The same buildings and sites that served to influence Kingston’s past are now poised to influence the city’s future. Instead of housing governments, industry and businesses, these historic properties are boosting Kingston’s growing allure as a cultural destination. Kingston is home to numerous small museums whose diversity and accessibility offer exactly the sort of experiences sought by heritage tourists: places, artifacts and activities that authentically represent the stories and people of the past and present.
A recent partnership among several local historic sites and the Kingston Visitor Center has yielded a new tool for further enticing visitors into all of the city’s small museums. Called a “Heritage Passport,’ this new pass provides discounted admission to seven Kingston museums. Visitors simply purchase a passport for $14 at the Rondout visitor center and show it at each participating museum to gain entry. Use of this single fee pass yields a savings of $10 over the price of individual museum admission fees.
Kingston is a New York State Heritage Area, as well as part of the Hudson River Valley National Heritage Area (which funded the creation of the Heritage Passports) and also benefits from the promotion and marketing associated with those programs.
According to the National Park Service, studies have consistently shown that cultural heritage travelers stay longer and spend more money than other kinds of travelers. So, a healthy growth in attendance at local museums can be expected to translate into economic benefit for local businesses.
Senate House State Historic Site
Built in 1676 as the simple stone house for a merchant, the building was the site in 1777 of a meeting of rebellious New Yorkers who gathered to form the state’s first government. After meeting for only a month, the Senate and the rest of the newly formed State government fled Kingston to escape British troops, which then burned the Senate House and much of Kingston in retribution. Since the late 1800s, the building has served as a museum of New York’s early government, and life and art in the Hudson Valley 200 years ago.
The historic site comprises three buildings located on three acres in Kingston’s historic Stockade District The treasures housed in the museum include major art works by John Vanderlyn and other members of the Vanderlyn family of Kingston, dating from the 1720s through the 1870s, as well as paintings by other notable artists.
Friends of Historic Kingston Museum and Fred J. Johnston House Tour
Also located in the 1658 Stockade National Historic District, these museums give visitors a view into other chapters in Kingston’s history.
The Friends of Historic Kingston Museum features changing exhibits which focus on eras throughout Kingston’s entire history, and that highlight “the ordinary workings of daily life that give [the] city its soul and unique texture.” Displays include photographs, art works, artifacts and memorabilia. The museum also frequently mounts retrospectives of the work of major regional artists. The museum nurtures the continuity of Kingston’s story and promotes its relevance to the present by featuring presentations by contemporary artisans, and lectures and book-signings by local historians and authors,
The Fred J. Johnston House is an 1812 Federal style house on the corner of Wall and Main Streets. Home and showroom of a nationally known antiques dealer, the house is now open for public tours. Visitors view eight rooms of 18th and early 19th century furnishings and decorative arts.
Volunteer Fireman’s Hall & Museum of Kingston
The former 1857 home of the Wiltwyck Hose Company, this museum features antique firefighting artifacts and apparatus, including an 1898 steamer.
Ulster County Office Building, Clerks Gallery
Unusual exhibits in an unusual space, the Archives Gallery on the second floor of this unassuming office building is the place to go to see authentic records chronicling Ulster County history. Exhibits installed here can include birth, death and marriage records, land deeds and antique maps, as well as regionally unique records like reproductions of original hard-copy records written in Dutch from 1658 through 1709 and the English translations of same, and records that illustrate the formation of government from the Charter of the Dutch Court at Kingston dated 1661 through the current Ulster County Charter.
The current exhibit, open through the end of August. is called “Who Counts? We Do! The 1905 Census of Ulster County,” and features printed reports with the names, ages, relation and occupation of the over 86,600 residents counted in 1905. Samples of original 19th century Ulster County census records are also on display. The walls around the exhibit are covered with lists of the names, ages and occupations of 1905 Ulster County residents.
The Hudson River Maritime Museum is the only museum in New York State exclusively preserving the maritime history of the Hudson River. The museum presents a new exhibit every year that focuses on different aspects of Hudson River history. A permanent display of larger artifacts, such as ice yachts, shad boats and other small boats, a steam hoisting engine, various boat models and exhibits on Hudson River industry are housed in a former boat shop next to the museum gallery.
The museum also maintains an extensive collection of paintings, prints, photographs and ephemera, vessel blueprints, artifacts and a variety of ship models.
Other activities at the site include visiting vessels such as the sloop Clearwater, exhibitions, a lecture series, children’s workshops, waterfront programs and themed festivals. Boat rides on the Lark to Rondout II Lighthouse depart from the museum’s dock. School programs at the museum involve 2,000 school children a year.
The real draw for this museum is the hour-long trolley ride along Rondout Creek out to the Hudson River. The journey takes visitors past ex-industrial sites in Rondout out to the still bucolic Kingston Point Park and provides views of Rondout II Lighthouse and the river from Turkey Point to the north and Esopus Lighthouse to the south. In the shed and yard at the Trolley Museum, visitors will find static displays of trolleys, subway and rapid transit cars from the United States and Europe. The gallery features photos and memorabilia from rail and trolley service in Kingston and other Hudson Valley towns.
The museum is on the original site of the Ulster and Delaware Railroad yards at Milepost 1. The main building is built on the foundation of an early 1900s engine house.
The city’s oldest institution, the congregation was organized in 1659. The 1852 Renaissance Revival style church was designed by Minard LaFever The churchyard contains tombstones dating back to 1770, and the grave of New York’s first governor, George Clinton, an Ulster County native. The steeple bell is traditionally believed to have been cast in Amsterdam in 1794 from molten copper and silver items given by families at baptismal rites.
