#BlackHistoryMonth: Valley Gardening Godfather James F. Brown
I went to church at Fishkill village and returned home through the rain and got very wet but heard a very good sermon preached. Mr. J D L Verplanck, Mr. W S Verplanck and Miss A L Verplanck attempted twice...
Bridging an Iced-Over Hudson
Streets and roads! Who cares for either, while we have the river? We often use the river here, weeks at a time, when the snow has left us. The ice has been remarkably even the whole of this winter….James Fenimore...
Revealing Storm King’s Beauty: Unsung Painter Brings Mountain’s Majesty to Light
Storm King Mountain was a popular subject for Thomas Cole and other artists associated with the 19th-century Hudson River School of painting. They would have agreed with Yale art historian Vincent Scully, who during his 1966 testimony supporting Scenic Hudson’s foundational campaign to protect...
MLK’s Haunting Final Words to the Hudson Valley
A 1999 survey of scholars ranked Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech as the most important American speech of the 20th century. Delivered from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on August 28, 1963, King’s stirring words continue...
Celebrate the Valley’s Dutch Heritage With Heirloom Cookies
Ever wonder why we call sweet baked discs “cookies” rather than “biscuits” like the Brits? Thank the Dutch.In the brief decades between 1609 — when Henry Hudson, sailing on behalf of the Dutch East India Co., explored the river that...
Racing Faster Than a Speeding Car on the Frozen Hudson
It’s rare to see sailboats on the Hudson this time of year. But in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, sail-powered iceboats carrying famous valley residents like FDR regularly sped across the frozen waters of the river and local lakes as...
The Gifts the Hudson Valley Gave Christmas
Of course, Christmas — one of many holiday traditions celebrated today in the Hudson Valley — didn’t originate here. But the region can take credit for turning it into the joyous social occasion that many people celebrate today, a holiday season famous...
Celebrating with a Bang: West Point Foundry Preserve, National Historic Landmark
It’s amazing the stories a woodsy little ravine can tell. Over the centuries, the one within West Point Foundry Preserve in Cold Spring has been an Indigenous campsite, an industrial dynamo, a dumping ground and junkyard, a planned hotel, and today...