Nearly 70 people gathered together under an angry sun on May 31 on a wide, grassy common area of the Stuyvesant Charter Apartments in Kingston. They were there to witness a renaming ceremony.
Out was Peter Stuyvesant, the peg-legged Dutchman for whom the apartment complex was named, was an enthusiastic proponent of slavery and a notorious anti-Semite.
“Not the kind of guy you want to name your housing complex after,” said Kingston Common Council member and treasurer of the Kingston Housing Authority (KHA) Rennie Scott-Childress. “When we began to renovate, we thought this would be the perfect time to change the name.”
It will soon be named The Leonard and Vera Van Dyke Apartments.
A collaborative of public servants and representatives of private business and non-profits stood in sports coats and stylish dresses, mingling in the leafy shade cast by a large maple tree. Private citizens found the heat made bearable under a wide white tent under which tables and chairs had been prepared and a cool breeze meandered.
Members of the prolific Van Dyke family were given prominent seating in front of a podium where a pastor, a reverend, Kingston mayor Steve Noble, chief county diversity officer Esi Lewis, state director of public housing Luigi D’Ancona and other dignitaries would soon be giving speeches.
The African-American family with a Dutch last name looks upon Leonard and Vera as the wellspring from which they flow. Between the two of them eleven children sprang forth. And then the next generation did its part. And so on.
How many Van Dykes are there? Richard Van Dyke, the third child born to Vera and Leonard, couldn’t say.
“That’s a good question,” said Richard Van Dyke. “I never really took a headcount, but there’s a good many of us.”
Sensible to the sunlight, Richard Van Dyke alone among the crowd wears a white linen suit.
Born in 1947, Richard served his country in Vietnam, returning in time to take in the 1969 Woodstock scene.
“Still know I have a love for Kingston,” said Van Dyke. “Always have. I grew up on Stuyvesant Street and East Union Street, first of all. Yeah, that was before they tore down the houses down in that section.”
He was referring to the orgy of eminent-domain-backed property confiscations known as urban renewal. The resultant demolition of which was a controversial subject in the Van Dyke household. Reaching a high-water mark in 1969, the program was the impetus to the tearing down of hundreds of housing units in Kingston. Entire blocks were destroyed, the physical history gone forever.
Politically conscious, Richard’s parents were also deeply involved in the civil rights movement and held Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) meetings in their home.
As it would happen, Leonard Van Dyke became the first African American elected a common council member in the City of Kingston.
“Lenny was a powerhouse,” said the reverend James B. Childs, recalling the man to the crowd. “He didn’t need a job. He was there because there was work to be done.”
According to a pamphlet provided by the KHA, the property now named after Vera and Leonard was originally developed over 40 years ago, with the KHA acquiring ownership two decades ago.
The KHA says the renaming ceremony coincides with the commencement of a comprehensive redevelopment effort to upgrade its entire housing portfolio. New bathrooms, kitchens, flooring, appliances, new windows and roofs among other things.
The improvements have been made possible because of four-percent low-income tax credits, tax-exempt bonds, a subordinate loan by JP Morgan Chase, reinvestment from the KHA itself, and a 32-year-long payment in lieu of taxes (Pilot) granted the housing authority by the common council of Kingston in April 2022.
“We’re to thank god for the $50 million from the federal and state government,” reverend Childs advised the crowd.
Details describing how the KHA came to choose its development partner, the construction and development corporation Mountco of White Plains, are scarce. It is a matter of public record that when the KHA first released its request for qualifications to identify a development partner for the renovation of the 120-unit apartment complex in August 2019. Mountco had already registered an LLC with the name Stuyvesant Apartment Owners in June 2018.
Speaking before the audience, KHA chairman Joe McDole, Jr. noted that the KHA considers it its mission to provide safe and affordable housing for low-and-very-low-income residents.
The 75-year track record of the agency proved that, he said. “We’ll make sure that’s what on that paper stays on that paper,” said McDole. “We don’t believe in controversy. We believe in clear water, not murky water.”
Chairman McDole may have been responding to an entreaty made at the podium by county chief diversity officer, Esi M. Lewis. “Please listen to the residents,” said Lewis, “and make sure no one is displaced during this redevelopment.”
The KHA owns 51 percent of the property. Mountco owns the rest.
When all the speakers had exhausted the occasion, there still remained two signs mounted on brick and covered in vinyl cloth to be revealed. Members of the Van Dyke family gathered on either side while all the cameras were made ready to record the moment when Stuyvesant’s name would be forgotten and the sign for the Leonard and Vera Van Dyke Apartments would greet all arrivals.
Join the family! 
