Hike #815; Kingston

Hike #815; Kingston

11/30/14 Kingston Loop with Jillane Becker

Ulster and Delaware Railroad at Kingston Point

This next hike would be a loop around Kingston NY, an impromptu trip by Jillane and I.

It was now six years since we had gotten together, and we had made plans to go off and spend the weekend somewhere together. She got off of work a little later than usual, which sort of limited us with what would could do for travel time. She also had work Monday, so we couldn't make it an extended weekend, it would have to be something somewhat closer. We talked over some places, and didn't really come up with anything that would work, until I brought up Kingston. There were several things up there we had been wanting to explore. It seemed like the right thing to do, and so we headed off for Kingston.

We arrived in town some time around 9 pm or so Saturday night. We didn't go right to the Super 8 hotel, but first traveled around Kingston and had a look around for book stores and such. We drove through some of the Stockade District and headed along back streets where we'd hiked before. We finally settled in with the plan that we'd hike directly from the hotel the next day and explore the Kingston area. Dan Lurie would fill in for me with the regular Metrotrails group hike back home.

It's nice to do a hike like this, where I have sort of a plan of places we would like to see, but the freedom to just go and check things out without time obligations to a group in any way. We could take the time to explore whatever struck us as interesting at the time.

From the hotel, we walked around the Kingston Plaza area, but away from it toward the Stockade District. This was the formerly fortified area of Kingston, the oldest part of town set up by the Dutch in the 17th century, then named "Wiltwyck". The town was not renamed Kingston until taken over by the English.

The town was founded in 1652 by Thomas Chambers of Albany (then Fort Orange), and in 1658 all settlers were moved to the newly constructed stockade. The area suffered from regular Indian attacks and so this safety measure was necessary here as well as many other places. Kingston remains one of only three places where original stockade boundaries are still physically apparent due to higher elevation.

Kingston was chosen in 1777 to  host the constitutional convention that established New York State. The Senate House still stands in the district, with it's original section dating to 1676. Later that same year, the British army invaded Kingston and burned a couple of hundred dwellings in and outside of the stockade. The Kingston 1777 Trail makes it's way around the town in and outside the former stockade area and depicts fire in the city.

The Stockade District of Kingston is very unique in that it is the only place in the United States where all four corners of an intersection are occupied by Colonial Dutch stone dwellings (Crown and John Streets).

Jillane and I headed south and to Front Street.

Historic view of 1679 Hoffman House

I recall immediately seeing a sign saying something about 1711. This was the beginning of the Stockade District. The first historic house we came across was the Hoffman House Tavern. I didn't realize quite how historic it was upon first looking at it.

Historic view of 1679 Hoffman House

The Hoffman House was apparently of English construction, but utilized some of the Dutch architectural style already present in the city upon their arrival. The house was amazingly constructed in 1679.

Present view of Hoffman House at the same angle.

Historic view, Hoffman House

Present view, Hoffman House

The house remained in the same family for over 200 years, passed on to Salvation Army Corps, and then in 1976 was acquired by two entrepreneurs who rehabilitated the historic structure with great respect for it's historic and authenticity. It's very important that the historic character of this area is preserved.

The house sits at the corner of Front Street and Frog Alley. The latter was at one time re-named Converse Street, but in 1975 it was voted to give the road back it's original name from the days of the Stockade District.

Historic view; Louw-Bagardus House

We passed the Hoffman House and noticed Frog Alley. Jillane spotted a lovely masonry ruin she'd seen on line just down the road to the left. We opted to take a detour and check it out. Although it was only the masonry frame of the building, it appeared well stabilized and kept up.

Historic view; Louw-Bagardus House

Historic view; Louw-Bagardus House

The historic structure was that of the Louw-Bogardus House, built by Pieter Cornelissen Louws. It was later passed on to Bogardus and Smedes descendants. The rear portion of the building is believed to have been constructed between 1660 and 1665, and the full dwelling was completed in 1676.

1905 view; Louw-Bagardus House

Another view; Louw-Bagardus House

It is amazing to look back at how much the area around the building changed over the years, and yet the building itself remained quite unchanged for over three hundred years.

Historic view; Louw-Bagardus House

The building was apparently a mill keeper's house at one time, and a mill was located on the same tract of land nearby. We were both amazed that this building dated back to so early in the 1600s. It was completely fenced in to preserve the ruins.

Louw-Bogardus House ruin today

Sadly, the guts of the house fell victim to a fire in the 1960s. After that time, it was nearly demolished, but a concerned group of citizens, Friends of Historic Kingston rallied together to save the structure as a ruin. They acquired the property and had a stone mason stabilize the skeleton of the building. Friends of Historic Kingston purchased the building, and the tract it sits on is now known as Frog Alley Park.

We walked along the edge of the building, beside the fence, up hill to a parking lot above. We then headed back out toward the Hoffman House, and continued on Front Street to the east.

We passed some buildings with some interesting murals on them, and reached the lovely downtown with all of the shops and overhead awnings. As we walked, we passed Half Moon Books, a lovely little book store, and we decided to go in and have a look around. Immediately we found the local interest section to the left side of the store. There was a great assortment of books we both would like to purchase. Jillane found a few that I really liked. I ended up getting one on the "Rip Van Winkle Railroads", likes leading to the Catskills. I'd already purchased the Ulster and Delaware Railroad book and read it entirely and extensively after our first trip hiking it in 2012. This book seemed to have chapters that were the next things I'd need to find out about. In particular, it mentioned the Catskill and Canajoharie, which the Ulster and Delaware utilized in part of it's trackage mentioned in my other book. I looked forward to finding out more and having questions answered that I'd wanted to know.

The second purchase was a book on the "O&W", or the New York, Ontario, and Western, which was a subject of many of my hikes since 2008. Jillane went ahead to explore the other levels of the store while I continued to sift through more of the books up stairs. I knew I was limited on funds but really wanted to get a few. These two that I chose would have the greatest value to me both for where I've been and where I would explore in the very near future.

While looking further, I found the Adirondacks guide to the Northville-Lake Placid Trail. This was one of the trails I hope to backpack in the near future. I had found what I believed to be a rather good hiking route from the Mohawk River Valley north to the town of Northville and would like to cover it in a hike. This would be an essential guide, and buy purchasing it here I'd save the postage cost. 

I went down to the basement and met up with Jillane who was going through a railroad section downstairs. There were so many more books in the store that I wanted to go; for example, there was a good one on the Delaware and Hudson Canal I'd have liked to buy, but I just didn't have the money for it at the time. We moved on from the store back to Front Street and headed further east.

Soon, we turned right on Wall Street. Almost all of the homes in this section are historic, some more than others.

Old Dutch Church

Soon, we passed the Old Dutch Church. I had seen this structure before, but hadn't thought much about it until the last hike we did in Kingston when I read a lot about the bluestone industry in the area. The church was constructed of bluestone from local quarries, and was completed in 1852. The current church is the fifth to serve at this site, and the it boasts the oldest continuously existing congregation in the US, having met at this site since 1659.

We walked into the graveyard and had a look around at the ancient stones. Some of them were gated off so we couldn't easily walk through the cemetery. We moved on from here to the south, remaining on Wall Street. As we walked south, and were about to cross an intersection, there was a pretty medium haired black cat sitting in front of a house. Jillane called out to it. The cat could see we were looking at her, and acknowledged by happily trotting on over to us. Somehow, cats seem to know when someone is going to be nice to them. This one was incredibly friendly, brushed up against us and let Jillane pick her up. After a little while of petting, we moved on and thought the cat would follow us. She fortunately didn't follow us across the street.

Tobias Van Steenburgh House

We continued on and soon reached another historic house across the street. This was the Tobias Van Steenburgh House, which historic texts claim was built "by 1700". During the British raid in 1777, this house was somehow spared. Many legends exist to explain why this was so, from a British soldier dating a loyalist woman who lived there, to slaves treating soldiers to a barrel of rum until they were called off, and others saying the troops were called off before they could burn it. Regardless, the house is quite lovely.

We continued down Wall Street and left the main part of town. To the right of us, we could see the right of way of the Wallkill Valley Railroad, the line that is now Wallkill Valley Rail Trail further to the south. We had hiked a section of this from New Paltz to Rosendale earlier in the year, but have yet to cover the section from there into Kingston.

We continued along the road a bit more, and then noticed what appeared to be an old, small cemetery on a hill to the left. There was a sign denoting the site as the Mt. Zion Cemetery. Jillane recognized it and had thought this was an African American cemetery she'd read about. She was right; the cemetery was established in 1856 for a black congregation, and was the second black cemetery in Kingston. Several of those interred at the cemetery were Civil War veterans. The first tomb stone we saw was etched rather strangely, and the "S" in the word "Husband" was backwards. We continued through the cemetery to find that it was larger than expected.

Mt. Zion Cemetery

In recent years, the cemetery fell into an awful state of disrepair. It was reportedly littered with all sorts of trash and old tires. In 2011, citizens came together to clean up the site and a re-dedication was held.

It's quite interesting, with stones leading down slopes on both sides. We continued along the sort of ridge the graveyard followed through Pine trees, then descended from it to a brook to the right. We carefully crossed the Twaalfskill Brook and made our way back up to Wall Street. We turned left and headed south parallel with the creek passing an old dam or bridge site, then joined Rt 213 and turned right.

Heading down hill, we passed an abandoned building on the left that was tightly secured and padlocked. It was old, and made of stone, probably dating back to mid to late 1800s. An abandoned bridge crossed the Twaalfskill Brook to the right, apparently to a noticeable quarry area beyond. We then passed a brick place that looked like a former school and descended to the community of Wilbur.

Kingston Bluestone at Rondout historic view

Wilbur is an interesting little area that was once very seriously part of the bluestone industry, as well as Rondout just down stream. We could see openings to cement mines in people's back yards to the right of us. There was a triangle of road with historic old homes leading out to Abeel Street along the Rondout Creek. This community was once an important place for the shipping of the bluestone I had read so much about, and detailed in the journal for Hike #813. Rondout was sort of a main shipping area.

We turned to the left along Davis Street, and there was immediately a building I recognized, very unique, and bluestone in construction. I was sure I had seen it on the historic view of the Rondout when I was researching the bluestone industry.

Historic view of Rondout with Fitch Brothers Bluestone Office

The building, which at the time I could not identify with certainty, was the Fitch Bros. Bluestone office, situated on the shore of the Rondout. It's steeply and high peaked upper windows are striking and easily recognizable. I stopped to take a few photos and admire the building. Just as we were getting ready to move on, a guy walking from the parking lot asked "Do you want a tour?". Before I had a second to confirm that we'd love a tour, Jillane already had.

I was totally expecting the place to be a museum, and tours to be commonplace. Such was not the case. The guy we met, George, was a caretaker for the owner of the property. He explained to us that the owner has most of the properties on the north side of the Rondout including many other residences and the old mill. He only stays at the old office building, which he refurbished inside, as a weekend home. We were very fortunate to be able to see the inside.

Fitch Bluestone Office Building

While the outside retained all of the historic character from the time, the inside was just a modern home that could have been the inside of anywhere, which was pretty disappointing. I remained disappointed about it until I read further into it's history.

The structure served as an office building during the heyday of the bluestone industry. It was completed in 1870. It was abandoned some time in the early 1900s and fell soon into disrepair. It was left to rot for sixty or seventy years, and the entire interior had decayed and collapsed into the middle. The building was ready to come down until the current owner purchased it and built the new inside as a home.

We thanked George for the tour, and we made our way along Abeel Street heading to the east. There were ruins of industry including a crumbling stack on the south side of the creek. We soon reached the underpass of the huge railroad trestle over the Rondout, reportedly part of the West Shore Railroad and completed around 1900.

Rondout trestle

We walked beneath the giant bridge, which is still active, and made our way through a little village area. A train crossed the trestle as we moved on to the east. There were a lot of houses along the road, but every other one of them were abandoned with "for sale" signs on them. There were also big "X" marks on white background placed on signs on many of the buildings. I assume this meant they were condemned.

Abandoned along the Rondout

We walked along further and passed a couple little private marinas on the creek. This was all part of the slack water navigation of the Delaware and Hudson Canal at one time, and was also associated with the bluestone as well as carrying coal from Carbondale PA.

Abandoned mill thing

View from inside the top of the mill

We continued past this point and soon passed some sort of abandoned mill on the right side of the road. There were some open doors, but we'd have to walk on a rough looking roof to go into it. Soon, there was an abandoned road going off to the right, shown on google maps as Dock Street. We walked through here, then to the right toward the abandoned mill. There was an open door in back, and so we had a look inside. Jillane only checked out the lower level, but I made my way to stairs that went back and forth up a level. One level up was a giant cylinder shaped motor or something, and the stairs continued up. More machines were on the third level, and I saw the narrow bottom of a funnel type filler for something. Cat walks went off and around the machinery. I went up another level and found myself next to a larger holding section of the machine that spilled whatever it took into whatever below. The upper levels had stairs that were so steep they could be considered ladders. I went up to the upper part where I could see down into the open vat that accepted whatever material was meant to be put in it. Out the window, I had a commanding view of the Rondout Creek and the industries on the other side. I didn't see a safe way to get into the little box on top of the building. I was at the top of the angled roof main section, so I headed back down the steep stairs, then took another turn into a back room of the place with a very large motor inside. I also tried going out an upper door to a roof level, but it didn't seem safe and it was too visible from the road. I headed back down and out of the building, and left the fenced area toward a municipal park known as Block Park. I could see Jillane sitting beneath a nearby pavilion so I headed over to join her. We checked out some interesting art wall stuff before continuing to the east.

Soon, we turned right on Dock Street. We descended slightly to the side of the creek, which had a nice walkway along the waterfront. We began to follow it, now with an island across from us. This section of the Rondout was actually part of the old Delaware and Hudson Canal. I had originally thought it was a natural island, but it was created for the shipping industry.

We passed an abandoned building on the left, and checked out the inside only briefly. We opted not to go through because we figured there might be homeless people living in it. If they were living under the bridge over the Esopus Creek, it wouldn't be far fetched that they'd be living here.

Kingston Port Ewen Suspension Bridge at

We made our way along the walkway further and soon passed beneath the Kingston-Port Ewen Suspension Bridge. The first time I'd seen this bridge, I was surprised that such a structure was built over a little creek like the Rondout rather than some sort of concrete, lower structure. The bridge was completed in 1921, as part of NY State's first north-south cross highway. It doesn't look to be in great shape, but it's pretty interesting. I'd like to walk across it, but we opted not to bother with that this time.

Kingston dock area along the D&H Canal and island.

We walked along the lovely walkway past the Kingston Maritime Museum, which had a tug boat on display, and a paddle steamboat in the water. It didn't seem authentic to me because I noticed hydraulic cables attached to the wheel in the back. This part of Kingston was known as the West Strand. There were several historic markers along the way to tell us the area history.

Rondout historic view

We continued along the waterfront, then got to where the walkway ended. We had to turn left out to a street called Rondout Landing. This led us to where the Ulster and Delaware Railroad turned from the water, where we'd hiked earlier in the year. There was a spur coming off of the main line out onto the street. The area is vastly different than the image of what it was a century ago.

Historic view, Rondout Yard

There is now a trolley museum on the site, along the old Ulster and Delaware line. The rail trail plan in the area does not call for the removal of all the rails, so that the trolley line can continue it's service as well. I was really happy when I read they were working with that group.

Historic view Rondout Yard

We had hiked this section from Kingston Point directly as best we could along the old rail line west to Kingston Plaza. Beyond this point, there's not a lot they can do with the tracks. A lot of it had been built over nearer to the middle of town, and it would cross the former West Shore Railroad at grade. This busy freight line would never let a trail or excursion line cross them at grade, so the section west from here is really the only part that's good for trail use only instead of rail. The rest of the line could easily be made dual use.

Rondout section of Kingston with former U&D tracks

The main line railroad tracks crossed over the road after passing the trolley museum area. We got onto them and began following them out toward Kingston Point. The tracks turned away from the road and onto a berm on a wetland. There was a spur going off to the left I hadn't noticed before, toward the hillside where the mines are. We continued straight.

View from the tracks in Kingston Point Park

Off to the right, we could see the Kingston Point Lighthouse II. There were light houses here since the early 1800s, as the Hudson is very navigable this far up, but this particular one was constructed in 1915 to replace earlier structures. I had thought we'd go out and explore it, because it looked easy enough to walk to, but we opted to save that for a future trip.

Historic Kingston Point Park

Historic Kingston Point Park

Oriental Hotel at Kingston Point

Historic Kingston Point Park

  When we reached North Street, where it crossed the tracks, it was nice to see the trail had been developed since the last time we were here, with respect for the historic rail line. There was a crushed stone surface path along the right side of the rails, and none of the rails were removed at all. We headed east, and the line curved to the north. At this point, the right of way becomes very narrow, and so the trail becomes narrow as well, only a couple of feet wide. Still, they make due with the space they have. This is a perfect argument for leaving the rails in from Kingston to Phoenicia so that the tourist excursion line, Catskill Mountain Railroad, can continue running trains and trail advocates can have the trail.

Recently, local politicians were planning to have the rails removed from Kingston Plaza to Ashokan in favor of a trail. Having walked that entire section, it's in pretty good shape and it would be a shame to destroy an important resource that could be a benefit to both trail users and rail fans alike. One could ride the train to Ashokan, then bike back, or raft down the Esopus Creek for example.

The rail line led to it's former terminus, where passengers would board trains from Thoman Cornell's steamboats. That landing bares little resemblance to what it once was. In fact, all of Kingston Point was a sort of amusement park, with rides, a large hotel, and other amenities. Since the last time we were there, a concrete pad had been poured for a boarding spot on trollies that operate the area.

We stopped and talked to a guy who was using a metal detector along the shore line. He told us he hadn't found anything lately, but years ago he used to find all sorts of great old coins. We continued on across a bridge where an earlier bridged used to be from the trains and boats to the park, and headed out to the west. There were kids smoking pot at benches and just hanging out, and we passed through an iron gate toward the beach section of the park. We walked out to the beach area where there were some kids playing around with the parents, but everything was overall quiet.

Hutton Brick Company, 1948

Present Hutton Brick Co.

One of the next things I had wanted to check out was the abandoned Hutton Brick Company. I had seen it hiking from this area before, but never got around to getting back to see it. Jillane and I headed to the beach to start following the shore line toward the factory ruins. We could see the Kingston-Rhinecliff Bridge up stream in a nice view from the beach.

The beach was littered with bricks; most of them were broken or disfigured in some way, with the words "Hutton" on them. I figure these were reject bricks from the plant that were simply dumped here. It was interesting as we continued further on the beach, because it was entirely a beach of bricks before we stepped off. We found a pathway up from the shore and into the vegetation just south of the factory remains.

Brick shore line near Hutton

The path was rather faint once up on higher land, but it led us north directly into the ruins of the Hutton place. I was thinking we'd just walk on in and get to some of the ruins, but as we pulled in I noticed a rather new black pickup truck parked between open air buildings and the three main buildings right on the shore. We thought it over for a moment, but then opted not to wander in past the guy with the truck in case he was some sort of local private security person. We headed back out th e same exact way we had come in, and then walked the grassy area out from the beach to Delaware Avenue.

We followed the road up hill for a bit, which is the route of some of the Kingston 1777 Trail, and we soon passed the openings to some of the old cement mines on the right. These were covered over in chain link fences. A friend had told us where to go to get in, and we opted to check it out after a bit.

As we continued up hill, we soon came to where we could see an interesting church off to the left, the Ponckhockie Union Congretation Church. It's steeple area, not a pointed thing but a rounded structure, was crumbling and of cement construction. I figured this was one of the earlier cement structures that just wasn't holding up.

Ponckhockie Union Congregation Church historic view

Ponckhockie Union Congregation Church today

It turns out that this church is the earliest known example of a steel reinforced concrete structure in the state of New York, having been constructed in 1870. The front of the church once had a 220 foot tall tower adorning the front of it, but the concrete was rapidly decaying which forced it to be removed in 1965, leaving the remaining more rounded structure there.

The building was actually constructed by the cement company as a Sunday School for their workers' families before it was taken over by the people and turned into a more normal congretations.

We continued on along the back streets, and next decided to try to check out the abandoned mine. We followed the directions easily and soon made our way to the entrance, just as it was described.

Inside the mine

We made our way down a steep slope within the tunnel, and we had to cross a chasm that had boards exposed from the floor, as well as a galvanized old guide rail laying across the section as a sort of walking bridge. I shimmied over and went to help Jillane back when we both heard voices. Someone else was in the mine. Only one friend knew where we were, and so we opted to leave the mine and come back again another time when there are more people and less to be worried about.

We made our way out of the mine and then back to the roads heading west. We then picked up the abandoned Ulster and Delaware Railroad right of way to continue west. This time, the railroad tracks had been removed.

Old Ulster and Delaware Railroad bed in Kingston

The last time we walked through on this, the tracks were still in place, but this time they were all removed and the right of way was muddy. Most of the ties had been removed as well, save for some sections that were muddied over near to grade crossings. The rail bed crossed a few roads at grade, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Avenues, then crossed Delaware Ave before crossing the bridge over Rt 9W/Albany Post Road. The line then passes through the Hasbrouck Avenue Tunnel.

Hasbrouck Avenue Tunnel, Kingston

The "tunnel" is actually a very long culvert, so long that it is classified as a tunnel from what I have read. It is the only "tunnel" on the entire former Ulster and Delaware Railroad, which is quite a curiosity, because this was truly the only railroad line that CROSSED the Catskills. Many others reached it, but no others went all the way through. Even the New York, Ontario, and Western circumvented much of the mountains, but it utilized several tunnels on it's route.

We exited the tunnel and continued through the deep stone wall lined cut, then headed out to East Chester Ave where the trail will probably end when it's developed. The tunnel and cut were now a wet mess with the rails missing. In my opinion, they should have left the rails in, then poured their crushed stone aggregate in between them. This would provide for retention device to keep it all from running away.

We took a break at this point; we turned left to Broadway, and I went into a little convenience store across the way where I'd stopped when we hiked Kingston before. I got some Arizona RX Energy drinks, and they also had a "Joose Screwdriver" for sale. I'd never had this kind before, so I picked it up. I was going to save it for the next hike, but Jillane told me I should have it now. I did, and it was quite tasty. I was glad I did. I felt even more relaxed rather quickly while I waited outside the Wallgreens on the corner for Jillane to pick up some drinks and snacks.

Once she was out, we made our way to Broadway and opted to follow that route through town heading west. It was a nice walk through town, with nice store fronts with strange displays, lips painted on walls, and windows looking like rubix cubes. We also passed a book store Jillane had seen when we hiked through the town before. It was of course closed, and according to the owner of the book store we'd stopped in earlier in the day, the place is really never opened. He said he had been trying to get in touch with their proprietor for three years.

Old West Shore Kingston station

We passed beneath the culvert for the former West Shore Railroad, which the Ulster and Delaware would have crossed at grade just to the north of where we were (about two blocks). We continued on, passing a giant building to the right which looked to be of importance. I later found out it was the city hall.

1885 view of Kingston City Hall

Present Kingston City Hall

The building was first a school or something, having been built in 1873. It saw it's first governmental use in 1875. The site was between the towns of Kingston and Rondout, and served as a good city hall directly between the two following the merger.

We continued through town, set on having Mexican food for dinner. I did a search for different places, and we found several. We figured we'd just stop at what looked good along the way. We passed a couple of potential places, but then settled on one right on Broadway, which looked quaint. We went in and had a really tasty dinner. Jillane's meal was a large serving of all sorts of stuff, I got a good sized burrito and fries.

When we were finished, we continued walking to the west, but then turned off on side streets to walk through the Stockade District at night. This was lovely as expected. We made our way down a few different streets. I recall James Street, Fair Street. As we walked, we found a small cradle thing sitting along the road. We thought it might be nice to bring home to the cats, so I carried it the rest of the way through the city (It turned out none of the cats would even sit in the damn thing more than for a second).

Cradle for the cats

We continued north on Fair Street and came to a fence line where Jillane thought she saw a cemetery within some sort of a court yard type of thing. She wanted to go and check it out, so we looked for an opening in the fence and walked on in. There was something that read "Senate House", and there was a lovely stone building. Upon close inspection though, the building read that it was constructed in 1929. The masonry was consistent with all of the old architecture in the area, and so I at first couldn't believe that such a structure would have been made so meticulously to look older. Still, it was apparently true.

Historic view of Senate House

We walked from the newer building heading east to an older, longer building. I did not realize it when we walked up to it, but this was the older, much more historic Senate House. When the town set up the historic district, it started with the area immediately adjacent to the Senate House, but then incorporated the entire stockade district.

Senate House

Senate House

The original portion of the Senate House was constructed in 1676 by Wessel Ten Broeck. The building had additions put on it over the years, and after America declared it's independence from Britain, Senate meetings took place at the building, setting up the NY state government. It is not known how much of the house was burned during the British raids in 1777, but most of the woodwork in the building dates to late 18th and early 19th centuries. We did not have the opportunity to go inside, but I would love to go back, do another hike and take a tour of it.

A kiosk and map showed different colors for what parts of the building were built when. It was pretty well done. We wandered around the building, and found no cemetery as Jillane had thought, but rather some strange stones with giant grooves in them. We made our way back around the building and out onto the main street once more. We continued down Front Street, then down Frog Alley once more past the ruin of the Louw-Bagardus House again, and got on the old Ulster and Delaware Railroad, now Catskill Mountain Railroad excursion line, and headed east briefly to Kingston Plaza. We went down the embankment from the tracks and walked through the parking lot heading north toward the Esopus Creek, which flows behind the plaza.

We went to the back of the plaza, behind some of the large truck trailers to where the paved trail ascends along the flood control berm of the Esopus Creek, along the back of the apartment complex. At the start of the trail, there is a narrow spot in the river where the original main road out of town, which would have lined up with Frog Alley crossed.

Esopus Bridge; 1895

It was a covered bridge, built some time in the mid 1800s. We continued along the paved path, which was well lit with some nice lights, as we headed back toward Washington Avenue near where we were parked. It was getting a bit colder. I was glad I'd worn my heavy coat rather than the sweat shirt I was looking to wear earlier in the morning.

Pathway along the Esopus

We reached Washington Ave and turned left, heading back toward our hotel. When we arrived, I noticed a man with a yellow vest on standing near the railroad crossing of Washington Ave. I figured this guy must work for the Catskill Mountain Railroad because they need flaggers, as there are no crossing arms on any of the roads. I went up to talk to him, and he confirmed that he was with the railroad. I wanted to hang around to see the train go by on the tracks, and he confirmed that the train should arrive in four or five minutes.

It wasn't long before the train with the Polar Express signs on it passed by. The engine appeared to be a 1940s or so model diesel with oblong engine compartment. It reminded me of a similar 1954 diesel I'd ridden in on the Morristown and Erie back in maybe 2001 or 2. After chatting with the guy at the traffic area and watching the train go by, we made our way toward home.

It was a really nice, relaxing day, but still very substantial. We took in a lot of sights, and it certainly fulfilled our love for history. There is still so much more to see in the area. We'll have to go back to explore more of the brick property, the mines, the suspension bridge, and the entire Wallkill Valley Railroad south to Rosendale. There may also even be a rail car ride involved on a future trip. There is quite a lot to look forward to.