Here's an outline of our city's history from the late 17th century through 1900. I compiled this outline from online sources. Although the information seems to line up with other sources, I cannot vouch for its complete accuracy. For that reason, I consider it a work in progress.
Please comment if you see any errors or have something you'd like to add.
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I'll finish this history outline (1900 - 2016) next time.
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1682 -- The tract of land where Poughkeepsie is now located was
purchased from the Wappinger Indians in 1686 by Robert Sanders, an Englishman, and
Myndert Harmense Van Den Bogaerdt, a New
Netherland-born Dutchman. The first settlers were the families of Barent
Baltus Van Kleeck and Hendrick Jans van Oosterom. Local Indians and patentees
Sanders and Hammense signed an accord about the settlement. The
brother-in-law of Sanders was the Dutchman Van Kleeck.
About 1692 -- Myndert Van Den Bogert and Johnnnes Van Kleeck
discovered the spring that gave Poughkeepsie its name --
U-puku-ipi-sing, meaning "the reed-covered lodge by the little-water place." It was a rest stop along
the Indian trail and is near today's Poughkeepsie Rural Cemetery. (In
1939 Gerald Foster painted a mural of the imagined scene.)
1702 -- Baltus Barents Van Kleeck built a stone house at 222 Mill
Street near the Fallkill Upper Landing. (It no longer stands.)
1714 -- Jacobus Van Den Bogert gave two pieces of land to the
settlement: one for a church and the other for a courthouse.
About 1716 -- the congregation of the Reformed Dutch Church began
with the Van Kleeck family members.
1717 -- A courthouse was built -- the first of five located on the
same site.
1767 -- The Rev. John Beardsley purchased land for a
"Glebe" or rectory/farm on Filkintown Road in what was then the
countryside. Beardsley was the recent Episcopal minister of Christ
Church. (It is now a city house museum administered by the Dutchess
County Historical Society.)
1777 -- Ferries operated on the Hudson River at Poughkeepsie.
1777 -- The state capital of New York, Kingston, was occupied and burned
by the British. Spared from battle during the
American Revolution, Poughkeepsie became the
temporary capital.
1777 -- Stephen Hendriksen built an inn, later called the Forbus
Hotel. The inn was a forerunner of the Nelson House. Among its
guests were Clinton, Jay, Hamilton, and Thomas Jefferson.
1785 -- Fire destroyed the second courthouse.
1788 -- The third courthouse was in place for the New York State
Ratification Convention. Anti-federalist George Clinton agreed with Federalist
Alexander Hamilton to a compromise that included a Bill of Rights. In 1788, the
Ratification Convention for New York State, which included
Alexander Hamilton,
John Jay,
and
George Clinton, assembled at the
courthouse on Market Street, debated, and ratified the
United States Constitution. With its
ratification, New York entered the new union as the eleventh of the original
thirteen colonies to join together as the United States of America.
1788 -- Gov. George Clinton may have had an office in the Clear
Everitt house. (It is now the headquarters of the Dutchess County
Historical Society.)
1792 -- Matthew Vassar born in England. At age 4 (1796), he
immigrated with his family from England to New York.
1799 -- The village was incorporated. A new seal was created for
Poughkeepsie.
During the late 18th century, the Filkintown Road was constructed. It later
became Main Street connecting the Hudson River to New England via Pleasant
Valley (Route 44) and Manchester (Route 55) Roads. (The road was
named to honor storeowner Henry Filkin.)
1800 -- James Reynolds began a weekly freight and passenger sloop
business that ran from the Upper Landing in Poughkeepsie to New York
City.
1806 -- Fire destroyed the third courthouse. It was demolished in
1809.
1809 -- Henry Livingston Jr. gave land from his estate for a
road, now Route 9. He and his wife planted a lot of black locust trees
that gave the Locust Grove estate its name. (S. F. B. Morse bought Locust
Grove in 1847.)
During the War of 1812, the woolen factories of George Booth got a big boost
due to the embargo on foreign goods.
1816 -- At age 14, Matthew Vassar ran away to a town near
Newburgh, New York. He became involved in the brewery business and made a
fortune in the industry.
1818 -- James Reynolds and Aaron Innis bought the Hoffmann
Mill. They expanded the services offered: a store and milling and grain
transport.
1831 -- The Village Hall and Market was built; it became the city hall. Eastern House hotel was established.
1830s -- Miss Lydia Booth, step-niece of Matthew Vassar, ran the
Cottage Hill Seminary on Garden Street.
1830s -- Matthew Vassar was so inspired by his step-niece, Lydia
Booth, he began considering creating a women's college.
1833 -- With the help of John Delafield of the Improvement Party,
a small Catholic congregation was started.
1835 -- The Collegiate Hill School building, modeled after the
Parthenon, stood on the top of College Hill until 1917 when it was destroyed by
fire.
Circa 1835 -- The Greek Revival style Vassar Street church (corner of Mill Street) was built
by dissenting Presbyterians.
1835 -- The Improvement Party founded the Poughkeepsie Collegiate
School on College Hill. (It continued until the late 1860s when George
Morgan purchased the Greek Parthenon style building and converted it into a
hotel.)
1837 -- St. Peter's Catholic Church and Rectory were built. European
immigrants were welcome.
1841 -- A survey found that a quarter of Poughkeepsie's children
received no formal education.
By 1845 -- European Jews had moved into the Riverside
neighborhoods. Five German Jews formed the Congregation Children of
Israel.
1847 – Construction began on the first Smith Brothers factory,
famous for cough drops, on Church Street.
1847 -- Inventor of the telegraph, S.F.B. Morse bought the Henry
Livingston estate, Locust Grove. Alexander Jackson Davis remodeled the
house and Andrew Jackson Downing designed the landscape.
1848 -- The name of the Congregation Children of Israel was changed
to Congregation Brethren of Israel. (at the time, Vassar Temple was the
only synagogue between New York City and Albany.)
Late 1840s, a small dry goods store started by Isaac Dribble and Robert
Slee. As a boy, Charles P. Luckey was hired by the store.
1850 -- The Germania Singing Society was organized.
1852 -- Before his death, Matthew Vassar contracted the famous
architect, Andrew Jackson Downing to finish a number of structures for Vassar's
Springside estate. Since there was no main villa, Vassar used the
gardener's cottage as his residence in the summer. Vassar opened the
estate to the public, thereby making Springside Poughkeepsie's first public
park.
1853 -- The German-American community built the Nativity church on
Union Street. Later, they added a school.
1853 -- Eastern House Hotel burned down.
1853 -- The Poughkeepsie Rural Cemetery was dedicated. Matthew
Vassar had plans to make a cemetery out of part of the old Allen Far at Eden
Hill, but the Cemetery Association chose land across the highway from the
Vassar property.
1854 -- Poughkeepsie became a city (chartered 28 March 1854).
1859 -- Harvey Gridley Eastman, cousin of George Eastman of
Eastman Kodak fame, arrived in Poughkeepsie and started the Eastman Business
College which would become the largest business college in the nation.
Its main building was located on Washington Street (now Columbus Drive) near
Mill Street. He was mayor from 1871 to 1874, and again from 1877 until
his death in 1878. Eastman proposed a railroad bridge crossing the Hudson River
at Poughkeepsie which wasn’t built until 1888. The bridge is now the Walkway
Over the Hudson.
1861 -- Vassar Female College was founded. Matthew Vassar
established the college on land he owned that was then east of
Poughkeepsie. The Second Empire style "Main" building was
designed by James Renwick Jr.
1867-68 -- The
Hudson River State Hospital was built on the former James Roosevelt
estate. The main building (the Kirkbride Building) was designed by Thomas Story Kirkbride, a nineteenth century leader in the treatment of mental illness.
1868 -- While delivering a farewell address to the Vassar College
Board of Trustees, Matthew Vassar died.
1869 -- The Collingwood Opera House (later renamed the Bardavon 1869
Opera House) opened. The theater building was designed by local architect
J. A. Wood for its owner James Collingwood, a wealthy coal and lumber merchant.
1869 -- The Slee Brothers dry goods store on Main Street became
the Luckey and Plat store.
Late 1860s -- George Morgan, a mayor of the city of Poughkeepsie,
established the College Hill Hotel on College Hill. He had a lake (Morgan
Lake) constructed on the east side of College Hill.
1870 -- On Independence day, the Soldiers' Fountain near Eastman
Park was dedicated.
1870 -- Jonathan Warner purchased the Dutchess Academy for the
Vassar Warner Old Ladies Home to care for elderly Protestant
ladies.
About 1871 -- The old Poughkeepsie High School located on Washington
Street was built.
1872 -- The Luckey and Platt store became Luckey, Platt and
Company. (William De Garmo Smith became a partner.)
1872 -- The College Hill Reservoir was built on College
Hill. It became a popular picnic site.
1875 -- Danish immigrant Edward Bech hired Danish architect Detlef
Lienau to design the construction of the Bech Villa
(Rosenlund, now Marist College). Bech owned the Poughkeepsie
Iron Company and Falkill Iron Works.
1880 -- John Guy and Mathew Vassar Jr. (nephews of the founder
of Vassar Female College) incorporated the Vassar Brothers' Home for Aged Men
located on Vassar Street. The home was built on the site of Matthew Vassar's
home. His brewery was nearby. (It now houses the Cunneen-Hackett Cultural
Center.)
1882 -- Mathew Vassar Jr. left money for a hospital.
1882-1920 -- John C. Sickley, who served during WWI, was the city
library director.
1883 -- The Brinckerhoff House was the home of Captain John J.
Brinckerhoff, captain of the steamer
Mary Powell.
1884 -- The first electric lights were installed in
Poughkeepsie.
1884 -- The main building of the Vassar Brothers' Hospital built
on Reade Place. It became the then largest and most well-equipped
hospital between New York City and Albany.
1886 -- The Hudson River State Hospital established the first
school of nursing in Dutchess County.
1888 -- Christ Church moved to Academy Street (where it still is)
making room for the 1891 Armory.
1888 – Construction of the Railroad bridge over the Hudson began.
1888 – A number of Italians immigrants arrived mainly to work on
the Central New England Railroad.
1889 -- The Poughkeepsie Railroad Bridge was completed. The
bridge was designed by architects,
Charles Macdonald
and
Arthur B. Paine. The bridge
is now the Walkway Over the Hudson, the longest pedestrian walkway in the world.
1891 -- The Armory was
erected at the corner of Market and Church Streets.
1892 -- W. W. Smith purchased property on College Hill and gave it
to the city for a public park.
1894 -- The trolley system was converted to electricity.
1895-1947 -- Intercollegiate regattas were held on the Hudson
River during this time.
1897 -- William Hopkins Young, Poughkeepsie socialite, lawyer and
director of Farmers' and Manufacturers' Bank, helped found the Dutchess Golf
Club. John E. Adriance, of the Adriance Memorial Library, was its first
president.
1898 -- The new Adriance Memorial Library on Market Street was completed.
(John C. Sickley, city library director, oversaw every construction
detail.) The name of the library honored John P. Adriance, a local
industrialist, and his family. The Adriance family is still involved in
the administration of the library.
About 1900 -- Governor Theodore Roosevelt declared the Governor
Clinton office house an historic site.
(Continued...)
Jim Bennett
