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Chronogram Magazine - October 01, 2010 - Capital One: Kingston http://www.chronogram.com/issue/2010/10/Community+Pages...
Community Pages
Capital One: Kingston
by Peter Aaron and photographs by Natalie Keyssar, September 28, 2010
It’s a safe
guess there’ve
been more than
a few bar-side
conversations
in downtown
Manhattan
nightclubs that
went
something like
this:
“You’re from
Kingston?
That’s weird,
you don’t
sound
Memorials to Korean and Vietnam war veterans in front of City Hall on Broadway in
Jamaican.”
Kingston.
“Uh…”
It’s a frustrating reoccurrence for Kingston, New York, natives, to say the least. But likely
nonetheless. For despite its being one of America’s oldest and, at one time, largest and most important
cities, the 359-year-old municipality remains far less known than its similarly named Caribbean
cousin. In point of fact, many who live just beyond Kingston’s surrounding 100-mile radius seem to
have never even heard of the town. Which is certainly perplexing, given that the city is home to
25,000 inhabitants, is the seat of 1,160-square-mile Ulster County, and was for generations a center of
industry and shipping in the Northeast. It seems the decline of Kingston’s once prominent profile
began in the 1980s, when, as in innumerable other US cities, the majority of its manufacturers headed
elsewhere; doomsayers assumed the coffin lid was closed when the nearby IBM plant moved its 5,000
workers south in 1995. But, as savvier individuals will tell you, in crisis lies opportunity. And, thanks
to its affordable housing and the vast crop of raw space available within its former factories, over the
last decade Kingston has become a magnet for families and artists fleeing downstate congestion,
gentrification, and soaring rents and real estate prices.
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Chronogram Magazine - October 01, 2010 - Capital One: Kingston http://www.chronogram.com/issue/2010/10/Community+Pages...
“When your economy takes a downturn, you don’t just throw up your hands, you figure out what you
have to promote and you focus on that,” says City of Kingston Mayor James Sottile. “So [city leaders]
are working to promote tourism, and so much of that has been helped by the great arts community we
have here, which I’m personally very proud of. And also by the fact that Kingston is so rich in
history.”
A Tale of Three Cities
Yes, history. Much of it. Kingston was the first capital of New York State, having been founded by the
Dutch in 1651, who called the outpost Esopus, after one of the local Indian tribes. In 1777 the
growing village was recast as the site of the new state’s government when Albany, the intended center
of leadership, was under threat of attack by the British. In a cruel twist of irony, the Redcoats invaded
Kingston that same year and burned many of its buildings, although today dozens of the town’s early
stone houses—including the 1676 Senate House, which was the original functioning capitol building
and now has a nearby museum—continue to serve as businesses and homes. (The intersection of John
and Crown Streets in the city’s Uptown district is said to be the only spot in the entire US on which all
four original stone buildings still stand.) Besides being an active participant in the American
Revolution and a major river port during the 19th-century canal and steamboat era, the burg supplied
most of the bluestone and cement that built New York City.
Kingston has three diverse business districts—Uptown, Midtown, and the Rondout—making it feel
like three cities in one, each with its own distinctive vibe. Tying them all together to work as one, in
terms of marketing, is Nancy Donskoj, who manages the Business Alliance of Kingston’s Main Street
Program. “Kingston is one of only 26 cities in the US to implement its own Main Street Program,
which is a concept that came into being when people realized that their downtowns were struggling
economically because businesses had relocated to outlying malls and big-box stores,” she explains.
“The Main Street Program’s job is to present Kingston as a whole to tourists and potential residents.”
Under the alliance’s banner Donskoj oversees individual business associations for each of the three
sections; runs the volunteer-based organization’s own website, as well as its culturally themed
Kingston Happenings site; and arranges citywide events like the recent Kingston Clean Sweep
beautification program.
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Chronogram Magazine - October 01, 2010 - Capital One: Kingston http://www.chronogram.com/issue/2010/10/Community+Pages...
Diners at the recently opened Boitson’s restaurant on North Front Street in
Kingston’s Uptown district.
Safe in the Stockade
With the eight-block area known as the Stockade at its heart, Uptown is the oldest of Kingston’s three
districts. It has the city’s highest concentration of historic stone buildings and a skyline dominated by
the steeple of the Old Dutch Church (built in 1852 and, legend has it, home to a hobgoblin), whose
surrounding cemetery contains the grave of the state’s first governor, George Clinton. The
neighborhood is defined by the quaint covered sidewalks that line its streets, which are dotted with art
galleries, coffeehouses, music and book vendors, and unique shops like quirky gift emporium Bop to
Tottom and haberdashery and blues CD outlet Blue-Byrd’s. Foodies get their fill at the seasonal
farmers market (Saturdays from May through November), as well as at the quarter’s many restaurants
and Fleisher’s Grass-Fed and Organic Meats, which opened in 2004.
“We chose Uptown as our location because we loved the look of the area and the fact that it’s within
20 minutes of our customers in Rhinebeck, Stone Ridge, New Paltz, and Woodstock,” says Fleisher’s
Jessica Applestone, who co-owns the business with her husband Joshua Applestone. “It’s right off the
Thruway and close to routes 28 and 209.” Such has been Fleisher’s success that the Applestones have
acquired space in the building next door, where they plan to expand their thriving eight-week butchery
training program and open a luncheonette serving dishes made with their locally sourced meats.
Uptown is also the site of yearly Wall Street Jazz Festival and the Hudson Valley Lesbian, Gay,
Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ) Community Center, and is a prime barhopping
destination thanks to happening hostelries like tapas and wine bar Elephant, the newly opened
Stockade Tavern, and performance space 323 Wall Street (formerly Backstage Studio Productions).
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Chronogram Magazine - October 01, 2010 - Capital One: Kingston http://www.chronogram.com/issue/2010/10/Community+Pages...
“[323 Wall Street] is working with several programmers to host live music, theatrical productions, a
dance school for children and adults, even yoga classes,” says Sevan Melikyan, who assumed control
of the venue in August. “We have an upstairs dance studio, the smaller Wall Space room and bar up
front, and a huge 1872 vaudeville theater in the back, which always blows people away when they
first see it.” Melikyan is excited about the club’s upcoming events, which include the Halloween
Zombie Bash on October 30. (One can’t help but wonder what ghosts may be lurking in the tunnels
beneath the building, supposedly a stop on the Underground Railroad, that night.) On nearby Front
Street is Snapper Magee’s, an alternative music haunt and favorite hub of punk bicycle club the Dusty
Spokes.
Midtown Makeover
On warmer nights the Dusty Spokes pedal over to Midtown to hit the city’s other main punk rock
club, the Basement, and, just around the corner on St. James Street, microbrewery Keegan Ales,
which books a broader range of live music (jazz, blues, Americana, and classic rock) and dispenses
and exports three award-winning beers from within its 1830s brick walls. “The City of Kingston has
been very helpful to us,” says Tommy Keegan, who co-owns the operation with his father. “Mayor
Sottile and the other government people really wanted us here, they held the land for us and did a lot
to help with tax credits and other economic aid. I love being in Midtown, I actually live right next
door [to the brewery]. It’s one of the last affordable places in the region.”
What’s keeping Midtown real estate inexpensive for the present are the aftereffects of its 1970s urban
business exodus. While the area has admittedly struggled with crime and vice for decades
—reportedly, it was a center for brewing of the, shall we say, less legal variety during Prohibition
—Midtown’s streetscape of one-time factory and department store buildings offers the perfect stage
for the space-seeking artists and businesses now formulating its renaissance. Examples include
tech-media complex the Seven21 Media Center, the tellingly named multi-arts Shirt Factory, which
houses composer Pauline Oliveros’s Deep Listening Space, and several small galleries. But when it
comes to (literally) perfect stages, the prize goes to Midtown’s anchor of renewal, the Ulster
Performing Arts Center (UPAC). Situated at 601 Broadway, the historic movie and vaudeville house
opened as the Broadway Theater in 1927. Saved from demolition in 1977, it was taken over by the
directors of Poughkeepsie’s Bardavon Theater in 2006 and presents top acts in the fields of music,
dance, comedy, and other entertainment; everything from the Pixies to “The Nutcracker” to Garrison
Keillor. “The [theater’s] acoustics are really good because of the rounded walls—there’s not a bad seat
in the house,” says UPAC/Bardavon’s director, Chris Silva. “We’ve done $2 million worth of
renovation and we’re working to raise the $3 million needed for completion. The theater’s definitely
had a great impact here, and our membership is soaring. It really feels like Midtown is coming back,
especially when we have shows and you see all of the restaurants packed.” The projected
redevelopment of the neighboring King’s Inn property into a multiple-use community space promises
further rebirth for Midtown.
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A boat on the rondout creek at sunset along Kingston’s waterfront.
Down in the Rondout
We now follow Broadway south to Kingston’s remaining district, the Rondout, another neighborhood
with a historic—and salty—past. Lying along the shore of the Rondout Creek, a Hudson River
estuary, the settlement began as a village named for its nearby Dutch fort, or “redoubt,” and is rich
with striking brick buildings constructed during its 19th-century heyday as a key shipping center.
Once the tough realm of canal diggers, ice cutters, dockworkers, brick makers, and brewers, the area
was a city unto itself before being incorporated with Kingston proper in 1872. By the 1960s and ’70s
blight had set in, but in the ’90s urban pioneers and restaurateurs began arriving to revitalize the
neighborhood’s West Strand block, making the Rondout into the buzzing nightlife zone it is today. In
addition to many fine eateries, the Trolley Museum of New York, and the Hudson River Maritime
Museum, the area features an array of inns and antique stores and the nearby Rondout Lighthouse.
Being a waterfront, the locality naturally boasts several marinas. “[The Rondout] is located halfway
between New York and the locks leading into the Erie and Champlain canals,” says Kingston City
Marina Dock Master and Harbor Master Scott Herrington. “Kingston City Marina alone has 70 slips,
and a lot of our patrons are boat owners who summer in the Great Lakes region and winter in the
Caribbean.”
Besides being the perfect place for seasonal outdoor events like the Irish heritage celebration Hooley
on the Hudson, the bemusing Kingston Artists Soapbox Derby, and frequent music festivals, the
Rondout is also the headquarters of the 600-member Arts Society of Kingston (ASK), which
coordinates the city’s monthly First Saturday gallery walk, a periodic open studio tour, and the
Kingston Sculpture Biennial public art exhibition. Reflective of Kingston’s recently being named one
of “America’s Best Places for Artists” by BusinessWeek, ASK sponsors art and creative writing
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classes, poetry readings, and musical and theatrical performances. “The Kingston area has the highest
concentration of artists outside of New York,” says ASK’s executive director, Vindora Wixom, a
painter herself. “Its proximity to Manhattan and the scenic beauty all around it make it a great place
for artists. Living and working here feels like following in the footsteps of the Hudson River School
artists.”
Diners arrive at Savona’s Trattoria in the Rondout area of Kingston.
A Tradition of Transition
Clearly Kingston has recognized the value of its arts and architecture as an avenue toward economic
rejuvenation and a better quality of life, and has seized the moment to successfully draw new residents
who are eager to contribute to it. And, thankfully, the trend looks to continue, as artists and those who
appreciate art—and air—are steadily priced out and swept aside by Disney-fying developers to the
south.
“This is a city in transition,” says Mayor Sottile. “And while [Kingston’s government is] actively
working to draw tourists and new residents to the area, [it’s] also working on stabilizing our
infrastructure and planning for the future.”
So, yes, Albany may once again be the capital of New York’s government. But when it comes to
moving toward becoming the state’s new capital of creative culture, one with a welcoming and
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affordable environment for its citizens, Kingston is king.
RESOURCES
323 Wall Street www.323wallstreet.com
Arts Society of Kingston www.askforarts.org
The Basement www.myspace.com/thebasement744
Blue-Byrd’s Haberdashery and Music www.bluebyrds.moonfruit.com
Bop to Tottom www.boptotottom.com
Business Alliance of Kingston www.businessallianceofkingston.org
City of Kingston www.ci.kingston.ny.us
Deep Listening Space www.deeplistening.org
Dusty Spokes www.myspace.com/dustyspokes
Elephant www.elephantwinebar.com
Fleisher’s Grass-Fed and Organic Meats www.fleishers.com
Friends of Historic Kingston www.fohk.org
Hooley on the Hudson www.ulsteraoh.com
Hudson River Maritime Museum www.hrmm.org
Hudson Valley LGBTQ Community Center www.lgbtqcenter.org
Keegan Ales www.keeganales.com
Kingston Artists Soapbox Derby www.artistsoapboxderby.com
Kingston City Marina www.kingstoncitymarina.com
Kingston Historical Society www.kingstonhistoricalsociety
Kingston Land Trust www.kingstonlandtrust.org
Seven21 Media Center www.seven21.com
Shirt Factory www.artistworkspace.com
Snapper Magee’s www.myspace.com/snappermageeslivemusic
Stockade Tavern www.facebook.com/pages/Kingston-NY/Stockade-Tavern
Trolley Museum of New York www.tmny.org
Ulster County Chamber of Commerce www.ulsterchamber.org
Ulster County Tourism www.ulstertourism.info
Ulster Performing Arts Center (UPAC) www.bardavon.org
Wall Street Jazz Festival www.wallstreetjazzfestival.com
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