This page has moved. If your browser doesn't automatically redirect to its new location, click here.
Historic District
Rondout Historic District
 View of the Rondout, West Strand, and Island Dock from the Rondout Creek Bridge |
Early communication with the outside world was by Hudson River sloops. By 1820 two active sloop landings on the north bank of Rondout Creek served Kingston. Southbound cargoes consisted of firewood, hoop-poles, grain and sawed lumber. Return freight consisted primarily of supplies for area merchants. The two sloop landings were named Twaalfskill, later Wilbur, located on the north shore of the Rondout Creek, and Kingston Landing, or the Strand, nearer the mouth of the Creek, at the foot of what is now Broadway.
Dramatic growth did not occur in Rondout until the Wurts brothers built the Delaware & Hudson Canal in the 1820s.
Early History of Kingston
Delaware & Hudson Canal
 D&H Canal: An Engineering and Entrepreneurial Challenge |
In 1822 Maurice and William Wurts, Philadelphia dry goods merchants, attempted to develop a New York market for their local coal mining operations in Pennsylvania. Their plans included building a canal system on the Delaware River to transport coal to New York markets. After New York State´s legislature approved the incorporation of the Delaware & Hudson Canal Company, Benjamin Wright, principal engineer on the Erie Canal, was employed by the Wurts brothers to supervise planning of the canal from the Hudson River to a point near the mines in Carbondale.
In 1820, the Strand, later known as Rondout, consisted of a dock (Kingston Landing), two farms, and a few buildings. The subsequent development of the Delaware & Hudson Canal in 1827 transformed the Rondout Valley into a hub of activity. The completed canal, 108 miles in length, ran from Eddyville on the Rondout Creek to Honesdale, Pennsylvania, a point 16 miles from the Wurts brothers´ coal mines.
The Canal Company erected a wharf on Rondout Creek, just above Kingston Landing, with a yard for the storage of coal. As the canal´s business expanded and more dockage and coal storage was needed, a bulkhead constructed around a shallow area of the creek was filled, forming what is now known as Island Dock. With the success of the canal, Rondout quickly built up as a commercial waterfront area. It became congested with wharfs and ships, warehouses for goods, workers´ houses, and shops.
D & H Canal Historical Society
A History of the Delaware & Hudson Canal
History of Transportation at Kingston and Rondout
Thomas Cornell Steamboat Company
|
In the 1830´s, Thomas Cornell came with a sailing sloop to Rondout to ship coal from the D&H Canal. A native of White Plains, N.Y, Cornell was just twenty-two years old. Until then, sailboats had done the work of carrying freight and passengers, but Cornell saw that steam-powered vessels were the future. In a few years, he owned and operated steamboats running between Rondout and New York. Cornell settled in Rondout, where he established the Cornell Steamboat Company.
In those booming years of growth and construction, there was plenty of business for steamboats plying the Hudson. New York City´s thriving metropolitan area needed coal from the D&H Canal, ice that was harvested in winter from the frozen river, building material produced in the mid-Hudson valley (brick, lumber, stone, and cement) and agricultural products (grain, livestock, dairy, fruit, and hay) which came from near and far.
Rondout Creek offered the best deep water in the Hudson Valley and thus became the center of maritime activity between New York and Albany. The Cornell Steamboat Company made its headquarters in Rondout village, where many boats were berthed and repaired, and some were built. Between 1830 and 1900, few harbors of comparable size anywhere in America were as busy as Rondout Creek. During a career of more than 50 years, Thomas Cornell built a mighty business empire and became a leading figure in New York and the nation.
Thomas Cornell Steamboat Company
King of Steam
by Geddy Sveikauskas in the Woodstock Times
Other Industries
During the construction of the D&H Canal, deposits of lime and a fine quality cement material were discovered. This led to the development of the lime and cement mining businesses in the area. The brick making industry and bluestone quarrying business developed to meet the growing demand for building materials for rapidly growing US cities. Ulster County bluestone, quarried north of Kingston, was shipped by scow from the banks of the Rondout to New York City for sidewalks and curbing. During winter months, ice on the Rondout Creek was harvested and stored in insulated ice houses. Later, the ice was shipped to cities and used to refrigerate food during warm months. Rondout also contributed to the ice harvesting business through the construction and repair of ice barges in the shipyards of Rondout Creek.|
Rondout: Hudson River Port 1850-1950 The Hudson River Maritime Museum´s 1998 Exhibit | Area products were most easily transported by water, thus an impressive shipbuilding business and transportation network developed. Since cargo leaving Rondout required towage, the building of towboats, tugboats, and barges became a major industry. One of the most successful entrepreneurs in the area was Thomas Cornell who began to operate steam and towboats out of Rondout in 1839. The Cornell Steamboat Company eventually had a fleet of more than 60 towboats and tugboats plying the river and was for a time the largest towing company in the nation. |
 | RONDOUT: A HUDSON RIVER PORT is a tale of floods, fires and plagues, of commercial enterprise and the acquisition of vast, untaxed fortunes as well as the expression of public spiritedness in both peace and war. From its early days of Dutch settlement to the boom years in the nineteenth century after the construction of the Delaware & Hudson Canal to the final flowering of Rondout at Kingston Point, this book portrays the vibrant, often rambunctious, life of one of the great river ports and the characters who built it. |
The More Recent Years
All these businesses continued actively employing many workers in the Rondout-Kingston area for decades. Rondout was the most important port between New York and Albany. However, once the Depression of the 1930s set in, Rondout declined as did most other areas of the country. There was an upsurge during the World War II years of the 1940s, particularly in the boat-building industries in Rondout which continued to prosper through the mid-1950s. After that, the decline continued as all the old industries were gone and residents, businesses, and even some churches, left Rondout for other areas, or closed down entirely.
In the late 1960s a Federal program called Urban Renewal destroyed much of downtown Rondout in an effort to clear blighted areas. This program produced no solutions in Rondout or other nearby communities such as Newburgh where the destruction of old neighborhoods was even more extensive. Old problems were not necessarily solved and improvements were not necessarily provided.
It was not until 1980 when businesses like restaurants and shops, and museums like the Maritime Museum arrived in Rondout, that a real revival of the neighborhood began. Since then more restaurants and businesses have come to the area, marinas have expanded bringing more recreational boaters, housing has been built, and Rondout has become a real tourist destination. The City of Kingston works hard to promote the Rondout area with festivals and events, and there is a New York State Urban Cultural Parks Visitors Center in the neighborhood. Though Rondout´s present may not be as colorful or complex as its past, there is stilt much here to celebrate.
Kingston Urban Cultural Park
Early History of Kingston
Esopus Prior to 1652
The history of Esopus [Kingston] between Henry Hudson's 1609 voyage and the first European settlement in 1652. Chapter 1, The Early History of Kingston.Chronology of Events
Time line of Hudson River events between 1609 and 1652.The Myth of the 1614 Esopus Fort
A number of writers have claimed that a fort or trading post had been built by 1614 at Esopus near the mouth of the Rondout Creek. This discussion traces the origin and development of the belief in this mythical fort.Derivation of Names
Derivation of place names around Kingston.