Historic Huguenot Street (HHS) will host reenactors from the Colonial Living History Alliance in honor of the Independence Day holiday weekend on Saturday, July 6. The encampment and muster, which is free and open to the public, will be located on the lawn next to the DuBois Fort Visitor Center, located at 81 Huguenot Street in New Paltz.
Reenactors will interpret an important time period relevant to HHS and American history which includes the late 17th to early 18th century. They will portray both the daily lives of villagers, as well as the militia and include demonstrations of chores, tools, cooking, sewing, tenting, weapons and musical instruments. Reenactors will also join visitors on regularly scheduled guided tours of the historic house museums.
Spectators may visit the encampment on Saturday, July 6 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday guided tours of HHS historic homes are at 10 a.m., 11:30 a.m., 1:30 p.m. and 3 p.m., and the cost is $16 for adults, $15 for senior citizens, students, military and AAA members, $40 for family, $10 for children ages 10-13.
The oldest settled-site in southern Ulster county can be found at the corner of church and mulberry by evidence of the trench in shale leading from the cellar house to what is now a blasted out road with pavement. Above the cellar house is an English Cottage attached to a Dutch Cabin of 1669, as detailed in the assessor office. This same site was a gin mill, where furs were traded for liquor and such by Sephardic Portuguese to the natives during the first intrusion by white men in the area.