The Empire State Railway Museum, the former Phoenicia train station, has undergone a major sprucing up and reorganization as it prepares to serve as the terminus for the Rail Explorers rail bikes, which were chosen by Ulster County to take over the Phoenicia run of Catskill Mountain Railroad.The museum reopens Memorial Day weekend, as Rail Explorers launch their local operation, offering rail bike tours from Phoenicia to Mount Pleasant and back.
Saturday, May 26: The museum will open its season with a grand Community Event featuring live music, a food truck, children’s activities, and tours and hikes on the North Family grounds, where the utopian project throve from 1787 to 1947.
The May 19 house tour is the town’s most ambitious yet, with 68 stone houses.
Saturday, May 19: Hop aboard the bus and learn about the immigrants of 1710 who established West Camp. This docent-led tour offers views of some of the 68 stone houses in Asbury, Saxton and Blue Mountain.
Between the Thruway and the Hoogebergs, a clump of rolling hills behind Winston Farm where Saugerties blends into the Catskills, sits Asbury. If advocates have their way, the little neighborhood of farms and stone houses will become the town’s latest historic district.
The Village of New Paltz Historic Preservation Commission unveiled its fourth annual art exhibit and announced the award-winners at a reception Saturday, April 28. The show will remain on view in the community room of the Elting Memorial Library during regular library hours through May 12.
Saturday, May 5: In his talk entitled “The Catskill Tanneries: An Environmental Disaster with a Happy Ending,” local historian Paul Misko describes the development of the tannery industry — particularly in Phoenicia’s Woodland Valley but also in other parts of the Catskills — as well as the consequences of the tanneries’ brief reign, which he says weren’t all bad.
William B. Rhoads’ new book & exhibition about Charles S. Keefe puts the Kingston architect back on the historical map. The Friends of Historic Kingston will offer a self-guided driving tour of 15 Keefe buildings, so you can check out Keefe’s architecture for yourself.
While issues such as gun control, the proposed Belleayre Resort project, and the Ashokan Rail Trail tend to polarize local residents, it’s instructive to be reminded that people on both sides of these controversies have always had a love of the land and nature as their primary motivation.
The Reher Center for Immigrant Culture and History, located in a historic bakery in the Rondout that catered to the Kingston community for much of the 20th century, is making major strides toward becoming a bona fide museum.