Ulster County Poorhouse sculpture unveiling set for May 15

May 9, 2019·Comments closed·

The Ulster County Poorhouse opened in New Paltz in 1828, at the site on Libertyville Road where the Ulster County Fairgrounds and county pool complex are now located. The facility closed in 1976 after having housed thousands of people in the intervening years. Some were classified as “insane” or “intemperate,” but the records show just as many who were admitted because of old age, sickness or disability. There were unwed mothers, “debauched” women, abandoned wives, babies and children, former slaves and recent immigrants injured while employed building the Catskill Aqueduct and D & H Canal.

Local History

Volunteers needed at Saugerties lighthouse

May 2, 2019·Comments closed·

The Saugerties Lighthouse Conservancy is seeking volunteers to lead tours for the summer season. Tours occur on Sundays (noon–3 p.m.), between Memorial Day and Labor Day weekends. Volunteers lead visitors through the inside of the lighthouse and share its history (a fact sheet is provided). It’s a fun way to get involved and lend a hand to a local landmark. For more information or to volunteer, call (845) 247-0656 or email [email protected].

Community, Local History

Chancellor’s Sheep & Wool Showcase at Clermont

May 2, 2019·Comments closed·

Saturday, May 4: The annual family festival brings historic fiber arts, culture and crafts to a bucolic scenario where live sheep, angora rabbits and alpacas take center stage.

Local History, Nature

Whaling’s surprising Hudson River heyday

April 18, 2019·Comments closed·

One wouldn’t think that people in the business of hunting whales far out at sea would ever have imagined Hudson to be an auspicious place to set up shop. But they did, beginning in 1783, just as the Revolutionary War was drawing to a close.

Nature

Explore the islands of the Hudson River

April 18, 2019·Comments closed·

Did you know that Schodack Island was the site of the central council fire of all the Mahican peoples? Or that British mystic Aleister Crowley claimed to be meditating and writing on Esopus Island, but he may have been spying on behalf of the US government during WWI?

Local History

The woman behind the New Deal: Frances Perkins symposium at FDR site in Hyde Park

April 11, 2019·Comments closed·

Monday, April 15: Even if Frances Perkins hadn’t been the first woman ever to serve in a US presidential cabinet, or the longest-serving Secretary of Labor ever (12 years), she would still deserve a shining place in 20th-century history.

Local History, Nature

Maritime Museum celebrates a half-century of environmental activism on the Hudson, soon to publish Lighthouses of the Hudson Valley

April 11, 2019·Comments closed·

Special preview on Friday, April 19: New exhibition marks the 50th anniversary of the launch of the Hudson River sloop Clearwater and the passing of the National Environmental Policy Act.

Local History

Antique Postcard Show at the old Broadway Armory in Kingston

March 28, 2019·Comments closed·

Sunday, Mar. 31: The event will feature approximately 20 dealers with hundreds of thousands of antique postcards for sale, covering a wide range of subjects, including a focus on Hudson Valley communities and view cards.

Local History

“Lost Lighthouses of the Hudson” lecture at Maritime Museum

March 21, 2019·Comments closed·

Saturday, Mar. 23: Just eight Hudson River lighthouses now remain, but dozens once dotted the shores of the Hudson between Troy and New York City, at places like Stuyvesant, Coxsackie, Rockland Lake, Danskammer Point, Esopus Island and Crossover Dike.

Local History

“Gilsonfest” lecture launches Montgomery Place Spring Salon Series

March 7, 2019·Comments closed·

Sunday, March 10: Part of what makes the Montgomery Place gardener Alexander Gilson (1824-1889) remarkable is the fact that he was born into slavery. After being freed, Gilson eventually opened his own nursery business, and had a cultivar of ornamental plant that he had bred named after him: Achyranthes verschaffeltii, var. Gilsoni.

Almanac Weekly | History