Nations First Offical Monument to be Restored

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America’s first official monument is being disassembled, cleaned, restored and returned to its pedestal on the Broadway facade of St. Paul’s Chapel where it has presided for 223 years, it was announced by The Rev. Dr. James Cooper, the 17th Rector of the Parish of Trinity Wall Street. The first full restoration of the Montgomery monument will take place onsite and is scheduled for completion later this summer.

“The parish of Trinity Wall Street has been a part of New York City’s and our nation’s history for over three centuries. St. Paul’s and Trinity Church now draw more than 3 million visitors annually. As good stewards of our landmark properties, our obligation is to preserve the best of the past, engage the present and hopefully inform the future,” Dr. Cooper said. “The restoration of America’s first monument, commemorating the heroism of Major General Richard Montgomery in our nation’s struggle for independence, is part of that process. It is also a lively chapter in our own history,” he said.

The marble and limestone Montgomery monument was commissioned by the Continental Congress in Philadelphia in January 1776, as reported in an appreciative treatise by Henry Kent, a former Secretary to the Board of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, writing in a 1929 Trinity publication. The memorial pays tribute to the valor of Major General Richard Montgomery, who died in December 1775 at the age of 37 leading a charge against a larger British force in the Battle of Quebec. The amenable Benjamin Franklin was entrusted to have a monument fashioned in France that would transmit “to future ages, as examples truly worthy of imitation, (General Montgomery’s) patriotism, conduct (and) boldness of enterprise.” For the purpose, Congress allocated “a sum not exceeding three hundred pounds” (comparable to the value of six of the 342 chests of tea dumped into Boston harbor).

Franklin, in Paris, engaged Jean-Jacques Caffieri, a renowned sculptor who worked on Versailles and according to Franklin, “is one of the best artists here.” The completed work was shipped to Le Havre in 1777 in nine “strong” cases in preparation for the risky voyage to America. Caffieri complained about his fee and Franklin, while extolling “the beauty of the marble and the elegant simplicity of the design,” noted that he (Franklin) had “to pay the additional charges of package.”

According to Henry Kent, the pragmatic Franklin took precautions should the French ship become an enemy prize, writing to a connected British business friend, “If (the monument) should fall into the hands of any of your cruisers, I expect you will exert yourself to get it restored to us, because I know the generosity of your temper, which likes to do handsome things, as well as to make returns.”

The monument arrived safely, but not in Philadelphia. It was sent to Edenton, North Carolina, entrusted to Joseph Hewes, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and considered by many the first Secretary of the Navy. The port of Edenton was one of the few remaining American held custom houses. And there the Montgomery monument lingered.

During this period, Franklin wrote to John Jay, then to Robert Livingston (Montgomery’s brother-in-law) and again in 1786 to John Jay regarding the monument, asking “what is become of it?” He noted that in the opinion of some “republics are noticeably ungrateful…and letting the Monument lie eight years unpacked, if true, seems rather a confirmation of it.”

While Franklin received no replies, unknown to him notice had been taken&#8211perhaps in response to his earlier letter to Livingston&#8211when a member of the New York Congressional delegation offered a resolution, which Congress adopted, for the monument to be sent from North Carolina to New York City. The New York State legislature adopted a similar resolution saying City officials should decide on its exact location. But still the monument did not move.

The leisurely bureaucratic pace seems finally to have been stirred by Mrs. Montgomery from her estate in Rhinebeck enlisting the aid of a prominent jurist and former governor of North Carolina to actually get the monument shipped. Ultimately, the monument was transferred to New York with St. Paul’s being the unanimous site chosen by the City’s Board of Aldermen, and the Trinity vestry agreeing in 1787 on the chapel’s east wall window. The following year, as a side note, the city asked the state to repay the ?171.7 it had spent on erecting the monument.

The monument was installed by Pierre L’Enfant, who subsequently gained fame planning Washington, DC. L’Enfant also created a unique double-sided work of art at the rear, great window of the chapel. It functions as an altarpiece that blocks the view of the unfinished back of the Montgomery monument that could otherwise be seen by worshippers through the chapel window, and which also functions as a frame for the monument when viewed from the exterior. Interestingly, the frame contains post-Independence symbols, including a rising sun with thirteen rays and a bald eagle, draping the pre-Independence memorial.

Finally, in 1818, at Mrs. Montgomery’s further request, the General’s body was shipped from Quebec. The widow, standing on the balcony of her Rhinebeck home overlooking the Hudson, watched the steamer pass by, carrying the General to be re-interred at St Paul’s, the monument becoming a tomb. An imposing funeral was held for General Montgomery with full military honors and choral music on July 8, 1818—43 years after his fatal assault on Quebec.

The baroque and rococo style marble and limestone monument depicts the General’s virtues rather than his physical form. Various trophies symbolize liberty, strength, chivalry and martyrdom, and there are also carvings of a plowshare, a martyr’s palm frond supporting a liberty cap, a Herculean club, an oak branch and a broken sword.

Time, the elements, cement, paint drippings and problems from corrosive agents used in early prior repairs have caused discoloration, cracks and surface deterioration. The full restoration, the first since its installation, will remove the drippings and corrosive agents, make repairs using sympathetic and compatible materials (including a version of 18th century grout), where needed replace missing marble and limestone from the same quarries (with the help of the present head architect of Versailles) and refresh painted areas.

Non-destructive cleaning and compatible repair methods will be employed to reveal and stabilize the original stone while an invisible coating will be applied in select locations to provide protection from the weather and harmful salts from bird droppings.

Glenn Boornazian, president and principal conservator of Integrated Conservation Resources, is undertaking the restoration for Trinity Wall Street.

About Trinity Wall Street

Located at the head of Wall Street, Trinity Church has been part of New York City’s and our nation’s history since its charter in 1697. Today, the organization has grown to include many important areas of focus and is collectively known as Trinity Wall Street. Most importantly, Trinity Wall Street is an Episcopal parish offering daily worship services and faith formation programs at Trinity Church, St. Paul’s Chapel, and online at trinitywallstreet.org. In addition, Trinity Wall Street includes Trinity Grants, providing $80 million in funding to 85 countries since 1972- Trinity Preschool- Trinity Institute, an annual theological conference- an extensive arts program presenting more than
100 concerts each year through Concerts @ One, the Trinity Choir, and the Trinity Choristers- and Trinity Real Estate, which manages the parish’s six million square feet of commercial real estate in lower Manhattan.

About St. Paul’s Chapel

Opened in 1766, St. Paul’s Chapel is Manhattan’s oldest public building in continuous use &#8211 a place where George Washington worshiped and 9/11 recovery workers received round-the-clock care. Part of the Episcopal Parish of Trinity Church, St. Paul’s is a center for worship and the arts, a community of reconciliation, and a place of pilgrimage for all people.

Photo: Montgomery Monument. Courtesy Leah Reddy &#8211 Trinity Wall Street.

Books: The War of 1812 in the Champlain Valley

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As the 200th anniversary approaches, there will be a steady stream of new books about the War of 1812. But for readers interested in the effects of the war on the ground in the Champlain Valley, there remains just one foundational text, now available for the first time in paper by Syracuse University Press. Although first issued in 1981, Allan S. Everest’s The War of 1812 in the Champlain Valley is still required reading for those hoping to understand the Plattsburgh campaign, considered critical to the war.

The War of 1812, ranks with the often overlooked American conflicts of the 19th century, but unlike the Mexican-American War (1846-1848) or the Spanish-American War (1898-1902), the War of 1812 really was a Second War for Independence. America stood at the other side of Britain’s own Manifest Destiny, the homes, farms, property, and lives of Americans in the Champlain Valley stood in the middle.


The first months of 1814 spelled gloom for America, then only 35 years old. The war against England was stalled. The British continued to kidnap and impress American for service on their warships. They supported Native Americans who attacked outposts and settlements on the American frontier. American harbors were blockaded by the British and New England, never sympathetic with the narrow vote of Congress for war, had become openly hostile and was threatening to secede.

Still worse, Napoleon had been defeated in Europe and Britain could now devote more time and effort to America. The British saw an opportunity to split the new American republic and once again take control of sections of the young colonies. The bold plan called for a combined army and naval strike at Plattsburgh, followed by a drive down the lake and through the Hudson Valley to New York City, splitting the colonies in two. The Americans saw that opportunity too.

The Navy Department contracted Noah Brown, one of New York’s finest shipwrights, to build a fleet to protect the way south from Canada along Lake Champlain. In less than two months, Brown constructed, armed, and launched a total of six of war ships: Allen, Borer, Burrows, Centipede, Nettie, and Viper. With the help of the small Vermont town of Vergennes and its iron foundry that could supply spikes, bolts, and shot, and it’s water-powered sawmills, and surrounding forests filled with white oak and pine for ship timber, Brown built the 26-gun flagship Saratoga, in just 40 days, and commandeered the unfinished steamboat and completed it as the 17-gun schooner Ticonderoga.

Vastly out-manned and outgunned on both land and sea, a rag tag inexperienced group of 1,500 Americans commanded by Capt. Thomas Macdonough met the greatest army and naval power on earth. Because of a serious shortage of sailors for his fleet, he drafted U.S. Army soldiers, band musicians, and convicts serving on an army chain gang to man the ships.

Their leader Macdonough had some experience. He had served against the Barbary pirates in North Africa, but two decades of warfare had given the British considerably more experience. It had for instance, led to the promotion of officers by merit, rather than by purchase or birth. As a result the British forces were the best trained and most experienced in the world and they enjoyed the backing of the world’s greatest military power. Sir George Prevost led the large British army and its fleet into New York and down Lake Champlain to meet the Americans. But what happened that September 11th no one could have predicted.

By the end of the day, the U.S. had achieved the complete and unconditional surrender of the entire British fleet and the full retreat of all British land forces. More importantly, the American victory at Plattsburgh helped persuade the British to end the war.

That’s the bigger story, but the local story is the strength of Allan Everest’s history. As a professor of history at SUNY Plattsburgh, and the author of Moses Hazen and the Canadian Refugees in the American Revolution, Our North Country Heritage, and the seminal book on the region’s prohibition history drawn from local interviewees, Rum Across the Border, Everest had a grasp of the topography of the region’s political, social, and cultural history.

Over some two and a half years, the region saw armies raised, defeated, and disbanded, including their own militia, which was repeatedly called out to protect the border areas and to serve under regular army units. Everest catalogs the political and military rivalries, and the series of disheartening defeats, loss of life, and destruction of property and markets resiliently borne by local people, who were forced to flee when battle threatened, and returned to rebuild their lives.

2001&#8242-s The Final Invasion: Plattsburgh, the War of 1812’s Most Decisive Victory painted with a broader brush and suffered criticism for misunderstanding the Plattsburgh campaign. As a result, Everest’s 30-year-old work &#8211 despite its age &#8211 is still the definitive work on the impact of the War of 1812 on northern New York.

Note: Books noticed on this site have been provided by the publishers. Purchases made through this Amazon link help support this site.

This Weeks Top New York History News

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Each Friday morning New York History compiles for our readers the previous week’s top stories about New York’s state and local history. You can find all our weekly news round-ups here.

Subscribe! More than 1,200 people get New York History each day via E-Mail, RSS, or Twitter or Facebook updates.

This Weeks New York History Web Highlights

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Each Friday afternoon New York History compiles for our readers a collection of the week’s top weblinks about New York’s state and local history. You can find all our weekly round-ups here.

Subscribe! More than 1,200 people get New York History each day via E-Mail, RSS, or Twitter or Facebook updates.

JFK Program at Society for Ethical Culture

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It’s been fifty years since John F. Kennedy was inaugurated as the nation’s 35th president, yet his specter remains ever present in the American consciousness. In conversation with Bob Herbert, celebrated biographer Robert Dallek examines the trials and tribulations Kennedy faced during his political career—obstacles that are surprisingly resonant to issues facing our current president—including the Cold War, conflict in Southeast Asia, and the resistance he faced in passing domestic policy.

Robert Dallek is the author of An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy, 1917-1963 and the new book John F. Kennedy, and is a Pulitzer Prize finalist. Bob Herbert (moderator) is an op-ed columnist for The New York Times. He is the author of Promises Betrayed: Waking Up from the American Dream.

During the New-York Historical Society’s major renovation project (from April 2010 – November 2011) the Bernard and Irene Schwartz Distinguished Speakers Series will be presented at the New York Society for Ethical Culture at 2 West 64th Street at Central Park West.

Date: May 24 2011 6:30 PM
Full Price Ticket (Non-Members): $20.00
Member Cost: $10.00

Tickets for this program are sold through SmartTix. To order online visit www.smarttix.com. To order by phone please call SmartTix at 212-868-4444. The SmartTix Call Center is open 9am-8pm Monday through Friday, 10am-8pm Saturday and 10am-6pm Sunday. For more information on programs:

Please call the N-YHS Public Programs Department at 212-485-9205. Management reserves the right to refuse admission to latecomers.

The History of the 90-Miler in Rochester

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A special program, &#8220The History of the 90-Miler&#8221 will be held on May 5, 2011 in Rochester. Adirondack Museum Curator Hallie Bond will share the history of the &#822090-Miler&#8221 at the Midtown Athletic Club from 6:30 p.m. &#8211 8:00 p.m. The fee for the program is $10 per person, and includes a cocktail reception.

The &#822090-Miler&#8221 or Adirondack Canoe Classic is a canoe and guideboat race that celebrates the era of human-powered boats in the Adirondacks. The race begins in Old Forge, N.Y. and proceeds up the Fulton Chain of Lakes into Raquette Lake and on to the Saranac Lakes, finishing in the Village of Saranac Lake. In its 28th year, the event is so popular that registration is capped at 250 boats.

Special guest Nancie Battaglia will share photographs of the race, including her award winning aerial photo of the 90-miler chosen as one of Sports Illustrated&#8216-s 2009 Pictures of the Year. A renowned Lake Placid, N.Y. based photographer, Nancie Battaglia is a regular contributor to the New York Times and Adirondack Life magazine and shot the 2010 Winter Olympics in
Vancouver.

The ninety-mile water route from Old Forge to Saranac Lake forms what was known a century and a half ago as the &#8220Great Central Valley&#8221 of the Adirondacks. It was the best route through the wilderness at the time &#8211 easier travel than roads, which were distinguished by quagmires, corduroy, steep inclines, and rocks. The key to traveling via waterway was the Adirondack guideboat. The Great Central Valley is no longer the most efficient way to get through the Adirondacks, but still has tremendous appeal to people who follow it to experience the woods and waters as the original travelers did.

The Adirondack Museum invites all those who have taken part in the 90-Miler, to come and share your own stories of adventure.

Reservations must be made directly with the Midtown Athletic Club by calling (585) 461-2300.

Hallie E. Bond has been Curator at the Adirondack Museum since 1987. She has written extensively on regional history and material culture including Boats and Boating in the Adirondacks, published by Syracuse University Press in 1995 and &#8216-A Paradise for Boys and Girls’: Children’s Camps in the Adirondacks, Syracuse University Press, 2005.

Photo: Paddlers in the 90-Miler by Nancie Battaglia.

Dutchess County History Conference May 7

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The Institute of History, Archaeology, and Education (IHARE) has announced the fourth of five county history conferences in the Hudson Valley to be held this spring. The history of Dutchess County will be the focus of the conference, which will be held May 7, Greenspan Dining Room, Drumlin Building, Dutchess Community College.

Each Saturday conference brings together scholars, municipal historians, historic organizations, teachers, and lovers of history to share in the experience of the history of a region in the Hudson Valley, address the challenges in preserving that legacy, and to hear about teaching local history in our schools. We look forward to

seeing you at the next conference.

Lunch is $10 (mail check payable to IHARE to POB 41, Purchase, NY, 10577). To pre-register or for more information contact [email protected]

9:00 Welcome &#8211 D. David Conklin, President

Dutchess Community College [invited]

9:15 Students take a Trip in a Time Machine Back 7,000 Years

Stephanie Roberg-Lopez and Tom Lake

Dutchess Community College

Examine the legacy of the first human settlers in what would become Dutchess County. Explore the mysteries of Bowdoin Park. See what the students have uncovered as part of their archaeological training over the past decade. The discoveries of Native American culture dates to at least 7,000 years ago.

Stephanie Roberg-Lopez is an Associate Professor in Behavioral Sciences at Dutchess Community College where she teaches Anthropology and Archaeology. She also does cultural resource management consulting throughout New York. She has a BA in Anthropology from Columbia University and an MA in Archaeology from Yale.

Tom Lake works for the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation’s Hudson River Estuary Program as its Estuary Naturalist, where he shadows eagles, teaches the ecology of the estuary, and edits the Hudson River Almanac, a natural history journal now in its 18th year. He is an Adjunct lecturer at Dutchess Community College.

10:15 It Really Is Our History:

Dutchess County And The American Civil War

Pete Bedrossian, National Purple Heart Hall of Honor,

New York State Office Parks Recreation and Historic Preservation

Everyone knows that the Civil War occurred in the South &#8211 that’s where all the National Park Services sites are located excepted for Gettysburg! But it was the people from the North who fought in those battles and marched in those campaigns and no state contributed more than New York State. Units tended to be based on communities and the soldiers from Dutchess County were no exception to this practice. Come here the story of the 150th New York, the Dutchess County regiment.

Peter Bedrossian has studied the Civil War for 20 years as a Civil War Living Historian and re enactor. He is the military commander of the 150th New York, which is an education association chartered by the Board of Regents. His areas of focus are the 150th New York, &#8220the Dutchess County Regiment&#8221 and Civil War Medicine and Surgery. He has made presentations at Gettysburg National Battlefield Park, the Antietam National Battlefield Park, St. Paul’s National Historic Site, local libraries and historical societies as well as providing school programs throughout the region. When not in the 19th century, he preserves our history as Program Director at the National Purple Heart

Hall of Honor.

11:15 The Home Front at Roosevelt’s Home Town

Carney Rhinevault, Hyde Park Town Historian

The Home Front at Roosevelt’s Home Town tells an almost entirely forgotten story in wonderful, personal detail: the myriad ways in which people in small town America coped with the challenges, hardships and inconveniences of world war and threw themselves &#8211 every man, woman and child of them &#8211 into the effort of winning the war by

means of civic enterprise. A selection of chapter titles spells it out: &#8220airplane spotters,&#8221 &#8220blackout drills and civil defense,&#8221 &#8220home front industries,&#8221 &#8220rationing and shortages,&#8221 &#8220victory gardens,&#8221 &#8220recycling.&#8221 This book presents Anytown USA in wartime. It also tells us about the lifelong home town that was much loved by the

Commander-in-Chief. The Roosevelts pass in and out of the narrative with sufficient frequency to add celebrity flavor and worldwide resonance to the initiatives and privations of his &#8220friends and neighbors.&#8221

Carney Rhinevault is the Hyde Park Town Historian, a position once held by FDR. Rhinevault discovered a previously unpublished account of daily doings in Hyde Park and Staatsburg during eighteen months in the middle of World War II written by a career newspaper reporter Helen Myers.

12:15 Lunch

1:15 Preserving the Past in Dutchess County

Saving the Fishkill Supply Depot: A Call to Action

Lance Ashworth, President, Friends of the Fishkill Supply Depot

Over the past forty years, the overall site has been considerably damaged and fragmented by commercial development. A combination of general contemporary pressure to seek revenue from properties, regulatory, legal and procedural gaps, and historical accident have combined to produce a situation in which the 70 acres of National

Register of Historic Places-designated Fishkill Supply Depot land, or at least some parcels within it, have never come under the care of effective custodianship.

Key open space parts of the Fishkill Supply Depot complex are currently up for sale, primed for future commercial development. Still, the opportunity remains for respectful preservation and subsequent interpretation of remaining open space. The preservation of essential properties at the core of the Depot site can happen in our

time. It is to this end that we are dedicated.

The Friends of the Fishkill Supply Depot is a not-for-profit organization that advocates the permanent preservation of undeveloped acres within the Fishkill Supply Depot and Encampment, a Revolutionary War site that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The mission of The Friends of the Fishkill Supply Depot includes

permanent protection of the Continental Army Burial Complex within the boundaries of the Fishkill Supply Depot, stringent archaeological review of development projects that may affect the site, preservation of archaeological resources associated with the Fishkill Supply Depot during the Revolutionary period, and the future interpretation of the historic site for public benefit.

Restoring the Beacon Railway

Anne Lynch, Mount Beacon Incline Railway Restoration Society

Founded in 1996, the Mount Beacon Incline Railway Restoration Society consists of members from across the Hudson Valley and beyond. This diverse organization is united in its efforts to restore, operate and preserve an integral piece of American industrial, engineering, transportation and leisure history. Incline railway service to the summit of Mount Beacon will offer the public unparalleled vistas and scenic beauty. The Incline Railway will serve as a living museum and centerpiece asset in the restoration of the Mount Beacon summit as a scenic, historic educational and recreational resource.

Anne Lynch is the president and CEO of the Mount Beacon Incline Railway Restoration Society

2:15 Dutchess County: A Community Experience

Dutchess County: A Community of Pots and Transportation

George Lukacs, Poughkeepsie City Historian

Upper
Landing: Bridging our Past and Future in Poughkeepsie

Jolanda Jensen and Nancy Cozean

Restoring a Village Green, Renewing a Community

The Pawling Green Project

Nancy Tanner, Bill McGuinness, and Karen Zukowski

Historic Resource Surveys:

Planning Tool for Communities in the 21st Century

Kathleen Howe, New York State Historic Preservation Office

Historic resource surveys help raise awareness about historic and cultural resources, provide useful information for municipal planners, developers and property owners, and help protect these resources, providing critical baseline information about historic resources in a specific area. Learn about the State Historic Preservation Office’s

(SHPO) recent efforts to enhance survey efforts throughout New York State.

Kathleen Howe is the Survey and Evaluation Unit Coordinator for the New York State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO), part of the Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation (OPRHP). She holds a M.A. in Architectural History and Certificate in Historic Preservation from the University of Virginia. After graduation, she worked in the planning unit of the Peak National Park in the United Kingdom as part of the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS)

internship program. Before joining the SHPO staff, Ms. Howe worked for ten years at Bero Architecture in Rochester, New York preparing historic structure reports and surveys. She also worked for a non-profit preservation organization in Rochester as curator of two historic house museums. She began working for the SHPO in 1999 as

National Register representative for the New York City territory, working with property owners and interested citizens in listing properties to the State and National Registers of Historic Places. Under Ms. Howe’s guidance over 200 listings (both individual properties and historic districts) were added to the Registers

encompassing over 4,100 properties from skyscrapers and industrial complexes to brownstone row houses and synagogues. She has shepherded through a number of State and National Register nominations that represent the diverse architectural and cultural landscape of New York City including historic districts for the Lower East Side, Chinatown and Little Italy, Gansevoort Market, Garment Center, Sugar Hill, and

Wall Street, among others. She completed the nomination of over 65 subway stations in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the NYC Subway System. Ms. Howe has recently spent time evaluating several properties from the recent past including Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, the Look Building, the TWA Terminal, and the World Trade Center site. She is a frequent guest lecturer at Columbia University’s Historic Preservation graduate program. Since February 2011, Ms. Howe has been head of the SHPO’s newly formed Survey and Evaluation Unit which is responsible for the identification and evaluation of historic properties in New York State as required by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 and the New York State Historic Preservation Act of 1980.

3:45 Municipal Historian Roundtable: Education and Cultural Tourism

Mary Kay Vrba, Dutchess County Tourism

Mary Kay Vrba CTP, Director of Tourism for Dutchess County has more than 25 years of tourism experience and has the responsibility for marketing Dutchess County as vacation destination. Mary Kay’s job responsibilities include sales and marketing for all publications printed by DC tourism, she oversaw the visitor profile study, grant

writer for tourism agency, new product development and the day-to-day-aspects of the agency.

Mary Kay currently serves as President of Hudson Valley Tourism and past President of the NYS TPA Council, Instructor at NYU at the Tisch Center for Tourism, Hospitality and Sports Management, and serves on Eleanor Roosevelt Center at Valkill Board of Directors

Mary Kay has a master degree from George Williams College in Downers Grove Illinois in Leisure and Environmental Resource

4:15 Dutchess County School/Historic Organization Collaborations

Peter Feinman, Institute of History, Archaeology, and Education, moderator

Teaching Dutchess County History: A High School Experience –

Shaun Boyce, Arlington High School

Shaun Boyce has been teaching social studies at Arlington High School since 2000. Although he has developed course curricula at Dutchess Community College and Marist College, Hudson River Heritage is his first truly original course for a high school audience. He?ll discuss the challenges and rewards of teaching about the Hudson River Valley.

Trunks to Interns: Teaching Local History

Betsy Kopstein, Executive Director of the DC Historical Society

Memories of a Community: Seniors to Seniors Oral History Project

Sandra Vacchio, President

Wappingers Historical Society

The Wappingers Historical Society, in collaboration with Robert Wood, Instructor of The Roy C. Ketcham High School Broadcast Arts Class, has documented stories of the past as told to us by long time Wappingers residents. Each Monday night, throughout March, a different program featuring the reflections of lifelong Wappingers residents was presented. &#8220his has been an incredible opportunity for the students here at RCK,&#8221 says, Robert Wood, art educator. &#8220This has truly been a cooperative educational experience and a terrific interaction between students and community. Students filmed and edited these interviews. All involved are very excited about the final products.&#8221 An ongoing effort to save history through various mediums, additional video and audio interviews are now in production. One can visit the website at www.wappingershistoricalsociety.org to see photo, post card and glass negative galleries.

Union College to Aquire Adirondack Library

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Union College has entered into an agreement with the private conservation group Protect the Adirondacks! (PROTECT) to purchase a building complex in Niskayuna that includes the former home of the noted Adirondack conservationist Paul Schaefer (1908-1996) and a modern addition that houses the Adirondack Research Library.

The decision to acquire the two-acre property on St. David’s Lane and preserve and expand its use as an educational learning center &#8220reaffirms and builds upon the College’s long connection to the Adirondacks,&#8221 college officials said in a prepared statement.

“This is an exceptional opportunity to provide a home for and advance the College’s curricular and co-curricular offerings related to mountains, wilderness and waterways in general and to the Adirondacks in particular,” said College President Stephen C. Ainlay. An anonymous donor has made it possible for the College to purchase the property.

The property is located on a two-acre parcel of land, three miles from the Union College campus, adjacent to the adjacent 111-acre H. G. Reist Wildlife Sanctuary, which is stewarded by the Hudson-Mohawk Bird Club. The complex includes a 2,400 square-foot Dutch replica home built by Schaefer in 1934 used for offices and meetings and a 3,900 square-foot addition completed in 2005 that houses additional offices, conference rooms, and the Adirondack Research Library.

The library, which contains more than 15,000 volumes, as well as extensive collections of maps, photographs, documents and the personal papers of some of the region’s foremost conservationists, was the creation of Paul Schaefer. The building is surrounded by award-winning perennial gardens that have been maintained by Garden Explorers of Niskayuna and a bluestone amphitheatre used for public lectures and musical events.

PROTECT was incorporated in 2009 following the consolidation of the Association for the Protection of the Adirondacks with which Schaefer was associated for many years and the Residents’ Committee to Protect the Adirondacks. &#8220PROTECT has elected to focus its activities within the Adirondack Park, prompting the organization to begin exploring appropriate uses for the building and protection of the highly respected library,&#8221 the College’s statement said.

President Ainlay noted that Schaefer once taught a course on the Adirondacks at the College and in 1979 was awarded doctor of science degree for his conservation efforts. Union alumni and members of the faculty have been involved in the Adirondacks for well over a century. Numerous faculty members have conducted research in the Adirondacks and incorporated it into their courses. The College also has hosted a number of academic conferences and symposia centered on the Adirondacks, and the six-million-acre Adirondack Park is a destination for student field trips.

The College will explore collaborative partnerships with other colleges and universities involved with the Adirondacks, as well as museums and preservation groups the statement said.

According to David Quinn, treasurer of PROTECT, when the transaction is complete the Adirondack Research Library will be transferred intact to the College on permanent loan, to be managed by Union’s Schaffer Library.

“Union College will provide the quality of stewardship the place deserves,” said Quinn. “The building and library and the history they represent will be associated with a first-rate institution of higher learning and the public and park will be the ultimate beneficiaries.”

Boscobel Offers Free Westchester County Day

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On Sunday, May 1, simply show proof of your Westchester residency and admission to Boscobel House & Gardens is free. It’s a wonderful opportunity to get to know one of the Hudson Valley’s most interesting historic sites.

Set upon 68 acres of landscaped grounds, Boscobel House contains a collection of furniture and decorative arts from the Federal period. Collections include rare china and glassware, antique books and fine art, including a Benjamin West painting. An exhibition about the rescue and restoration of Boscobel may also be seen in the Visitors Center at the Carriage House.

In addition to a house tour, guests are invited to stroll Boscobel’s grounds & gardens and to admire vistas of the Hudson River and its Highlands. For the more adventurous, a 1.25-mile Woodland Trail offers forest paths that include a summerhouse pavilion, a wooden footbridge and scenic overlooks. Bring your camera, pack a picnic and use this special offer as your chance to get to know Putnam County’s renowned Boscobel House & Gardens.

Located on scenic Route 9D in Garrison New York, Boscobel is just one mile south of Cold Spring and directly across the river from West Point. From April through October, hours are 9:30am to 5pm (first tour at 10am, last at 4pm). The House Museum and distinctive Gift Shop at Boscobel are open every day except Tuesdays, May 15, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. For more information, visit Boscobel.org or call 845.265.3638.

Schoharie: Canals during the Civil War Exhibit

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The Schoharie Crossing Visitor Center is presenting a temporary exhibit entitled “Canals during the Civil War” in celebration of the 150th anniversary of the Civil War. This small exhibit opens May 4th and runs through October 29. The exhibit includes photos and maps of the Erie Canal, the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal and Grant’s Canal near Vicksburg. The exhibit can be viewed during regular Visitor Center hours.

New York State had a profound impact on the outcome of the Civil War and the Erie Canal was the reason. The factories and companies found in canal towns like Utica, Ilion and New York City helped the war effort in many ways. The Erie Canal was used for stops on the Underground Railroad and served as a link economically, socially and politically between the Midwest and the Northern Atlantic States. The C & O Canal was in the heart of the fighting and was considered the “lifeline of the Union Army.” The Confederates repeated tried to stop navigation on the C & O Canal. Grant’s Vicksburg Campaign included an attempt to build a canal in order to by-pass the city of Vicksburg and thus having an impact on the outcome of the campaign.

A traveling outreach program is also available to coincide with this exhibit. The fee for this outreach program is $30 for any adult group or $1 per student. Recommended places include but are not limited to schools, libraries, senior centers, scout troops, home schooled groups, and historical societies. To make arrangements for scheduling an outreach program, please contact Tricia Shaw at (518) 829-7516 or email [email protected].

For more information, please call the Visitor Center at (518) 829-7516 or visit their website at www.nysparks.com or Friend them on Facebook.