Kingston, NY
The Stockade District is located in Uptown Kingston.
The Stockade District is bounded by North Front Street, Clinton Avenue, Main Street and Green Street.
Senate House State Historic Site
296 Fair Street
Kingston, NY 12401
(845) 338-2786
Established by the Dutch in 1652 as the third settlement in the New Netherland colony, an active participant in the American Revolution, and a major river-port during the canal and steamboat era, Kingston, New York boasts a history that spans over 300 years. The Kingston Stockade District is an eight-block area whose boundaries were established by a stockade constructed in 1658 under the personal supervision of Dutch colonial governor Peter Stuyvesant.
Dutch control of the Hudson River Valley only lasted from 1609 until 1664, but in that short time they established a series of trading posts, towns, and forts that laid the groundwork for cities that continue to exist today. Fort Orange, the northernmost Dutch outpost, grew to become the city of Albany. New York City started as a small village called New Amsterdam, and New Netherland’s third major settlement, Wiltwyck, developed and expanded to become today’s Kingston.
Unlike New York City and Albany, traces of the colonial era can readily be found in Kingston. Much of the loss of colonial-era structures occurred on a single day in October, 1777, when British troops arrived and burned most of the city to the ground.
After the Declaration of Independence was signed, each of the 13 American colonies needed to create governmental institutions. New York patriots chose delegates to a Provincial Congress, which first met in New York City, the old colonial capitol. As the British began to threaten Manhattan, the delegates relocated northward to White Plains. The group was forced to move farther north when George Washington’s army abandoned New York City, and they arrived in Kingston in February of 1777. Led by John Jay, the delegates took up residence in the Ulster County Courthouse and spent the next couple of months writing a constitution for the State of New York.
The new State government convened in September of 1777, and the Ulster County Courthouse became the home of the New York Supreme Court. A local resident, Abraham VanGaasbeck, offered a room in his old stone house for use by the New York State Senate, while the larger Assembly met in a local tavern.
A month later, seeking to assist British General John Burgoyne’s invasion from the north, General George Clinton sent an expedition force from New York City up the Hudson River. On October 16, 1777, the British arrived in Kingston. The British punished Kingston for hosting the revolutionary State government and for generously providing Washington’s army with wheat and other food supplies by moving into the Stockade Area and setting fire to every building, largely succeeding in burning the city to the ground.
So, it’s pretty easy to find buildings in Uptown Kingston dating back to the Federal era, but finding evidence of the Colonial era takes a bit more effort. Many of the Colonial era houses had stone walls, but were held up from the interior by wooden frameworks. When the frames were set on fire, the walls collapsed. In the photography section I’ll concentrate on buildings that demonstrate American colonial architecture, as what is most distant from us is that which we are most curious to see.
The house was designed as a saltbox, referring to its resemblance to a wooden lidded box in which salt was once kept. The saltbox design has two stories in the front but only one story in the back, with a long, pitched roof that slopes down to the back. The Saltbox originated in New England, and was made popular by Queen Anne’s taxation of houses whose height was greater than one story.
The upper story retains unusual eight-pane over twelve-pane sash windows. On the lower floor, the upper twelve paned sash remain; similar sashes below were replaced by single panes and later restored. The house was modified in the 19th century.
The house’s build date of 1700 comes from a statement made in the late 1930s by its owner. Its original owner was from the Dutch town of Amersfoort, and his descendant Tobias Van Steenburgh was the owner of record at the time of the American Revolution. The house remained in Van Steenburgh family hands until the mid-19th century.
The house is faced in limestone rubble and has a steeply pitched gabled roof (the triangular portion of the wall between the sloping roof edges) with projecting eaves (roof edges) pierced by a central dormer window with flanking shed dormers (the structural elements that protrude from the plane of the sloping roof surface). The windows are in heavy mortise and tenon frames.
What a fabulous place. I would love to walk around there, hard to believe it’s NY. We are picture sky scrappers when we read the words New York.
Sandy
To add to Pat Murphy’s comment, the walking tours of the historic Stockade District in uptown Kingston are offered by the Friends of Historic Kingston on the first Saturday of each month, May through October, starting at 2 pm.
Another remarkable stone building not shown here is the Persen House, dating from about 1662, which was set fire once by the local Indians and again in 1777 by the British. Unlike many other stone houses, you can visit the inside of this house and see how it evolved in five stages over the the past 350 years. It’s usually open for visiting on Saturdays, May through October, from 10-2 with volunteers from the Friends of Historic Kingston.
Most of those houses are inhabited by businesses now. They do with the interior more or less as they see fit, but have to leave the exterior “as is”.
Great architecture! Those are very beautiful houses. Are visitors able to go inside at all? You mentioned that New York City was once called New Amsterdam. How did New York City come to be called that?
Terrific photos and history Doug. I never realized how much history was rooted in Kingston that still remains, as I’m not as familiar this far north. Very interesting! Love the photos of the houses you’ve taken. Amazing how that one home has the original etched glass. I’d love to see that!
Don’t forget to eat at the Hoffman’s House,in the Stokade district. Great food – great ambiance.
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The Friends of Historic Kingston offer monthly walking tours of the 1658 Stockade National Historic District, departing on the first Saturday of the month at 2 p.m. from the Friends of Historic Kingston Museum, corner Wall and Main Streets.
There is a fee. Tours for private groups can be arranged for any date/time.
Our brochure for self-guided walking tours is available at the Kingston Heritage Area Visitors Centers and other tourism venues.
Patricia Murphy
President
Friends of Historic Kingston
(845) 339-0720
Peter Minuit’s legendary purchase of Manhattan Island might have been from the wrong Indian tribe – see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Minuit#The_legendary_purchase_of_Manhattan .
I adore this type of architecture, which is a surprise for me considering my Gothic like tastes. So much colonial history in this piece Doug. By the way, I saw that you mentioned Manhattan and thought to myself, it was actually sold for $15.00 to the colonials by a fisherman that didn’t actually own the land. At least, that’s what one of the legends says.