Kingston, New York
Kingston is a city in and the county seat of Ulster County, New York, United States. The population was 24,069 at the 2020 census, while the Kingston metropolitan statistical area had 177,749 residents. It is at the confluence of Rondout Creek and the Hudson River, north of New York City and south of Albany. The city's metropolitan area is grouped with the New York metropolitan area around Manhattan by the United States Census Bureau.
Kingston became New York's first capital in 1777. During the American Revolutionary War, the city was burned by the British on October 16, 1777, after the Battles of Saratoga. Albany was designated the state capital in 1797, years after the colonies achieved independence.
In the 19th century, Kingston became an important transport hub after the discovery of natural cement in 1825 in the region. The city's connections to other markets through both the railroad and Erie Canal made it strong economically. Today many of the older buildings associated with this era are considered contributing as part of three historic districts, including the Stockade District uptown, the Midtown Neighborhood Broadway Corridor, and the Rondout-West Strand Historic District downtown. Each district is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
History
Colonial history
Kingston is the traditional home of the Esopus people. As early as 1614, the Dutch had set up a factorij at Ponckhockie, at the junction of the Rondout Creek and the Hudson River. They traded European goods with the Lenape and Mohican for the furs their trappers collected. In 1652, the Indians of Ulster County ceded some land to the Dutch in what is now known as Kingston. The first recorded permanent settler in what would become the city of Kingston was Thomas Chambers. He came from the area of Rensselaerswyck in 1653. The new settlement was called Esopus after the local Lenape people.In 1654, European settlers began buying more land from the Esopus Indians further west. However, historians believe the two cultures had drastically different conceptions of property and land use, causing tension between the two groups. Common sources of friction between Dutch settlers and the Esopus included settlers' livestock trampling Indian cornfields, disputes over trade, and the adverse effects of Dutch brandy on the Native Americans. Prior to the Europeans' arrival, natives had no experience with liquor.
In the spring of 1658, Peter Stuyvesant, Director-General of New Amsterdam, ordered the consolidation and fortification of the settlement on high ground in what today is Uptown Kingston. The building of the defensive stockade increased the conflicts. Tensions broke out in the Esopus Wars.
In 1661, the Dutch granted a charter for the settlement as a separate municipality; Stuyvesant named it Wiltwijck. In 1663, the Esopus were defeated in the Second Esopus War by a coalition of Dutch settlers, and Wappinger and Mohawk peoples.
When the Dutch ceded their New Netherland to the British in September 1664, the British people worked to settle boundaries and conflict between the Europeans and the Esopus. Ultimately, the Richard Nicolls/Esopus Indian Treaty resulted in lasting peace between the natives and settlers. According to the treaty, the Esopus "in the names of themselves and theire heirs forever, give, Grant, Alienate, and Confirme all their Right and Interest, Claime or demand, to a certaine Parcell of Land" including the city of Kingston and extending to modern Kerhonkson. In exchange, the natives received "forty Blanketts, Twenty Pounds of Powder, Twenty Knives, Six Kettles, Twelve Barrs of Lead" and "three laced redd coates" as a gift to the tribal leaders. Further, the British and Esopus designed a system of trade which included a protected trade path for the Esopus to travel unharmed, and a safe house where Esopus could stay when visiting the village. The treaty was respected for generations, as evidenced by records of annual gatherings between the Esopus and local Kingstonians where each exchanged gifts of mutual respect. The treaty is still recognized and celebrated by the City of Kingston and descendants of the Esopus.
Many descendants of the Esopus people who inhabited the area became remnant members of several other related, displaced tribes. Some in the diaspora are among the federally recognized Stockbridge–Munsee Community, who moved from New York to Shawano County, Wisconsin; the Munsee-Delaware of the Six Nations Reserve in Ontario, Canada, established after the Revolution by the Crown for its Iroquois and other Indian allies; and the Ramapough Lenape Indian Nation.
Wiltwyck was one of three large Hudson River settlements in New Netherland, the other two being Beverwyck, now Albany; and New Amsterdam, now New York City. With the English seizure of New Netherland in 1664, relations between the Dutch settlers and the English soldiers garrisoned there were often strained. In 1669, the English renamed Wiltwyck Kingston, in honor of the family seat of Governor Lovelace's mother. In 1683, citizens of Kingston petitioned the Kingston court to buy more land from the Esopus people. Officials from Ulster County maintained contact with the Esopus until 1727.
In 1777, Kingston was designated as the first capital of the state of New York. During the spring of 1777, when the New York State constitution was being written in White Plains, New York City was occupied by British troops. The work was moved to Kingston, which was deemed safer, and the document completed that April 20. It was never submitted to the people for ratification, but the first governor of the state, George Clinton, was sworn in as the first Governor of New York on July 30, 1777.
The British never reached Albany, having been stopped at Saratoga, but they did reach Kingston. On October 16, 1777, the city was burned by British troops moving up river from New York City and disembarking at the mouth of the Rondout Creek at "Ponckhockie". The residents of Kingston knew about the oncoming fleet. By the time the British arrived, the residents and government officials had removed to Hurley. The Kingston area was largely agricultural and a major granary for the colonies at the time, so the British burned large amounts of wheat and all but one or two of the buildings. Kingston celebrates and re-enacts the 1777 burning of the city by the British every other year in a citywide theatrical staging of the event that begins at the Rondout.
Kingston was incorporated as a village on April 6, 1805. In the early 1800s, four sloops plied the river, carrying passengers and freight from Kingston to New York. By 1829, river steamers made the trip to Manhattan in a little over twelve hours, usually travelling by night. Columbus Point was the river landing for Kingston, and stage lines ran from the village to the Point. The Dutch cultural influence in Kingston remained strong through the nineteenth century.
Rondout
Rondout was a small farming village until 1825, when construction of the Delaware and Hudson Canal from Rondout to Honesdale, Pennsylvania, attracted an influx of laborers. When they completed the canal in 1828, Rondout became an important tidewater coal terminal. Natural cement deposits were found throughout the valley, and in 1844 quarrying began in the "Ponchockie" section of Rondout. The Newark Lime and Cement Company shipped cement throughout the United States, a thriving business until the invention of cheaper, quicker drying Portland Cement. Workers cut and stored ice from the Hudson River each winter, keeping it in large warehouses of ice near the river. The ice would be cut in chunks and delivered to customers around the city. It was preserved in straw all year and ice chunks served as an early method of refrigeration.Large brick making factories also were built near this shipping hub. Rondout's primacy as a shipping hub ended with the advent of railroads. These lines were built through Rondout and Kingston, with stations in each place. They could also transport their loads through the city without stopping.
Wilbur
Wilbur was a hamlet upstream from Rondout, where the Twaalfskill Creek met the Rondout Creek. There was a sloop landing there. The hamlet became the center for the shipment of bluestone to lay the sidewalks of New York City.Kingston officially became a city on May 29, 1872, with the merger of the villages of Rondout and Kingston, and the hamlet of Wilbur.
Geography
Kingston has three recognized area neighborhoods. The Uptown Stockade Area, The Midtown Area, and The Downtown Waterfront Area. The Uptown Stockade District was the first capital of New York State. Meanwhile, the Midtown area is known for its early 20th century industries and is home to the Ulster Performing Arts Center and the historic City Hall building.The downtown area, once the village of Rondout and now the Rondout-West Strand Historic District, borders the Rondout Creek and includes a recently redeveloped waterfront. The creek empties into the Hudson River through a large, protected tidal area which was the terminus of the Delaware and Hudson Canal, built to haul coal from Pennsylvania to New York City.
The Rondout neighborhood is known for its artists' community and its many art galleries. It is also the site of a number of festivals, including the Kingston Jazz Festival and the Artists Soapbox Derby.
Midtown is the largest of Kingston's neighborhoods, home to Kingston High School, an original Carnegie Library that is currently part of the high school, and both campuses of HealthAlliance Hospital, part of the Westchester Medical Center Health Network; HealthAlliance Broadway Campus and HealthAlliance Mary's Avenue Campus.
While the Uptown area is noted for its "antique" feeling, the overhangs attached to buildings along Wall and North Front streets were added to historic buildings in the late 1970s and are not authentically part of the 19th century Victorian architecture. The historic covered storefront walks, known as the Pike Plan, were recently reinforced and modernized with skylights. In the Stockade district of Uptown, many 17th century stone buildings remain. Among these is the Senate House, which was built in the 1670s and was used as the state capitol during the revolution. Many of these old buildings were burned by the British Oct. 17, 1777, and restored later. A controversial restoration of 1970s-era canopies was marred by the sudden appearance of painted red goats on planters just prior to the neighborhood's rededication. This part of the city is also the location of the Ulster County Office Building.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has an area of, of which is land and, or 15.03%, is water. The city is on the west bank of the Hudson River. Neighboring towns include Hurley, Saugerties, Rhinebeck, and Red Hook.