Kingston Stockade District
Encyclopedia
The Kingston Stockade District is an eight-block
area in the western section of Kingston
, New York, United States, commonly referred to as Uptown Kingston. It is the original site of the mid-17th century Dutch settlement
of Wiltwyck, which was later renamed Kingston when it passed to English control.
It is the only one of three original Dutch settlements in New York surrounded by stockade
s where the outline of the stockade is still evident due to the raised ground. Within the area are many historic buildings from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, including the original Ulster County
courthouse, the Senate House
where the state of New York
was established in 1777, and the Old Dutch Church designed by Minard Lafever
, a National Historic Landmark
. Some survived the burning of Kingston by British forces during the Revolutionary War
. The intersection of Crown and John streets has Colonial-era Dutch stone houses on all four corners, the only intersection in the country where this is so.
In 1970 the area in the vicinity of the Senate House was listed on the National Register of Historic Places
as the Clinton Avenue Historic District. Five years later, as the historic value of the entire uptown area became apparent, the larger Stockade District was created, subsuming the original one. The formal recognition of its historic importance has led to contentious battles in local government over proposals to redevelop the area.
-shaped, with its boundaries defined as the rear property lines of lots on the far side of North Front Street on the north, Green Street on the west, Main Street on the south and Clinton Avenue on the east. Crown Street is entirely within the district, as are the intersecting segments of Fair, John and Wall streets. It also extends slightly along Converse Street to take in the Lowe-Bogardus ruin and an interpretive exhibit with some of the original stockade at Frog Alley on the northwest corner. The total area is 32 acres (12.9 ha).
The district is split between residential and commercial use. The former dominates the western half of the district, while the commercial properties are on the east. The densely developed block of Wall Street between John and North Front streets has flat wooden roofs over its sidewalks, a distinctive touch not common in New York. The block of Wall to the south is dominated by the old county courthouse and the Old Dutch Church, whose cemetery and yard is the only significant green space in the district. There are also many parking lots between buildings in this area.
To the north and east the neighborhoods are primarily commercial. The city's football stadium is a short distance to the west, where the neighborhood is residential, as it also is on the south.
It is a short distance from the two major approaches to the city of Kingston from the west and the New York State Thruway
. Washington Avenue is a block to the west. Both Interstate 587 and NY 28
end at Albany Avenue (NY 32
) a short distance to the east. No major roads or streets go through the Stockade District.
) in 1652. The site, on a high plain near the drainage of Rondout Creek
, was chosen for the ease with which it could be defended. Other colonists came to the area despite regular Indian
raids.
Six years later, by 1658, Dutch colonial governor Peter Stuyvesant
ordered all settlers to move to the village, behind the stockade
whose construction he personally supervised. It was burned in 1663 and rebuilt, remaining until the early 18th century. By then it had established the street pattern along its boundaries which persists today. At its northwest corner, where the log palisade
formed a bastion
on a bluff that remains today, it was especially defensible.
In 1777, it was chosen to host the constitutional convention
that established New York State. George Clinton
was chosen the first governor
, and John Jay
, later the first Chief Justice of the United States
, opened the first term of the New York Supreme Court in Kingston.
Later that year, the British under General John Vaughan
took the lightly defended settlement by surprise and burned it. A total of 326 buildings inside and outside of the stockade were destroyed, with only a handful, such as the Tobias Van Steenburgh House
, remaining untouched. The city was rebuilt along the lines previous established by the stockade. Five years later, George Washington
visited Kingston. On a tour of the city's boundaries, he expressed appreciation for Stuyvesant's foresight in having the stockade built. In 1783, as the war was ending, New York proposed Kingston as a national capital.
Greek Revival
popular in the century's early decades. A new county courthouse, the current building, was built in 1818 on the site of the first one. The First Protestant Reformed Dutch Church of Kingston, the city's oldest congregation, dating to 1659, went through two buildings before the construction of its current home, the 1852 Minard Lafever
edifice known as the Old Dutch Church. Its white tower rises over 200 feet above the district and is a city landmark.
Later in the century the villages of Kingston and Rondout
merged into the current city. Rondout had grown from being at the northern end of the Delaware and Hudson Canal
since 1825 and its commercial center
on the banks of Rondout Creek
near where it flows into the Hudson River
became known as "downtown" to distinguish itself from the Stockade District, which accordingly became "uptown".
Historic preservation
efforts in the Stockade began early in the 20th century. The Henry Sleight House on Crown Street had been used for many purposes since it was built around 1695, but by 1900 it was decrepit and in danger of demolition
. The local Daughters of the American Revolution
chapter paid for a complete restoration
of the interior and exterior. Today it is their headquarters. A few years later, in 1908, George Clinton, long buried in Washington, was brought back to Kingston and reburied in the yard of the Old Dutch Church with full honors.
Four years later it was expanded into the Stockade District. FOHK has worked to get other properties in the Stockade recognized as well, and renovated some others. It also maintains the Frog Alley area at the district's northwest corner.
During the 1970s, the roofs were added to the sidewalks on North Front and Wall streets, part of the "Pike Plan" (named after Woodstock
artist John Pike, who designed and built them) to revitalize the area, which had begun to lose shoppers to malls outside of the city. Businesses on those streets pay a maintenance fee for them. Some have called for their removal.
, including some misshapen apparent cannon balls. Eight years later, in 2008, after having spent $2 million on the project the county was still unsure what to do with the building. It was hoping to use federal stimulus money
to finish the work.
During the 2000s, preservationists and the city clashed over some projects slated for areas near or on the fringes of the district. A New Jersey developer's proposal for a 12-story condominium
on the site of a closed parking garage the city planned to demolish on North Front Street drew objections for its height, as it would become the city's tallest building, dwarfing nearby historic buildings, and requiring a variance
as Kingston's zoning
code prohibits any new buildings in the Stockade District from being taller than the base of the Old Dutch Church's steeple
, 62 feet (18.9 m) above street level. The city's attorney later decided that it would not need one since the parts of the proposed building that exceeded the height limit were outside the district boundary.
The state's Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation
warned the city that such a towering building would have a negative impact on the Stockade District, and the state's Historic Preservation League put the Stockade on its "Seven to Save" list for 2007 because of the proposal. The city's mayor and proponents among the Stockade business community felt that the economic benefit the condo proposal would bring to the Stockade outweighed any effect it would have on the district's historic character. Eventually the developer began to reconsider the project due to the opposition,
With the project stalled, the city decided to survey residents about what should be built at the site. The results indicated strong opposition to affordable housing
or any kind of rental units being built on the site. The parking garage was finally demolished amid allegations of bid rigging
. A temporary parking lot has opened on the site.
At the time the condominium project was failing, in 2008, CVS proposed a 12900 square feet (1,198.4 m²) store on Washington Avenue and Shwenck Drive. FOHK and preservationists collected 600 signatures on petitions opposing the development, saying a third chain drugstore in the uptown area would only drive an independent local drugstore on North Front Street out of business and make the city's main western gateway into a commercial strip indistinguishable from others in the country. One city alderman tried to stop the project with a building moratorium
along Washington, which received the support of the Stockade's business association. It was eventually passed, excluding the CVS proposal. The city's Planning Board eventually approved the project, and construction crews began clearing the site in September 2009.
The city and preservationists were able to work together on one project, the restoration of the 1899 Kirkland Hotel
at Clinton Avenue and Main Street in the southeast corner of the district. A rare example of a wood-frame urban hotel, it had been vacant since the 1970s. Several owners since then had tried to at least reopen a restaurant in the hotel's basement, but had made no progress beyond repainting the exterior.
In 2003 the Rural Ulster Preservation Company (RUPCO), a local non-profit organization
devoted to housing, bought the hotel with the intention of completing the restoration. It spent $4.7 million over several years to restore the original porch and put in a geothermal heating
system. The project won a 2007 Excellence in Preservation Award from the Historic Preservation League, and RUPCO has leased out space for commercial and residential use. It is hoping that someone will be able to reopen the restaurant.
The streets and sidewalks were also in need of repair. In 2008 Rep. Maurice Hinchey
helped the city secure $1.3 million in federal grants
to rehabilitate uptown and the Stockade District. $1.7 million had been set aside to restore the Pike Plan canopies, which were in need of repair. The following spring the city announced it would use some of the money to reverse the direction of traffic on several of the one-way streets within the district to ease travel through and around it. Later that year City council debated whether to restore the traffic light at North Front and Wall or keep the stop signs. They ultimately decided in favor of the traffic light. Just prior to completion of the canopy project, graffiti artist painted red goats
on eleven of the new sidewalk planters, raising a furor.
the city council declares:
The city's Landmarks Preservation Commission reviews applications for new construction, including significant alterations to existing structures, in the Stockade District. It may consider, and request modification of, many elements of the proposed construction, including roof shape, walls and paving, in the interest of protecting the Stockade's historic character. The height of new buildings is limited to 62 feet (18.9 m), or the base of the Old Dutch Church's steeple. The commission may also require the use of bluestone
in sidewalks where it considers it historically appropriate, and that any newer construction be set back
further from the street than neighboring historic buildings and screened from view with trees, possibly evergreen
s. Five percent of the area of all parking lots must be used for plantings to screen it.
Friends of Historic Kingston (FOHK), the group founded in the late 1960s to preserve the Senate House, has been a vocal defender of the Stockade's historic character. Its 400 members have actively opposed some recent projects that they believed would adversely affect the district, to the point that some critics have referred to the group as Friends of Hysteric Kingston or Enemies of Development. The group has also bought and restored some of the homes in the district, as well as elsewhere in the city. It operates two museums in the city and offers walking tour
s of the Stockade.
in 2008. Other contributing properties are not separately listed at present but are important to the district.
City block
A city block, urban block or simply block is a central element of urban planning and urban design. A city block is the smallest area that is surrounded by streets. City blocks are the space for buildings within the street pattern of a city, they form the basic unit of a city's urban fabric...
area in the western section of Kingston
Kingston, New York
Kingston is a city in and the county seat of Ulster County, New York, USA. It is north of New York City and south of Albany. It became New York's first capital in 1777, and was burned by the British Oct. 16, 1777, after the Battles of Saratoga...
, New York, United States, commonly referred to as Uptown Kingston. It is the original site of the mid-17th century Dutch settlement
Dutch colonization of the Americas
Dutch trading posts and plantations in the Americas precede the much wider known colonization activities of the Dutch in Asia. Whereas the first Dutch fort in Asia was built in 1600 , the first forts and settlements on the Essequibo river in Guyana and on the Amazon date from the 1590s...
of Wiltwyck, which was later renamed Kingston when it passed to English control.
It is the only one of three original Dutch settlements in New York surrounded by stockade
Stockade
A stockade is an enclosure of palisades and tall walls made of logs placed side by side vertically with the tops sharpened to provide security.-Stockade as a security fence:...
s where the outline of the stockade is still evident due to the raised ground. Within the area are many historic buildings from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, including the original Ulster County
Ulster County, New York
Ulster County is a county located in the state of New York, USA. It sits in the state's Mid-Hudson Region of the Hudson Valley. As of the 2010 census, the population was 182,493. Recent population estimates completed by the United States Census Bureau for the 12-month period ending July 1 are at...
courthouse, the Senate House
Senate House State Historic Site
The Senate House State Historic Site is located on Fair Street in Kingston, New York, United States. New York state was established there in 1777, during the Revolutionary War....
where the state of New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
was established in 1777, and the Old Dutch Church designed by Minard Lafever
Minard Lafever
Minard Lafever was an influential American architect of churches and houses in the United States in the early nineteenth century.-Life and career:...
, a National Historic Landmark
National Historic Landmark
A National Historic Landmark is a building, site, structure, object, or district, that is officially recognized by the United States government for its historical significance...
. Some survived the burning of Kingston by British forces during the Revolutionary War
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War , the American War of Independence, or simply the Revolutionary War, began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen British colonies in North America, and ended in a global war between several European great powers.The war was the result of the...
. The intersection of Crown and John streets has Colonial-era Dutch stone houses on all four corners, the only intersection in the country where this is so.
In 1970 the area in the vicinity of the Senate House was listed on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
as the Clinton Avenue Historic District. Five years later, as the historic value of the entire uptown area became apparent, the larger Stockade District was created, subsuming the original one. The formal recognition of its historic importance has led to contentious battles in local government over proposals to redevelop the area.
Geography
The Stockade District is parallelogramParallelogram
In Euclidean geometry, a parallelogram is a convex quadrilateral with two pairs of parallel sides. The opposite or facing sides of a parallelogram are of equal length and the opposite angles of a parallelogram are of equal measure...
-shaped, with its boundaries defined as the rear property lines of lots on the far side of North Front Street on the north, Green Street on the west, Main Street on the south and Clinton Avenue on the east. Crown Street is entirely within the district, as are the intersecting segments of Fair, John and Wall streets. It also extends slightly along Converse Street to take in the Lowe-Bogardus ruin and an interpretive exhibit with some of the original stockade at Frog Alley on the northwest corner. The total area is 32 acres (12.9 ha).
The district is split between residential and commercial use. The former dominates the western half of the district, while the commercial properties are on the east. The densely developed block of Wall Street between John and North Front streets has flat wooden roofs over its sidewalks, a distinctive touch not common in New York. The block of Wall to the south is dominated by the old county courthouse and the Old Dutch Church, whose cemetery and yard is the only significant green space in the district. There are also many parking lots between buildings in this area.
To the north and east the neighborhoods are primarily commercial. The city's football stadium is a short distance to the west, where the neighborhood is residential, as it also is on the south.
It is a short distance from the two major approaches to the city of Kingston from the west and the New York State Thruway
New York State Thruway
The New York State Thruway is a system of limited-access highways located within the state of New York in the United States. The system, known officially as the Governor Thomas E. Dewey Thruway for former New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey, is operated by the New York State Thruway Authority and...
. Washington Avenue is a block to the west. Both Interstate 587 and NY 28
New York State Route 28
New York State Route 28 is a state highway extending for in the shape of a "C" between the Hudson Valley city of Kingston and southern Warren County in the U.S. state of New York. Along the way, it intersects several major routes, including Interstate 88 , U.S. Route 20 , and the...
end at Albany Avenue (NY 32
New York State Route 32
New York State Route 32 is a north–south state highway that extends for through the Hudson Valley and Capital District regions of the U.S. state of New York. It is a two-lane surface road for nearly its entire length, with few divided and no limited-access sections. From Harriman to Albany,...
) a short distance to the east. No major roads or streets go through the Stockade District.
History
From its founding in the mid-17th century to the creation of the modern city of Kingston in 1872, the history of the Stockade District is the history of Kingston. Most of its older buildings were restored and rebuilt in the years after the 1777 burning of the village by the British, and its historic character has been made diverse as significant buildings were erected throughout the 19th century. Late 20th century preservation efforts have led to some confrontations between the city and its residents in recent years.1652–1783: Colonial and Revolutionary eras
Kingston began as the Dutch village of Wiltwyck, founded by Thomas Chambers of Fort Orange (later AlbanyAlbany, New York
Albany is the capital city of the U.S. state of New York, the seat of Albany County, and the central city of New York's Capital District. Roughly north of New York City, Albany sits on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River...
) in 1652. The site, on a high plain near the drainage of Rondout Creek
Rondout Creek
Rondout Creek is a tributary of the Hudson River in Ulster and Sullivan counties, New York, USA. It rises on Rocky Mountain in the eastern Catskills, flows south into Rondout Reservoir, part of New York City's water supply network, then into the valley between the Catskills and the Shawangunk...
, was chosen for the ease with which it could be defended. Other colonists came to the area despite regular Indian
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
raids.
Six years later, by 1658, Dutch colonial governor Peter Stuyvesant
Peter Stuyvesant
Peter Stuyvesant , served as the last Dutch Director-General of the colony of New Netherland from 1647 until it was ceded provisionally to the English in 1664, after which it was renamed New York...
ordered all settlers to move to the village, behind the stockade
Stockade
A stockade is an enclosure of palisades and tall walls made of logs placed side by side vertically with the tops sharpened to provide security.-Stockade as a security fence:...
whose construction he personally supervised. It was burned in 1663 and rebuilt, remaining until the early 18th century. By then it had established the street pattern along its boundaries which persists today. At its northwest corner, where the log palisade
Palisade
A palisade is a steel or wooden fence or wall of variable height, usually used as a defensive structure.- Typical construction :Typical construction consisted of small or mid sized tree trunks aligned vertically, with no spacing in between. The trunks were sharpened or pointed at the top, and were...
formed a bastion
Bastion
A bastion, or a bulwark, is a structure projecting outward from the main enclosure of a fortification, situated in both corners of a straight wall , facilitating active defence against assaulting troops...
on a bluff that remains today, it was especially defensible.
Constitutional convention (political meeting)
A constitutional convention is now a gathering for the purpose of writing a new constitution or revising an existing constitution. A general constitutional convention is called to create the first constitution of a political unit or to entirely replace an existing constitution...
that established New York State. George Clinton
George Clinton (vice president)
George Clinton was an American soldier and politician, considered one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. He was the first Governor of New York, and then the fourth Vice President of the United States , serving under Presidents Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. He and John C...
was chosen the first governor
Governor of New York
The Governor of the State of New York is the chief executive of the State of New York. The governor is the head of the executive branch of New York's state government and the commander-in-chief of the state's military and naval forces. The officeholder is afforded the courtesy title of His/Her...
, and John Jay
John Jay
John Jay was an American politician, statesman, revolutionary, diplomat, a Founding Father of the United States, and the first Chief Justice of the United States ....
, later the first Chief Justice of the United States
Chief Justice of the United States
The Chief Justice of the United States is the head of the United States federal court system and the chief judge of the Supreme Court of the United States. The Chief Justice is one of nine Supreme Court justices; the other eight are the Associate Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States...
, opened the first term of the New York Supreme Court in Kingston.
Later that year, the British under General John Vaughan
John Vaughan (British army officer)
Lieutenant-General Sir John Vaughan KB , styled The Honourable from 1741, was a British soldier and a Member of Parliament in both the British and Irish Parliaments.-Background and early career:...
took the lightly defended settlement by surprise and burned it. A total of 326 buildings inside and outside of the stockade were destroyed, with only a handful, such as the Tobias Van Steenburgh House
Tobias Van Steenburgh House
The Tobias Van Steenburgh House is located on Wall Street in Kingston, New York, United States. It is a stone house built around the beginning of the 18th century....
, remaining untouched. The city was rebuilt along the lines previous established by the stockade. Five years later, George Washington
George Washington
George Washington was the dominant military and political leader of the new United States of America from 1775 to 1799. He led the American victory over Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army from 1775 to 1783, and presided over the writing of...
visited Kingston. On a tour of the city's boundaries, he expressed appreciation for Stuyvesant's foresight in having the stockade built. In 1783, as the war was ending, New York proposed Kingston as a national capital.
1784–1908: Buildup and early preservation
In the early 19th century, the area continued to grow. New commercial buildings were erected in the styles such as Federal architectureFederal architecture
Federal-style architecture is the name for the classicizing architecture built in the United States between c. 1780 and 1830, and particularly from 1785 to 1815. This style shares its name with its era, the Federal Period. The name Federal style is also used in association with furniture design...
Greek Revival
Greek Revival architecture
The Greek Revival was an architectural movement of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in Northern Europe and the United States. A product of Hellenism, it may be looked upon as the last phase in the development of Neoclassical architecture...
popular in the century's early decades. A new county courthouse, the current building, was built in 1818 on the site of the first one. The First Protestant Reformed Dutch Church of Kingston, the city's oldest congregation, dating to 1659, went through two buildings before the construction of its current home, the 1852 Minard Lafever
Minard Lafever
Minard Lafever was an influential American architect of churches and houses in the United States in the early nineteenth century.-Life and career:...
edifice known as the Old Dutch Church. Its white tower rises over 200 feet above the district and is a city landmark.
Later in the century the villages of Kingston and Rondout
Rondout, New York
Rondout was a village located on the north side of Rondout Creek near its mouth on the Hudson River in Ulster County and includes the Rondout-West Strand Historic District....
merged into the current city. Rondout had grown from being at the northern end of the Delaware and Hudson Canal
Delaware and Hudson Canal
The Delaware and Hudson Canal was the first venture of the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company, which later developed the Delaware and Hudson Railway...
since 1825 and its commercial center
Rondout-West Strand Historic District
SEE ALSO Rondout, New YorkThe Rondout–West Strand Historic District is a historic district located on the shore of Rondout Creek along the southern boundary of the city of Kingston, New York, USA...
on the banks of Rondout Creek
Rondout Creek
Rondout Creek is a tributary of the Hudson River in Ulster and Sullivan counties, New York, USA. It rises on Rocky Mountain in the eastern Catskills, flows south into Rondout Reservoir, part of New York City's water supply network, then into the valley between the Catskills and the Shawangunk...
near where it flows into the Hudson River
Hudson River
The Hudson is a river that flows from north to south through eastern New York. The highest official source is at Lake Tear of the Clouds, on the slopes of Mount Marcy in the Adirondack Mountains. The river itself officially begins in Henderson Lake in Newcomb, New York...
became known as "downtown" to distinguish itself from the Stockade District, which accordingly became "uptown".
Historic preservation
Historic preservation
Historic preservation is an endeavor that seeks to preserve, conserve and protect buildings, objects, landscapes or other artifacts of historical significance...
efforts in the Stockade began early in the 20th century. The Henry Sleight House on Crown Street had been used for many purposes since it was built around 1695, but by 1900 it was decrepit and in danger of demolition
Demolition
Demolition is the tearing-down of buildings and other structures, the opposite of construction. Demolition contrasts with deconstruction, which involves taking a building apart while carefully preserving valuable elements for re-use....
. The local Daughters of the American Revolution
Daughters of the American Revolution
The Daughters of the American Revolution is a lineage-based membership organization for women who are descended from a person involved in United States' independence....
chapter paid for a complete restoration
Building restoration
Building restoration describes a particular treatment approach and philosophy within the field of architectural conservation. According the U.S...
of the interior and exterior. Today it is their headquarters. A few years later, in 1908, George Clinton, long buried in Washington, was brought back to Kingston and reburied in the yard of the Old Dutch Church with full honors.
20th century: Organized preservation
Decades later, in 1965, Friends of the Senate House was founded to work to protect and preserve that building. It soon expanded its mission to all the city's historic architecture and became Friends of Historic Kingston (FOHK). In 1969 it got the original Clinton Avenue Historic District, consisting of the block between Clinton, North Fair, and John streets and Westbrook Lane, locally recognized as a historic district, the city's first listing on the National Register.Four years later it was expanded into the Stockade District. FOHK has worked to get other properties in the Stockade recognized as well, and renovated some others. It also maintains the Frog Alley area at the district's northwest corner.
During the 1970s, the roofs were added to the sidewalks on North Front and Wall streets, part of the "Pike Plan" (named after Woodstock
Woodstock, New York
Woodstock is a town in Ulster County, New York, United States. The population was 5,884 at the 2010 census, down from 6,241 at the 2000 census.The Town of Woodstock is in the northern part of the county...
artist John Pike, who designed and built them) to revitalize the area, which had begun to lose shoppers to malls outside of the city. Businesses on those streets pay a maintenance fee for them. Some have called for their removal.
21st century: Preservation and redevelopment
In the early 21st century, the county sponsored an archaeological dig at the site of the Persen House, one of the four at the Crown-John intersection, as part of efforts to restore it and make it a museum. It yielded a number of artifactsArtifact (archaeology)
An artifact or artefact is "something made or given shape by man, such as a tool or a work of art, esp an object of archaeological interest"...
, including some misshapen apparent cannon balls. Eight years later, in 2008, after having spent $2 million on the project the county was still unsure what to do with the building. It was hoping to use federal stimulus money
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, abbreviated ARRA and commonly referred to as the Stimulus or The Recovery Act, is an economic stimulus package enacted by the 111th United States Congress in February 2009 and signed into law on February 17, 2009, by President Barack Obama.To...
to finish the work.
During the 2000s, preservationists and the city clashed over some projects slated for areas near or on the fringes of the district. A New Jersey developer's proposal for a 12-story condominium
Condominium
A condominium, or condo, is the form of housing tenure and other real property where a specified part of a piece of real estate is individually owned while use of and access to common facilities in the piece such as hallways, heating system, elevators, exterior areas is executed under legal rights...
on the site of a closed parking garage the city planned to demolish on North Front Street drew objections for its height, as it would become the city's tallest building, dwarfing nearby historic buildings, and requiring a variance
Variance (land use)
A variance is the process by which an applicant can request deviation from the set of rules a municipality applies to land use and land development, typically a zoning ordinance, building code or municipal code. The manner in which variances are employed can differ greatly depending on the...
as Kingston's zoning
Zoning in the United States
Zoning in the United States comprise land use state laws falling under the police power rights that State governments and local governments have the authority to exercise over privately owned real property.-Origins and history:...
code prohibits any new buildings in the Stockade District from being taller than the base of the Old Dutch Church's steeple
Steeple (architecture)
A steeple, in architecture, is a tall tower on a building, often topped by a spire. Steeples are very common on Christian churches and cathedrals and the use of the term generally connotes a religious structure...
, 62 feet (18.9 m) above street level. The city's attorney later decided that it would not need one since the parts of the proposed building that exceeded the height limit were outside the district boundary.
The state's Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation
New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation
The New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation operates :*168 state parks*35 state historic sites*76 developed beaches*53 water recreational facilities*27 golf courses*39 full service cottages*818 cabins...
warned the city that such a towering building would have a negative impact on the Stockade District, and the state's Historic Preservation League put the Stockade on its "Seven to Save" list for 2007 because of the proposal. The city's mayor and proponents among the Stockade business community felt that the economic benefit the condo proposal would bring to the Stockade outweighed any effect it would have on the district's historic character. Eventually the developer began to reconsider the project due to the opposition,
With the project stalled, the city decided to survey residents about what should be built at the site. The results indicated strong opposition to affordable housing
Affordable housing
Affordable housing is a term used to describe dwelling units whose total housing costs are deemed "affordable" to those that have a median income. Although the term is often applied to rental housing that is within the financial means of those in the lower income ranges of a geographical area, the...
or any kind of rental units being built on the site. The parking garage was finally demolished amid allegations of bid rigging
Bid rigging
Bid rigging is a form of fraud in which a commercial contract is promised to one party even though for the sake of appearance several other parties also present a bid. This form of collusion is illegal in most countries...
. A temporary parking lot has opened on the site.
At the time the condominium project was failing, in 2008, CVS proposed a 12900 square feet (1,198.4 m²) store on Washington Avenue and Shwenck Drive. FOHK and preservationists collected 600 signatures on petitions opposing the development, saying a third chain drugstore in the uptown area would only drive an independent local drugstore on North Front Street out of business and make the city's main western gateway into a commercial strip indistinguishable from others in the country. One city alderman tried to stop the project with a building moratorium
Moratorium (law)
A moratorium is a delay or suspension of an activity or a law. In a legal context, it may refer to the temporary suspension of a law to allow a legal challenge to be carried out....
along Washington, which received the support of the Stockade's business association. It was eventually passed, excluding the CVS proposal. The city's Planning Board eventually approved the project, and construction crews began clearing the site in September 2009.
The city and preservationists were able to work together on one project, the restoration of the 1899 Kirkland Hotel
Kirkland Hotel
The Kirkland Hotel is located at the corner of Main Street and Clinton Avenue in Kingston, New York, United States. It is a Tudor-style building dating to the end of the 19th century....
at Clinton Avenue and Main Street in the southeast corner of the district. A rare example of a wood-frame urban hotel, it had been vacant since the 1970s. Several owners since then had tried to at least reopen a restaurant in the hotel's basement, but had made no progress beyond repainting the exterior.
In 2003 the Rural Ulster Preservation Company (RUPCO), a local non-profit organization
Non-profit organization
Nonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...
devoted to housing, bought the hotel with the intention of completing the restoration. It spent $4.7 million over several years to restore the original porch and put in a geothermal heating
Geothermal heating
Geothermal heating is the direct use of geothermal energy for heating applications. Humans have taken advantage of geothermal heat this way since the Paleolithic era. Approximately seventy countries made direct use of a total of 270 PJ of geothermal heating in 2004...
system. The project won a 2007 Excellence in Preservation Award from the Historic Preservation League, and RUPCO has leased out space for commercial and residential use. It is hoping that someone will be able to reopen the restaurant.
The streets and sidewalks were also in need of repair. In 2008 Rep. Maurice Hinchey
Maurice Hinchey
Maurice Dunlea Hinchey , is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 1993. He is a member of the Democratic Party...
helped the city secure $1.3 million in federal grants
Grant (money)
Grants are funds disbursed by one party , often a Government Department, Corporation, Foundation or Trust, to a recipient, often a nonprofit entity, educational institution, business or an individual. In order to receive a grant, some form of "Grant Writing" often referred to as either a proposal...
to rehabilitate uptown and the Stockade District. $1.7 million had been set aside to restore the Pike Plan canopies, which were in need of repair. The following spring the city announced it would use some of the money to reverse the direction of traffic on several of the one-way streets within the district to ease travel through and around it. Later that year City council debated whether to restore the traffic light at North Front and Wall or keep the stop signs. They ultimately decided in favor of the traffic light. Just prior to completion of the canopy project, graffiti artist painted red goats
Red goats of Kingston
The red goats of Kingston is a controversial public art display which appeared in the stockade district of Kingston, New York in October, 2011. The artists responsible for the goats, which were stenciled on newly-installed planters in front of area businesses, were apprehended and charged with...
on eleven of the new sidewalk planters, raising a furor.
Preservation
An entire section of Kingston's zoning code governs new construction in what it refers to as the Stockade Area. In its preamblePreamble
A preamble is an introductory and expressionary statement in a document that explains the document's purpose and underlying philosophy. When applied to the opening paragraphs of a statute, it may recite historical facts pertinent to the subject of the statute...
the city council declares:
The city's Landmarks Preservation Commission reviews applications for new construction, including significant alterations to existing structures, in the Stockade District. It may consider, and request modification of, many elements of the proposed construction, including roof shape, walls and paving, in the interest of protecting the Stockade's historic character. The height of new buildings is limited to 62 feet (18.9 m), or the base of the Old Dutch Church's steeple. The commission may also require the use of bluestone
Bluestone
Bluestone is a cultural or commercial name for a number of dimension or building stone varieties, including:*a feldspathic sandstone in the U.S. and Canada;*limestone in the Shenandoah Valley in the U.S...
in sidewalks where it considers it historically appropriate, and that any newer construction be set back
Setback (land use)
In land use, a setback is the distance which a building or other structure is set back from a street or road, a river or other stream, a shore or flood plain, or any other place which needs protection. Depending on the jurisdiction, other things like fences, landscaping, septic tanks, and various...
further from the street than neighboring historic buildings and screened from view with trees, possibly evergreen
Evergreen
In botany, an evergreen plant is a plant that has leaves in all seasons. This contrasts with deciduous plants, which completely lose their foliage during the winter or dry season.There are many different kinds of evergreen plants, both trees and shrubs...
s. Five percent of the area of all parking lots must be used for plantings to screen it.
Friends of Historic Kingston (FOHK), the group founded in the late 1960s to preserve the Senate House, has been a vocal defender of the Stockade's historic character. Its 400 members have actively opposed some recent projects that they believed would adversely affect the district, to the point that some critics have referred to the group as Friends of Hysteric Kingston or Enemies of Development. The group has also bought and restored some of the homes in the district, as well as elsewhere in the city. It operates two museums in the city and offers walking tour
Walking tour
Walking tour may be defined has having one or more of the following characteristics:* A full or partial-day tour of one or more tourist destinations, which can be led by a tour guide, an escort, or be self-guided....
s of the Stockade.
Significant contributing properties
Some of the Stockade's buildings have earned a place on the National Register in their own right. One, the Old Dutch Church, was designated Kingston's first National Historic LandmarkNational Historic Landmark
A National Historic Landmark is a building, site, structure, object, or district, that is officially recognized by the United States government for its historical significance...
in 2008. Other contributing properties are not separately listed at present but are important to the district.
National Historic Landmark
- Old Dutch Church, 272 Wall Street. Formally known as the First Reformed Protestant Dutch Church of Kingston, founded in 1659, the 225 feet (68.6 m) white spire of this Minard LafeverMinard LafeverMinard Lafever was an influential American architect of churches and houses in the United States in the early nineteenth century.-Life and career:...
-designed church dominates the uptown skyline. Built in 1852, It is Lafever's only surviving Renaissance Revival church, and his only stone church. George ClintonGeorge Clinton (vice president)George Clinton was an American soldier and politician, considered one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. He was the first Governor of New York, and then the fourth Vice President of the United States , serving under Presidents Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. He and John C...
is buried in the yard.
National Register of Historic Places
- Kirkland HotelKirkland HotelThe Kirkland Hotel is located at the corner of Main Street and Clinton Avenue in Kingston, New York, United States. It is a Tudor-style building dating to the end of the 19th century....
, 2 Main Street. One of the district's newest contributing properties, this 1899 TudorbethanTudorbethan architectureThe Tudor Revival architecture of the 20th century , first manifested itself in domestic architecture beginning in the United Kingdom in the mid to late 19th century based on a revival of aspects of Tudor style. It later became an influence in some other countries, especially the British colonies...
hotel is a rare example of a wood-frame urban hotel. After almost three decades of vacancy, it was recently restored for mixedMixed-use developmentMixed-use development is the use of a building, set of buildings, or neighborhood for more than one purpose. Since the 1920s, zoning in some countries has required uses to be separated. However, when jobs, housing, and commercial activities are located close together, a community's transportation...
commercial and residential use by a local nonprofit group. - Senate House, 276 Fair Street. A century after this stone house was built in 1676, the state of New York was founded in it. Later that year it was burned by the British Army. It is now a state historic site.
Other contributing properties
- Clermont Building, 295–299 Wall Street. This late 19th century commercial building retains the metal cresting on its slate mansard roofMansard roofA mansard or mansard roof is a four-sided gambrel-style hip roof characterized by two slopes on each of its sides with the lower slope at a steeper angle than the upper that is punctured by dormer windows. The roof creates an additional floor of habitable space, such as a garret...
, a decorative feature often removed from many buildings of its era. The second floor has high ceilings with two murals of David and Goliath by an unknown artist. - Houses at 21 and 25 Main Street. A pair of similar houses, with one dated to 1883, in the Eastlake variant of the Queen AnneQueen Anne Style architectureThe Queen Anne Style in Britain means either the English Baroque architectural style roughly of the reign of Queen Anne , or a revived form that was popular in the last quarter of the 19th century and the early decades of the 20th century...
style. - House at 124 Green Street. Local watchmaker and inventor Charles Paige Carter built this board-and-battenBattenA batten is a thin strip of solid material, typically made from wood, plastic or metal. Battens are used in building construction and various other fields as both structural and purely cosmetic elements...
cottage, the only Carpenter GothicCarpenter GothicCarpenter Gothic, also sometimes called Carpenter's Gothic, and Rural Gothic, is a North American architectural style-designation for an application of Gothic Revival architectural detailing and picturesque massing applied to wooden structures built by house-carpenters...
-style house in the district. - Kingston Trust Company Building, 27 Main Street. This monumentally scaled Greek RevivalGreek Revival architectureThe Greek Revival was an architectural movement of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in Northern Europe and the United States. A product of Hellenism, it may be looked upon as the last phase in the development of Neoclassical architecture...
commercial building has unusual windows, surrounded by carved wreathes, set into its friezeFriezethumb|267px|Frieze of the [[Tower of the Winds]], AthensIn architecture the frieze is the wide central section part of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic or Doric order, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Even when neither columns nor pilasters are expressed, on an astylar wall it lies upon...
. - Frantz Roggon House, 42 Crown Street. One of the four pre-Revolutionary stone houses at the Crown-John intersection, this was adapted for 19th-century purposes, with a diamond-paned glass door added to an early entranceway.
- St. Joseph's Church, 242 Wall Street. Built in 1833, this Greek RevivalGreek Revival architectureThe Greek Revival was an architectural movement of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in Northern Europe and the United States. A product of Hellenism, it may be looked upon as the last phase in the development of Neoclassical architecture...
church was home to the Old Dutch Church congregation prior to the construction of its current church. It was later used as an armoryArmory (military)An armory or armoury is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, issued to authorized users, or any combination of those...
during the Civil WarAmerican Civil WarThe American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
, and afterwards became the city's first Roman Catholic church in 1868. - Tappen House, 106–122 Green Street. Built ca. 1670, this is widely believed to be the oldest extant house in Kingston. Like the Roggon House, it was modified in the 19th century. It has a distinctive saltbox-style side elevation.
- Ulster County Courthouse, 285 Wall Street. One of the oldest extant county courthouses in the state, this Federal style stone structure was built in 1818 on the site of an earlier courthouse, parts of which remain in the foundationFoundation (architecture)A foundation is the lowest and supporting layer of a structure. Foundations are generally divided into two categories: shallow foundations and deep foundations.-Shallow foundations:...
. The cupola was added in 1837.
See also
- National Register of Historic Places listings in Ulster County, New York
External links
- Clinton Avenue Historic District, Kingston, Ulster, NY: 2 drawings and 1 data page at Historic American Building Survey
- Clinton Avenue Historic Distrtict, Frederick L. Westbrook House, 286 Clinton Avenue, Kingston, Ulster, NY: 4 photos, 5 data pages, and 1 photo caption page at Historic American Building Survey
- Clinton Avenue Historic District, South Smith House, 290 Clinton Avenue, Kingston, Ulster, NY: 1 photo, 7 data pages, and 1 photo caption page at Historic American Building Survey
- Clinton Avenue Historic District, North Smith House, 294 Clinton Avenue, Kingston, Ulster, NY: 1 photo, 8 data pages, and 1 photo caption page at Historic American Building Survey
- Clinton Avenue Historic District, Albert G. Nichols House, 296-300 Clinton Avenue, Kingston, Ulster, NY: 1 photo, 5 data pages, and 1 photo caption page at Historic American Building Survey
- Clinton Avenue Historic District, Newcomb House, 304 Clinton Avenue, Kingston, Ulster, NY: 2 photos, 6 data pages, and 1 photo caption page at Historic American Building Survey
- Clinton Avenue Historic District, Peters House, 306 Clinton Avenue, Kingston, Ulster, NY: 1 photo, 6 data pages, and 1 photo caption page at Historic American Building Survey
- Clinton Avenue Historic District, Thomas Van Gaasbeek House, 308 Clinton Avenue, Kingston, Ulster, NY: 2 photos, 7 data pages, and 1 photo caption page at Historic American Building Survey
- Friends of Historic Kingston
- Kingston Uptown Business Association
- Interactive map of district at National Park Service website