057 Discover Kingston NY - Frome First Capital to Hudson river Crossroads

Discover New York Towns & Villages

Some New York communities have one defining story.

Kingston has several.

Walk through Uptown Kingston and you can encounter stone houses dating to the colonial era and streets connected to the birth of New York State.

Travel downhill toward Rondout Creek and the story changes.

Now it becomes a story of canals, coal, boats, railroads, cement, bricks and enormous quantities of stone moving toward the Hudson River and distant cities.

Kingston is a place where colonial New York, Revolutionary New York and industrial New York occupy the same city.

Start With the Landscape

Kingston sits in an unusually advantageous location in the Hudson Valley.

The Hudson River provides a major north-south transportation corridor.

Rondout Creek provides access inland toward the Catskills.

To the west lie forests, mountains, stone and other natural resources.

To the east, the Hudson connects the region with Albany to the north and New York City to the south.

Once again, geography helps explain history.

Before Kingston

The Hudson Valley was home to Indigenous peoples long before European settlement.

During the seventeenth century, Dutch colonists began establishing communities along the Hudson River.

Permanent European settlement at what became Kingston dates to 1652.

The settlement became known as Wiltwyck.

It would become one of the most important Dutch communities in the Hudson Valley.

The Stockade

In 1658, Peter Stuyvesant, director-general of New Netherland, ordered the settlers to consolidate their homes within a fortified stockade.

That defensive enclosure helped establish the street pattern of what is now Uptown Kingston.

Centuries later, the area is still known as the Stockade District.

That means the layout of part of modern Kingston still reflects decisions made during the Dutch colonial period.

When you walk those streets, you aren't simply walking through a neighborhood containing old buildings.

You are walking within the footprint of a seventeenth-century settlement.

From Wiltwyck to Kingston

Control of New Netherland eventually passed from the Dutch to the English.

Wiltwyck became Kingston.

The community continued growing as an agricultural, commercial and governmental center in the Hudson Valley.

Then came the American Revolution.

New York Needed a Government

In 1777, while the Revolutionary War continued, representatives met in Kingston to organize the government of the new State of New York.

New York's first state constitution was adopted that year.

Kingston became the state's first capital.

The first New York State Senate met in a stone house that still stands today.

That building is now preserved as the Senate House State Historic Site.

George Clinton, New York's first governor, was inaugurated in Kingston.

For a brief but enormously important period, this Hudson Valley community stood at the center of New York government.

Then the British Came

Kingston's importance also made it a target.

On October 13, 1777, British forces moved against the community.

Many residents had already fled.

British troops entered Kingston and burned much of the settlement.

Hundreds of buildings were destroyed or damaged.

The new state capital was left in ruins.

But Kingston did not disappear.

Its residents returned and rebuilt.

The Stone Houses Survived the Story

One of the remarkable features of Uptown Kingston today is the collection of surviving early stone buildings.

Nearly two dozen pre-Revolutionary stone houses remain within the city.

Some survived the Revolutionary era; others were repaired or rebuilt as the community recovered.

Their thick masonry walls, proportions, rooflines and placement along historic streets provide a physical connection to colonial New York.

But Kingston's next great transformation would occur downhill, near the water.

Rondout

At the meeting of Rondout Creek and the Hudson River developed another community.

For years, the waterfront was comparatively quiet.

Then construction of the Delaware and Hudson Canal changed everything.

A Canal to Pennsylvania Coal

The Delaware and Hudson Canal was completed in 1828.

Its purpose was largely economic: transport anthracite coal from northeastern Pennsylvania toward the Hudson River and then to markets including New York City.

The canal connected the coal region around Honesdale, Pennsylvania, with Rondout Creek.

Canal boats carried coal eastward across more than 100 miles of countryside.

At Rondout, the cargo could be transferred to larger vessels for shipment along the Hudson.

The result was explosive growth.

A Waterfront Comes Alive

Rondout became a busy transportation and industrial center.

Warehouses appeared.

Boats were built and repaired.

Workers loaded and unloaded cargo.

Businesses served canal crews and travelers.

Immigrants arrived seeking work.

Homes climbed the hillsides above the waterfront.

By the middle of the nineteenth century, Rondout had become one of the Hudson Valley's important commercial ports.

Coal may have helped create the transportation system, but it was far from the only material passing through Kingston.

Kingston and Bluestone

Look down when you walk through old sections of Kingston.

You may be walking on an important part of the city's industrial history.

Bluestone.

Ulster County became an important source of this durable sandstone during the nineteenth century.

Stone was quarried in the surrounding region and hauled toward Kingston's waterfront.

Some loads traveled over special stone tracks designed to help heavily loaded wagons reach the docks.

At Rondout and nearby shipping points, bluestone could be loaded onto vessels and transported down the Hudson.

New York City Walked on Kingston Stone

Bluestone became particularly desirable for sidewalks and curbstones.

It was strong.

It was durable.

It could be split into large, relatively flat slabs.

And Kingston had access to the Hudson River transportation system needed to move enormous quantities of it.

Large amounts of Ulster County bluestone passed through Kingston on the way to New York City.

For generations, New Yorkers walked on sidewalks made from stone quarried in the Hudson Valley and shipped through Kingston.

Bluestone was also used for foundations, buildings, steps, curbs, monuments and other construction.

Many historic bluestone sidewalks remain in Kingston today.

Natural Cement

Stone contributed to Kingston's economy in another important way.

The surrounding region contained rock suitable for manufacturing natural cement.

During the nineteenth century, cement production became a major local industry.

Quarries, kilns and mills produced material used in construction projects throughout the region and beyond.

Combined with bluestone, brickmaking and other industries, it helped make Kingston an important supplier of materials used to build growing American cities.

Then Came the Railroads

As the nineteenth century continued, railroads added another layer to Kingston's transportation network.

The city now had access to:

The Hudson River.

Rondout Creek.

The Delaware and Hudson Canal.

And railroads.

Raw materials could arrive from the surrounding countryside and distant regions, while finished goods could move toward major markets.

Kingston had become a true transportation crossroads.

Two Communities Become One City

For much of this history, Kingston and Rondout were separate communities.

Uptown Kingston had developed around the old colonial settlement and governmental center.

Rondout developed around the canal and waterfront.

In 1872, Kingston and Rondout were consolidated into the modern City of Kingston.

That history helps explain something visitors may notice today.

Kingston doesn't always feel like one traditional downtown.

It has distinct districts because those districts grew from different historical communities serving different purposes.

A City of Architecture

Kingston's long history created an extraordinary architectural record.

Dutch stone houses stand alongside buildings representing later Georgian, Federal, Greek Revival, Italianate, Victorian, Romanesque, Neoclassical, Art Deco and other styles.

In effect, parts of Kingston provide a walking timeline of American architecture.

The Stockade District tells one story.

Rondout tells another.

Commercial buildings, churches, homes, warehouses and civic structures each reveal another period in the city's development.

What to Notice When You Visit Kingston

Start in Uptown Kingston.

Look at the street pattern and remember that part of it developed within a seventeenth-century stockade.

Look for the old stone houses.

Study their masonry.

Think about the community becoming New York's first capital in 1777 — and then being burned during the Revolutionary War.

Visit the Senate House and imagine representatives trying to create a functioning state government while a war was still being fought around them.

Then change locations completely.

Travel toward Rondout Creek.

Look at the waterfront and imagine canal boats arriving loaded with Pennsylvania coal.

Picture warehouses, boatyards, workers and cargo crowding the waterfront.

Then look down.

Find the old bluestone sidewalks.

Imagine stone being quarried in the surrounding hills, loaded onto heavy wagons, transported to the creek and shipped down the Hudson.

And when you see a historic bluestone sidewalk in New York City someday, remember:

There is a good chance its story passed through this part of the Hudson Valley.

From Capital to Crossroads

Kingston's story is unusual because the reason for its importance kept changing.

It was a Dutch colonial settlement.

It became a fortified community.

It became New York's first capital.

It was burned during the Revolution.

It rebuilt.

Then canals, coal, stone, cement, bricks, boats and railroads transformed it into an industrial transportation center.

Each era left something behind.

Every Town Has a Story

Kingston demonstrates exactly what our Discover New York Towns & Villages series is about.

History isn't contained only inside museums.

It remains in street patterns.

It remains in stone walls.

It remains in old warehouses.

It remains along abandoned transportation routes.

And sometimes it remains beneath your feet.

The next time you visit Kingston, remember to look up at the buildings — and down at the stone.

Both are telling you the story.

Discover New York Towns & Villages

This article is part of the Discover New York Towns & Villages series from Zehr Discover NYS. Together we'll explore communities across New York State and discover the geography, history, architecture, industries, transportation and people that helped make each place unique.

Learn the place. Explore the story. Discover New York.