USA > New York > Dutchess County > Dutchess county > Part 5
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In 1814 Poughkeepsie became the first steamboat terminal between New York and Albany. The general introduction of steamboats about this time, and towboats a decade later, which permitted passengers to ride out of danger from exploding boilers, proved a further stimulation to the com- merce of Poughkeepsie; and the improved "team-boat" ferries, introduced in the year 1819, gave the town an important position in the route of westward migration. With the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825, however, western competition caused a decline, continuous to the present time, in the value of Dutchess County produce, and accordingly in the commercial im- portance of Poughkeepsie. Passage of the Hudson River Railroad in 1850 was a further blow to local shipping interests, because, while it opened the New York market to Dutchess County dairying, it effectually ended the ex- port of local wheat.
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To counteract these changes and hasten the inevitable transition from trans- portation and commerce to industry, the Poughkeepsie Improvement Party was founded about 1830. Composed of prominent local business men, this group was very influential in directing the activities of the town at large, initiating industries, establishing schools, and even laying out whole streets and sections of the town. Mansion Square Park, was sponsored by the Im- provement Party as a residential inducement. The Improvement Party went out of existence with the panic of 1837.
The striking development of the 1830's, one the modern visitor would scarcely guess, was the short-lived but intensive period of whaling. This in- dustry employed at one time seven ships, kept the docks above the Upper Landing humming, and caused the erection of several of the fine water-front mansions which industrial developments were later to mar or raze.
Another short-lived but interesting enterprise of the same period was the attempt of the Poughkeepsie Silk Company to produce raw silk from silk-worm cocoons on mulberry trees planted near the junction of Delafield Street and the Albany Post Road. The company collapsed in the panic of 1837.
In the same decade Poughkeepsie acquired a reputation as an educational center by the establishment here of more than a dozen private schools. Best known were the Poughkeepsie Collegiate School, the Poughkeepsie Female Academy, Mrs. Congdon's Seminary, and Miss Lydia Booth's Semin- ary. (See Vassar College, p. 54.) In 1836 the old Dutchess County Academy moved into larger quarters in the building now occupied by the Old Ladies' Home. This sudden efflorescence induced Harvey G. Eastman of St. Louis to move here in 1859 for the purpose of founding the Eastman Business College, which, after an enrollment at one time of 1,700 students, closed in May 1933. Vassar College, the one institution of Poughkeepsie known throughout the country, was founded in 1861.
In 1854, the year Poughkeepsie was granted a city charter, Henry Wheeler Shaw, the "Josh Billings" of Yankee humor, took up his permanent residence here. Although he established himself as an auctioneer, he began here his career as a writer under the original nom-de-plume of Efrem Billings, which he soon changed to its classic form. Most of his books were written in Pough- keepsie. He contributed to local newspapers, took an active interest in civic affairs, and in 1858 was elected city alderman from the fourth ward.
The Civil War was ardently supported by Poughkeepsians who had given Lincoln an overwhelming majority in the election of 1860. Com- pany E of the 30th Regiment, the first company raised in the city, fought at Bull Run, South Mountain, Antietam, and in other important battles. The 150th Regiment, recruited from Poughkeepsie and the vicinity, was in action at Gettysburg, where 7 of its men were killed and 22 wounded, and was also with Sherman on the famous march to the sea.
After the assassination of President Lincoln, the train bearing his mar- tyred body passed through Poughkeepsie on its way to Illinois. Virtually the whole population of the city assembled along the tracks to stand in awed
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silence as it passed. Draped in black, with muffled wheels, it ran noise- lessly except for the tolling of the engine's bell, and was long remembered as the "Ghost Train."
After the Civil War, Poughkeepsie entered a period of rapid industrial expansion. Factories began to spread along the water front, transforming its earlier character and substituting a multitude of warehouses, factories, and docks for the ordered system of landings, roads, and residences which had hitherto prevailed. Families of wealth and social position deserted the lively and picturesque slopes west of the Post Road for the undeveloped tracts to the southeast, entrenching themselves on the eminences of Academy Street and spreading out over the Hooker Avenue section. In Poughkeepsie, as elsewhere at this time, the "residential districts," newly created in costly and complex structures of brick and frame along new, characterless streets, established themselves in conscious opposition to the organic but unpredictable development of older quarters. Of the same period are the various philan- thropic institutions, housed in the characteristic buildings of dull red brick, to be found in the various sections of the present town.
Arlington
Arlington is a vaguely defined suburb lying within the township of Poughkeepsie, just east of the city. Its center is approximately the corner of Main Street and Raymond Avenue. Its location adjacent to Vassar Col- lege has been the chief cause of its development. It is a village community with small, frame houses, stores, two churches, and two schools. Many of the residences are opened to guests of the college on weekends and gala occasions. Shops catering to college tastes line College View Avenue and the east side of Raymond Avenue. On the west, near the Main Street corner, a large modern garage stands as a monument to the march of time-its proprietor the owner of stables which for many years have furnished saddle horses for Vassar students.
In Revolutionary times the Arlington section was known as Bull's Head, a name derived from that of a local tavern. Tory and Indian raids on the other side of the Hudson are said to have caused many families to settle here. John Holt, official State printer, appears to have lived here after his escape from New York in 1776.
Among the earliest settlers were Bernardus and Johannes Swartwout, the latter of whom had a mill on the Casperkill, the small stream which is now dammed to form Vassar Lake. The same Johannes Swartwout may well have been the father of Capt. Abraham Swartwout of Poughkeepsie, who gave his blue cloak to make part of the first American flag used in battle-in the defense of Fort Schuyler in 1777.
In 1872, the name Bull's Head was condemned as undignified and re- placed by the name East Poughkeepsie, and about 1900 changed again to the present name of Arlington.
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3
SI
ST
WORKS PROGRESS ADMINISTRATION FEDERAL WRITERS' PROJECT
POUGHKEEPSIE
FOOT TOUR NO. 1 1.4 MILES
WASHINGTON
START OF TOUR
2
1
UNION
ST
5
N
6
STREET
12
CANNON
STREET
CHURCH
11
STREET
STREET
MARKET
NOXON
STREET
9
MONTGOMERY
STREET
AMERICAN GUIDE NEW YORK
8
10
4
MAIN
1
VASSAR
LAFAYETTE
ST
ST
MAIN ST
1
7
ACADEMY
FOOT TOUR 1 (1.4 m.)
1. The DUTCHESS COUNTY COURT HOUSE stands at the busi ness center of Poughkeepsie, at the intersection of Market St. (the Post Road) and Main St. It is a three-story-and-attic structure of red brick with gray sandstone trim. A mansard roof of red tile is softened by a balustrade crown. The interior walls and staircases are lined with white marble in the typical courthouse manner. Built in 1902, it stands on the site of four former courthouses, the first of which, erected before 1721, was the original Dut- chess county Court House authorizen by the 16th Colonial Assembly in 1715 and 1717. The second and considerably larger structure, authorized in 1743, when the first had fallen into hopeless disrepair, became the tem- porary State Capitol after the burning of Kingston; this historical edifice was destroyed by fire in 1785. A third courthouse was in use by the end of 1787, and in it, on July 26 of the following year, the State of New York, after bitter and prolonged debate, ratified the Constitution of the United States. (See p. 14.) This building fell prey to fire in 1806, and was followed in 1809 by a fourth and still larger courthouse, which stood until razed to make way for the present structure.
From the Market St. intersection, W. on Main St.
2. The CITY HALL (L), at Main and Washington Streets, a modest gray-painted brick building of the Greek Revival type, is the only civic structure in Poughkeepsie of much architectural interest. Built in 1831, it was intended to serve as the village hall and market. The market and fish- stalls which occupied the ground floor were discontinued shortly before the Civil War, and the whole interior altered. In 1865 the ground floor was reconstructed to serve as a temporary post office, and the Common Council met in the northwest room of the second floor. Part of the second floor was used for some time as a classroom of the Eastman Business College. The police station and city court in the rear were added after the Civil War.
R. from Main St. on Washington St., L. on Lafayette Pl., L. on Vassar St.
3. The VASSAR BROTHERS INSTITUTE (R), Vassar Street and Lafayette Place (open daily 1-5; admission free), houses a museum of natural history, a natural science and historical library, and an auditorium.
Fauna, Indian relics, and fossils collected locally are exhibited. On the first floor is a large and interesting group of insects. In the auditorium a series of travelogues and lectures on geography are given during the winter, usually on Tuesday evenings. The second floor has a large arrangement of animals, butterflies, and birds in their natural habitat, Indian artifacts, and fossils of the Hudson Valley.
The red brick building is constructed in a style which might, for local purposes, be called Vassar architecture of the Civil War period, since all the institutions donated by the Vassars are built in the same style. This building was erected in 1881 on the site of the old Vassar brewery by the brothers, John Guy, and Matthew Vassar, Jr., to promote knowledge of science, literature, and art.
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4. The VASSAR BROTHERS HOME FOR AGED MEN (L), Main and Vassar Streets, stands on the site of the home of Matthew Vassar, founder of Vassar College. Established in 1880 by John, Guy, and Matthew Vassar, Jr., the institution is equipped to care for 21 elderly men. To be ad- mitted, an applicant must be of good character, a resident of Poughkeepsie for five years, at least 65 years old, and of Protestant faith. An admission fee and the transference of all personal property to the home are further conditions.
Matthew Vassar, one of the two sons of James and Anne (Bennett) Vassar, was born April 29, 1792 in East Tuddingham, England. In 1796 James Vassar with his family migrated to America, settled in Poughkeepsie, and entered business as a brewer. Matthew Vassar followed his father in the business, and in 1813 married Catherine Valentine, who died in 1863 leaving no children. Matthew Vassar died in 1868, seven years after he had founded Vassar College. (See Vassar College, p. 54.) Following his example, his nephews, Matthew Jr., and John Guy, sons of his brother Thomas, became prominent in the community, founding and endowing a number of institutions in Poughkeepsie, and making further gifts to Vassar College.
L. from Vassar Street on Main Street, R. on Washington Street, L. on Union Street.
5. SMITH BROTHERS RESTAURANT, 13 Market Street, oppo- site Union Street, a landmark in epicurean circles, is unique in that its early development fostered the candy enterprise which later became the widely known cough drop business now conducted by Smith Brothers, Incorporated, at North Hamilton Street. The spacious dining room, with its great mirrors and portraits of the Smith brothers, "Trade" and "Mark," pre- serves an atmosphere of substantial dignity.
The establishment grew from a small restaurant started by James Smith, a Scotch-Canadian who came to Poughkeepsie in 1847. At his death, his sons, James, Jr., and Andrew, inherited the business. In 1876 William W. Smith succeeded James Jr., and his descendants still own it. The restaurant has always been conducted under a policy of strict temperance.
6. The NELSON HOUSE, 28 Market Street, is the oldest hotel in Poughkeepsie. Since 1777, under various names and owners, an inn has been uninterruptedly maintained on this site, and before the Revolution the Van den Bogaerdt farmhouse, which stood here, was used as an inn from 1725 to 1742.
During the years when Poughkeepsie was capital of the State (1778- 83), most of the State and local officials made their headquarters in the inn opened here in 1777 by Stephen Hendrikson. Governor Clinton paid Hen- drikson for a room used by the State Council of Revision in 1778.
The famous British spy, Huddlestone, after being captured at Yonkers in 1780, was brought to Poughkeepsie and hanged on Forbus Hill, behind the inn. The chief use of this hill in Revolutionary times, however, was as a vantage point for lookouts for river sloops, to ensure travelers' connections from the inn.
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Hendrickson's Inn, having been enlarged from one and one-half to three stories in 1813, and, as the Forbus Hotel, to four in 1844, was torn down in 1875, and a new one, now the central part of the Nelson House, built. The following year it was renamed in honor of Judge Nelson, a former owner of the property.
Another famous hostelry, which served from 1886 to 1917 as an annex of the Nelson House, was the old Poughkeepsie Hotel. Lafayette, Henry Clay, Aaron Burr, Martin Van Buren, and many other distinguished men had been among its guests. It stood on Main Street, at the point where New Market Street now crosses. It was razed in 1917 to make way for the street.
7. The ADRIANCE MEMORIAL LIBRARY, Market Street be- tween Noxon and Montgomery Streets, is a handsome, white, marble-faced building in French Renaissance style. It contains 85,000 volumes, the num- ber being normally increased annually by about 1,500. Included in the library are noteworthy collections on local history.
The building, designed by Charles F. Rose of Poughkeepsie and erected in 1898, was a gift to the city from six children of John P. and Marv Adriance as a memorial to their parents. Market Street continues as a right fork at Soldiers' Monument.
L. from Market St. on Montgomery St.
8. EASTMAN PARK, an 11-acre recreational area, is entered at South Avenue (Post Road) and Montgomery Street. Its chief feature is the baseball diamond on which games of the twilight leagues and county championships are played. A field is flooded in winter for ice skating. There are two tennis courts.
Purchased in 1865 by Harvey G. Eastman, the low-lying marshy land was drained and developed as a private estate. In 1867, with a display of Chinese lanterns and fireworks, and an address by Horace Greeley on tem- perance, the park was formally opened to the public. Forty-two years later it became city property by gift of C. C. Gaines, who had married Mr. Eastman's widow.
The old Eastman mansion on Montgomery Street, near the entrance, is now used as the office building of the Poughkeepsie Board of Public Works.
9. The SOLDIERS' MONUMENT (L), opposite the main entrance of Eastman Park, an ornately figured fountain, was unveiled July 4, 1870, with a parade and a balloon ascension in the park, in honor of the soldiers of the Civil War.
10. CHRIST CHURCH (Episcopal) comprises a striking group of English Gothic edifices of red sandstone standing in well-shaded landscaped grounds facing Academy Street to the right of its intersection with Mont- gomery Street. The church building was erected in 1888 and the tower added in 1889. The Tudor rectory was built in 1903. Christ Church was estab- lished in 1766, and the first church building was erected in 1774 on the site of the present armory at Church and Market Streets.
L. from Montgomery St. on Academy St.
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11. The site of the DUTCHESS COUNTY ACADEMY, (L), the first academy in the county and the first secondary school in Poughkeepsie, is at the southwest corner of Cannon and Academy Streets. Founded in Fishkill in 1769, the school was transferred to Poughkeepsie together with its original building, in 1791. Academy Street was named for the School.
Although charging for tuition, the academy was partly supported by taxation and was under a Board of Regents. Its first principal was Rev. Cornelius Brower, pastor of the Dutch Reformed Church. In 1836 the large brick bilding at Montgomery and South Hamilton Streets, now owned by the Old Ladies' Home (see p. 50), was erected for the academy which con- tinued there until 1866.
L. from Academy St. on Cannon St.
12. The building of the WOMEN'S CHRISTIAN TEMPERANCE UNION, Cannon Street, erected in 1836, housed for 50 years the Pough- keepsie Female Academy. With its immense white columns, it is a grandiose example of the Greek Revival period of architecture. The academy remained one of the best known of Poughkeepsie's many schools until it closed in 1886. In 1889 the building was purchased by the W. C. T. U., largely through the aid of William W. Smith.
L. from Cannon St. on Market St., to Court House.
MOTOR TOUR 1 (3 m.)
The Waterfront
The waterfront includes the industrialized and now partly-abandoned region lying riverward from the tracks of the New York Central Railroad, bounded by the extensive enclosures of the city's two largest industries, the Dutton Lumber Company on the north, and the DeLaval Separator Com- pany on the south. The whole scene is dominated by the river, with its two great bridges and its miscellaneous shipping, and by the two important rail- road arteries which intersect here. The four river landings of the 18th century village are still accessible as, with some restrictions, are the docks and wharves of the modern city. This region was the site of the first settle- ment, and has remained the seat of the chief activities of the city throughout its history. On the river bluffs, almost squeezed out by encroaching indus- trial plants in all stages of repair, stand the once imposing dwellings of an earlier day, while behind them on the irregular streets are grouped hap- hazardly the frame houses and brick tenements of more recent times. Besides the many fine views of the river obtainable here, and the concentrated local history, the Poughkeepsie waterfront is unusually interesting for its contrasts and for the picturesqueness of its subtle compositions and colors.
From Courthouse, Main and Market Sts., N. on New Market St. to Mill St., L. on Mill St. to North Perry St. Park car on Mill St. and walk (R) 100 feet up Charles St.
13. The ARNOLD COTTON MILL (visitors welcome), built in 1811, still stands in tolerable repair on the Keating lumberyard on
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Charles Street. The old mill, built of field stone, is now the lower part of the central section of the main building. The waterwheel has been removed, and the course of the Fallkill, which powered it, gradually diverted to the north. The original cross timbers of oak and the one-piece oaken window frames remain. Cotton fabrics were manufactured here during the War of 1812, when the cessation of American coastwise trade necessitated the carting of raw cotton in wagonloads from Georgia. The mill failed because of the flood of imported goods consequent upon the peace treaty in 1815.
Return to car. At Dongan Monument Mill St. bears (R), and at next traffic light, (L).
14. The yellow walls of SAINT PETER'S CHURCH (R) AND SCHOOL (L), foot of Mill Street, stand amid tumbledown environs on a bluff above the tracks of the New York Central Railroad. This was the first Roman Catholic church in Dutchess County. The original structure, dating from 1837, faced west overlooking the river, and has been retained as the transept of the present church, erected in 1853, with additions made later. Of painted brick in a Renaissance style, this is one of the most strik- ingly situated of the city's buildings. A fine view of the railroad bridge, ris- ing above power plant and gas tanks, extends to include the Mid-Hudson Bridge (L) outlined gracefully against the Highlands.
L. from Mill St. on Dutchess Ave.
As the road curves right beneath Saint Peter's and turns left into Dutchess Avenue, an impressive prospect of industrial structures opens to view. Along Dutchess Avenue, one of the oldest streets in the city, a number of pictur- esque old frame and brick houses are passed.
Across the railroad overpass, the route turns sharp (L) into North Water St.
The route here enters the water front proper, where dwellings have almost disappeared before the demands of commerce and manufacture.
15. The route proceeds left, but a right turn on North Water Street, into the short dead end of Hoffman Street, affords the best view of the docks and yards of the DUTTON LUMBER COMPANY, largest of their kind in the eastern United States. The company is an important distributor of domestic and foreign lumber. Ocean-going ships, huge cranes, and stacks of lumber spread along the half mile of water frontage, create maritime impressions rare at such a distance from the sea. These yards play a major part in the American building industry: vessels of all draughts ply here from the West Coast, Norway, and the U. S. S. R. And the sense of activity and the color of the scene are en- hanced by the immediate presence of the busy railroad tracks and sidings.
As the route proceeds south along North Water Street, extremely slow driving will be repaid by views of a complex and vivid scene-bridge and gas tanks on the right, and left, across the tracks, the string of colorful houses along Dutchess Avenue, the desolate slope with its automobile grave- yard, and beyond, Saint Peter's Church crowning the background.
(R) from North Water St. on Dutchess Ave.
16. The DUTCHESS AVENUE DOCK, a public landing, adjoins the long wharves of the Dutton Lumber Company. The scene from this point,
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Dutch House, known as "Old Hundred," New Hackensack
Reformed Dutch Church at New Hackensack
Poughkeepsie Railroad Bridge from the Water- front
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Interior W'oodwork of the Lewis DuBois House, Grays Riding Academy
doubtless one of the finest in Poughkeepsie, includes a splendid vista of the broad, busy river bounded by the smoke-plumed trains of the West Shore Railroad, behind which the horizon rises abruptly with the Highlands. Mile long freight trains cross the lofty bridges overhead in silhouette against the sky.
The Dutchess Avenue Dock had a brief but intense period of activity in the 1830's, when, at the height of the great American whaling industry, the Poughkeepsie Whaling Company was established here. This company was followed by a larger enterprise, the Dutchess Whaling Company, which maintained a fleet of seven ships, one of them, the New England, mentioned in Dana's Two Years before the Mast. The romantic calling was abandoned in 1844.
Back track to North Water St .; R. (S) on North Water St.
North Water Street continues a short distance between the railroad tracks (L) and the Slange Klip (Dutch, snake cliff) (R), crowned since 1894 by the power plant of the Central Hudson Gas and Electric Co., and then dips quickly to the historic Fallkill Creek, which empties at this point into the Hudson.
Pass under the Railroad Bridge.
17. The RAILROAD BRIDGE, by reason of which Poughkeepsie was long known as the "Bridge City of the Hudson," is part of the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad system. Begun in 1873, it was at the time a notable engineering achievement. The width of the river at this point is 2,608 feet, and the length of the bridge 3,094 feet. The roadbed is 214 feet above water level. Six masonry piers support the steel towers that carry the cantilever trusses of the river spans.
The erection of the bridge was the culmination of a quarter century of railroad construction linking Poughkeepsie with the four points of the com- pass. Promotion of the great enterprise was chiefly the work of Harvey G. Eastman, founder of the business college, and John I. Platt, editor of the Poughkeepsie Eagle, who conceived its possibilities as a link between the coal fields of Pennsylvania and the manufacturing cities of New England. A company was formed and incorporated under authority of a special act of Congress dated May 11, 1871. John F. Winslow, partowner of the first patent on the Bessemer steel process and the chief financial backer of Erics- son when the first Monitor was built, became president of the corporation. The act provided for a suspension bridge, but this, after thorough considera- tion, was judged impracticable because of the long span. In the face of strong opposition from the river-towing interests, Eastman succeeded in getting a bill passed authorizing the erection of piers in the river.
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