150 years of theater, music & film history at the Bardavon
It was slated for demolition in 1975, to be replaced with a parking lot. Fortunately, community preservation activists rallied to save the historic building.
Local History
John Bartram: botanist to kings and Catskills
The eminent Swedish botanist and zoologist Carl Linnaeus, father of modern taxonomy, called Bartram “the greatest natural botanist in the world.” And aristocrats eagerly awaited the arrival of their “Bartram’s Boxes”: bundles of seeds, saps and specimens shipped from North America. What brought him to the Catskills?
Whaling’s surprising Hudson River heyday
One wouldn’t think that people in the business of hunting whales far out at sea would ever have imagined Hudson to be an auspicious place to set up shop. But they did, beginning in 1783, just as the Revolutionary War was drawing to a close.
The summerhouses of Mohonk: Paying tribute to a Shawangunk icon
Mohonk’s summerhouses were originally fashioned by “rustic carpenters”: farmers mostly, with good carpentry skills. The amateur artisans were instructed to use the materials they could find at hand and to use their imagination. No two are alike.
Arnold Guyot’s Catskills legacy
Guyot’s map of the Catskills radically redefined the physical and cultural understanding of the region. Before his work, the mountain known as High Peak was unanimously considered the highest in the range, and the region of the Catskill Mountain House (where the North/South Lake campground is today) was generally thought to be the only part of the Catskills of real natural and cultural interest – a misconception that the House owners had no interest in changing. Guyot set everyone straight, demoting High Peak, ultimately, to merely the 23rd-highest summit in the range and calling attention the natural treasures of Slide Mountain and the areas of the Catskills to the south and west.
Bridges not too far: A brief history of the spans that unite us
Considered by many to be the jewel of the Hudson River bridges, the Mid-Hudson Bridge was created by the famous bridge designer Ralph Modjeski. And the financing of the Rip Van Winkle Bridge is considered by many to be an innovative precursor of FDR’s New Deal economic systems.
What the New Paltz newspapers said 100 years ago
The annual meeting of the New Paltz Study Club was held Tuesday at the home of Mrs. Bowman LeFever. The following officers for the year were elected: President, Miss Cora DuBois; secretary, Mrs. Louis D. LeFevre; treasurer, Mrs. Stahl. Miss Ella McLaury had charge of the program, which consisted of readings and phonographic selections portraying the humorous side of life among the American, British and Canadian soldiers during the war.
The woman behind the New Deal: Frances Perkins symposium at FDR site in Hyde Park
Monday, April 15: Even if Frances Perkins hadn’t been the first woman ever to serve in a US presidential cabinet, or the longest-serving Secretary of Labor ever (12 years), she would still deserve a shining place in 20th-century history.
Maritime Museum celebrates a half-century of environmental activism on the Hudson, soon to publish Lighthouses of the Hudson Valley
Special preview on Friday, April 19: New exhibition marks the 50th anniversary of the launch of the Hudson River sloop Clearwater and the passing of the National Environmental Policy Act.
Mohonk Mountain House marks 150th year
Sometimes the most enduring voyages of one’s life can begin with a small, seemingly innocuous decision. Where do you want to hike today? What trail shall we take? In fact, that was the question, posed 150 years ago, that led to the creation of what is now considered one of the world’s Top Ten greatest destinations: the family-owned-and-operated Mohonk Mountain House Resort and Spa in New Paltz.
