]
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…]
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…]
Iva’s Accord Roots
Fall 2014
Iva Lawrence’s mind is as tidy and organized as the lovely home she and her late husband, Vincent, built. About to celebrate her 97th birthday, Iva speaks with authority about her wonderful neighbors and family. Many regularly drop by to chat or to inquire about this or that—local history, local news—how to make something, or [Read More…]
Unsuspended Admiration: The Mid Hudson Bridge
Summer 2014
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…]
The Flow of History
Spring 2014
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…]
Mason Bee Update
Spring 2014
Mason bees are natives. They are found all over the United States and are excellent pollinators. I’ve been raising them as a hobby for five years and have written about them in previous About Town issues and been interviewed about them by Ulster Publishing. As I write this in February, I have no idea how [Read More…]
Beers Atlas of 1875
Winter 2013
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…]
‘Villes & ‘Dales
Winter 2013
Ulster County is comprised of one city (Kingston), twenty towns (New Paltz, Gardiner, Rosendale, etc), three incorporated villages (New Paltz, Ellenville and Saugerties) and about three dozen designations based on census tracts and postal addresses. Most of these last three dozen, plus other named places and small villages are what we consider “hamlets.” These have [Read More…]
Renovate or Raze?
Winter 2013
Prior to a fire that took the top section of the turret of the Ganse House (current Highland Library building), the lovely home was an inspiration to the thousands of laborers who traveled along the Highland-New Paltz trolley line. Today, the building’s fate is being discussed by Highland area residents and the library board. The [Read More…]
Local History Books
Winter 2013
Just in time for holidays and stay-cations, we have three books of local history to enjoy. A.J. Schenkman and Elizabeth (Libby) Werlau bring you Ulster County ripped from the headlines. Okay, so most of the crimes were a while ago. Regardless, human nature is not a pretty picture as painted in Murder & Mayhem in [Read More…]
Spans of Time
Fall 2013
You might think the newly opened span in Rosendale is just a junior act following Walkway Over the Hudson. You would be wrong. The Wallkill Valley Rail Trail (WVRT) bridge over the Rondout Creek is an intimate experience with different construction and a very different history running its course. There is much to see and [Read More…]
Harvesting Memory
Fall 2013
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…]
