text:
Pawling (town), New York

Pawling is a town in Dutchess County, New York, United States. Its population was 8,012 at the 2020 census. The town is named after Catherine Pauling, the daughter of Henry Beekman, who held the second largest land patent in the county. The town is in the southeastern part of the county, and contains a village of the same name.

History
A part of the town was involved in a boundary problem involving New York and Connecticut. A section of the town, located in the "Oblong"—the name was given to the disputed oblong strip of land, two miles in width forming part of the Eastern boundary of the now Dutchess and Putnam Counties—was settled by Nathan Birdsall and his wife Jane Langdon; they were the first pioneer settlers of Quaker Hill, Dutchess, NY. He was a native of Long Island and was born around 1700 to Quaker parents. He was one of the surveyors of the area and picked his home site during the survey.

Nathan purchased his land from the Great Nine Partners Patent, prior to moving his family there, erected a log house and barn, probably around 1720. The next settler was Benjamin Ferris, a Quaker preacher. It was not until 1731, when the one-hundred-year-old dispute as to the boundary between the English in New England and the Dutch in New York was settled, that emigration started in any volume. A number of Friends began coming from Harrisons Purchase, now a part of Rye, in Westchester County, New York. Their Quaker Meeting House is still standing today, and open for visitors.

In the American Revolution colonial commander in chief George Washington established his headquarters at the John Kane House in the town (now the village) for two months in 1778. The town was founded in 1788, but part of the town was used to form the neighboring town of Dover in 1807. The town of Pawling was part of the Beekman Patent, a large land grant to Col. Henry Beekman in 1697.

Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 45.0 sqmi, of which 44.2 sqmi is land and 0.8 sqmi (1.80%) is water.

The eastern and western section of the towns are high and hilly, with the Great Swamp and Harlem Valley in the middle, where the village of Pawling is located. The highest elevation in town is Observatory Hill, at 1332 ft above sea level; the lowest is 420 ft, in the Great Swamp, along the southern boundary of the town.

Most of the population of Pawling is concentrated in the valley, traversed by NY 22 (joined by NY 55 south of the village) and Metro-North Railroad's Harlem Line. There are two train stations in town, the Pawling station in the village and the Appalachian Trail station, allowing passengers to hike that trail up into the Pawling Nature Reserve along Hammersby Ridge in the northern section of town.

The southern town line is the border of Putnam County, New York, and the eastern town boundary is the border of Connecticut. To the west lies the town of Beekman, with Dover to the north. It also shares a small border with the town of East Fishkill at the southwestern edge of the town.

Communities, locations and notable places in Pawling

 * Baker Corner – a hamlet east of Hurd Corners.
 * Holmes – a hamlet in the southwestern part of the town.
 * Hurd Corners – a hamlet north of Pawling village.
 * Quaker Hill – a hamlet near the eastern town line, northeast of Pawling village.
 * Pawling – a village in the town.
 * Shorehaven – a hamlet in the western part of the town.
 * West Pawling – a hamlet on Route 55, northwest of Pawling village.
 * Whaley Lake – a lake by the western town line.
 * Woodinville – a hamlet west of Pawling village.

Demographics
As of the census of 2000, there were 7,521 people, 2,823 households, and 1,987 families living in the town. The population density was 170.2 PD/sqmi. There were 3,101 housing units at an average density of 70.2 /sqmi. The racial makeup of the town was 94.43% white, 1.46% black or African American, .17% Native American, 1.28% Asian, .04% Pacific Islander, 1.3% from other races, and 1.32% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 4.85% of the population.

There were 2,823 households, out of which 33.8% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 59.6% were married couples living together, 7.4% had a female householder with no husband present, and 29.6% were non-families. 24.7% of all households were made up of individuals, and 10.6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.62 and the average family size was 3.16.

In the town, the population was spread out, with 25.3% under the age of 18, 5.3% from 18 to 24, 29.3% from 25 to 44, 24.9% from 45 to 64, and 15.2% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 40 years. For every 100 females, there were 95.8 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 92.4 males.

The median income for a household in the town was $61,380 and the median income for a family was $70,056. Males had a median income of $47,143 versus $35,063 for females. The per capita income for the town was $30,043. About 1.7% of families and 3.3% of the population were below the poverty line, including 1.2% of those under age 18 and 4.1% of those age 65 or over.

Government
Since 1878 Pawling has operated under a council-manager form of government.

Fire
The Pawling Fire District is the fire department that covers the Town Of Pawling. By keeping buildings up to code, controlling illegal occupancies, monitoring the safety of living-areas and issuing licenses and permits, the department works to control the potential for dangerous situations. The fire district operates three fire stations spread out all over the town, as their district covers a large area. The department is capable of handling fires, rescues, extrications and natural disasters. The PFD operates a varied fire apparatus fleet, however does not provide Emergency Medical Services. Both BLS and ALS EMS calls are handled by Empress Ambulance (formerly EMStar, which was merged in Sept 2021) who are contracted to provide the town with 24/7 ambulance service. In the event of numerous calls within a short amount of time, ambulances are pulled from neighboring towns including Beekman, Dover and Patterson or, if a backfill unit is available, it will respond from nearby.

Police
Police protection in Pawling is provided by through the Dutchess County Sheriff's office and New York State Police. Sheriff's deputies have a substation located in the middle of the hamlet, near the train station. The MTA police also cover the center of town, as the Metro-North Railroad Harlem Line has a train station in the town.

Medical
Pawling has several free standing doctors' offices and clinics, including Village Medical and The Atrium. Pawling has no hospitals, but within a short distance from town are three medical centers and two hospitals. MidHudson Regional Hospital of Westchester Medical Center and Vassar Brothers Medical Center are located in nearby Poughkeepsie, and Danbury Hospital is located in Danbury, CT. Putnam Hospital Center is located in Carmel in Putnam County and New Milford Hospital in New Milford, CT. There are several urgent care centers located nearby, including in Carmel and LaGrange.

Notable people

 * Kris Carr, author.
 * Brian Crecente, journalist and columnist.
 * Thomas E. Dewey (1902–1971), Governor of New York (1943–1955), unsuccessful Republican nominee for U.S. Presidency in 1944 and 1948, and partner of Dewey, Ballantine, Bushby, Palmer & Wood. Dewey lived on a large farm called "Dapplemere," located in the Quaker Hill community on the outskirts of Pawling.
 * John B. Dutcher, farmer, businessman, banker and politician; first President of the Village of Pawling.
 * William Pearce Howland, one of the Fathers of Canadian Confederation.
 * John Kerr Branch (1865–1930), wealthy scion and financier, and his wife Beulah Frances Gould Branch (1860–1952).
 * James Earl Jones, actor.
 * Paul Tudor Jones, commodity trader.
 * Helen Lester, children's author and creator of Tacky the Penguin.
 * Charles H. Marsh, awarded a Medal of Honor for his actions in the Civil War.
 * Marie Mattingly Meloney, magazine editor.
 * Edward R. Murrow, famed radio and television broadcasting pioneer; his ashes were scattered at his estate, Glen Arden Farm. The local park is named after him.
 * Aaron Neville, R&B singer and musician. Runs a vegetable farm with his wife on Quaker Hill.
 * Soledad O'Brien, American broadcast journalist and executive producer.
 * Norman Vincent Peale (1898–1993), Christian preacher and author of The Power of Positive Thinking and a founder of Guideposts magazine, died in town. The Peale Center for Christian Living still operates in Pawling.
 * George T. Pierce, lawyer and politician.
 * Sally Jessy Raphael, talk show host; owns a home on Quaker Hill.
 * Jean Rouverol, author, actress and screenwriter.
 * Jean Tabaud (1914-1996), portrait painter and war artist.
 * Lowell Thomas, developed the Quaker Hill community in Pawling, where he lived when not traveling.
 * John J. Toffey, awarded a Medal of Honor for his actions in the Civil War.
 * John Lorimer Worden (1818–1897), U.S. Navy rear admiral; commanded the Union Navy's ironclad USS Monitor in its famous battle with the CSS Virginia (formerly USS Merrimack) during the American Civil War. Buried in Pawling Cemetery.
 * William Bernard Ziff, Jr., (1930–2006), American publishing executive.

Notable places

 * Akin Free Library, historic eclectic late Victorian stone building - home to the Gunnison Museum of Natural History and Historical Society of Quaker Hill and Pawling.
 * Daryl's House, concert venue and restaurant located in the former home of the famous Towne Crier Cafe, owned by Daryl Hall, musician.
 * The Dover Oak, oldest and largest oak tree on the Appalachian Trail. Named for the road on which it stands, not the town it resides in.
 * John Kane House, used by George Washington as his headquarters when the Continental Army was garrisoned on Purgatory Hill.
 * Starkdale Farm, a now derelict farm formerly run by Cyrus Stark, filming location for an episode of the CBS series Elementary and epicenter of activity for filming of the John Krasinski film "A Quiet Place".
 * Oblong Friends Meeting House, a late 18th-century Friends Meeting House of the Religious Society of Friends in the hamlet of Quaker Hill.
 * Peale History Center and Library, commemorating the life and teachings of Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, the creator of "The Power of Positive Thinking" and founder of Guideposts.
 * Trinity-Pawling School, an all-boys boarding school.
 * Whaley Lake, the only lake in Dutchess county to allow motorized boats.
 * Dutcher Golf Course, the oldest continually operated public golf course in the United States.

title: Pawling (town), New York


text:
Pine Plains (CDP), New York

Pine Plains is a hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) in Dutchess County, New York, United States. The population was 1,142 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Poughkeepsie–Newburgh–Middletown, NY Metropolitan Statistical Area as well as the larger New York–Newark–Bridgeport, NY-NJ-CT-PA Combined Statistical Area.

The community of Pine Plains is in the town of Pine Plains.

Geography
Pine Plains is located near the northern edge of Dutchess County at 41.97861°N, -73.66111°W (41.97882, -73.661254), in the central portion of the town of Pine Plains. It is bordered to the northeast by Shekomeko Creek, a tributary of the Roeliff Jansen Kill, which flows northwest to the Hudson River.

New York State Routes 199 and 82 pass through the community. NY 199 (Church Street) leads east 9 mi to Millerton and west 14 mi to Red Hook. NY 82 enters the community as South Main Street, then turns east on Church Street with NY 199. NY 82 leads south 9 mi to Stanfordville and north 9 mi by a winding route to Ancram. Poughkeepsie, the Dutchess County seat, is 27 mi to the southwest via NY 82 and U.S. Route 44.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the Pine Plains CDP has a total area of 6.0 sqkm, of which 5.4 sqkm is land and 0.6 sqkm, or 9.73%, is water. The CDP includes two water bodies, Stissing Pond and Twin Island Lake, southwest of the center of town.

Demographics
As of the census of 2000, there were 1,412 people, 544 households, and 368 families residing in the CDP. The population density was 674.5 PD/sqmi. There were 611 housing units at an average density of 291.9 /sqmi. The racial makeup of the CDP was 96.67% White, 0.42% Black or African American, 0.28% Native American, 0.42% Asian, 0.71% from other races, and 1.49% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.42% of the population.

There were 544 households, out of which 32.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 52.8% were married couples living together, 9.7% had a female householder with no husband present, and 32.2% were non-families. 26.5% of all households were made up of individuals, and 12.5% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.59 and the average family size was 3.09.

In the CDP, the population was spread out, with 26.7% under the age of 18, 6.3% from 18 to 24, 26.0% from 25 to 44, 25.4% from 45 to 64, and 15.6% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 40 years. For every 100 females, there were 89.3 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 90.6 males.

The median income for a household in the CDP was $43,548, and the median income for a family was $49,844. Males had a median income of $39,896 versus $25,682 for females. The per capita income for the CDP was $23,627. About 10.1% of families and 13.3% of the population were below the poverty line, including 24.9% of those under age 18 and 2.0% of those age 65 or over.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Pine Plains (CDP), New York


text:
Pine Plains (town), New York

Pine Plains is a town in Dutchess County, New York, United States. The population was 2,218 at the 2020 census.

The name is derived from the geographic character of the region. The hamlet of Pine Plains is on the northern border of the county.

History
The town was part of the Little Nine Partners Patent of 1706. The town was first settled around 1740 by Moravian missionaries to the native Mahican village of Shekomeko. The town of Pine Plains was formed from the town of North East in 1823.

In the 1880s the town served as the winter-home for P.T. Barnum's animals. This was due to the rural, non-urban nature of the town (fewer prying eyes), and proximity to many different railroad lines.

In 1907, Walter W. Law moved Briarcliff Farms from Briarcliff Manor, New York, to Pine Plains and sold the property in 1918. In 1916, New York banker Oakleigh Thorne and several business partners purchased large land parcels. They began breeding Angus cattle still in the name of Briarcliff Farm. The farm was broken up into several smaller farms in the late 1940s, and most lasted until the early 1980s, closing due to property taxes and poor economic conditions. Berkshire Stud purchased 550 acre there, starting in 1983.

Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 80.7 sqkm, of which 79.2 sqkm is land, and 1.5 sqkm, or 1.89%, is water. The northern town line is the border of Columbia County, with the towns of Gallatin and Ancram to the north. The town of North East borders the east, Stanford to the South and Milan to the west.

Three small lakes lie west of Pine Plain's hamlet: Stissing Lake which is excellent for swimming, Thompson Pond which is dedicated to conservation for wildlife, and Twin Island Lake, known locally as "Mud Pond". Stissing Mountain, the town's highest point at 1403 ft, is immediately to the west. It is formed of Precambrian gneiss that remains after numerous glaciation cycles have scoured and reformed the surrounding terrain. The mountain itself is a permanent exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History, showcasing its unique formation and flora/fauna of the area.

Land use
The town recently enacted its first zoning ordinance after protracted review, discussion and community input.

Carvel Farm
Pine Plains is the location of a two-thousand-acre farm assembled by ice cream parlor chain entrepreneur Tom Carvel. It currently belongs to the Durst Organization, which is planning a housing community.

Demographics
As of the census of 2020, there were 2,218 people, 988 households, and 700 families residing in the town. The population density was 83.2 PD/sqmi. There were 1,161 housing units at an average density of 37.6 /sqmi. The racial makeup of the town was 96.26% white, .90% black or African American, .66% Native American, .66% Asian, .47% from other races, and 1.05% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.36% of the population.

There were 988 households, out of which 33.5% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 55.6% were married couples living together, 10.1% had a female householder with no husband present, and 29.1% were non-families. 23.0% of all households were made up of individuals, and 9.9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.60 and the average family size was 3.03.

In the town, the population was spread out, with 25.9% under the age of 18, 6.4% from 18 to 24, 27.2% from 25 to 44, 25.6% from 45 to 64, and 14.9% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 40 years. For every 100 females, there were 93.2 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 94.7 males.

The median income for a household in the town was $43,125, and the median income for a family was $46,900. Males had a median income of $35,417 versus $26,645 for females. The per capita income for the town was $24,259. About 5.7% of families and 9.2% of the population were below the poverty line, including 14.0% of those under age 18 and 2.3% of those age 65 or over.

Communities and locations

 * Bethel – A hamlet in the south-central part of town.
 * Hammertown – A hamlet east of Pine Plains village.
 * Mount Ross – A location in the northwestern corner of the town.
 * Pachin Mills – A hamlet in the northern part of the town, near the Columbia County border.
 * Pine Plains – The hamlet of Pine Plains, located in the center of the town.
 * Pulver's Corners – A location in the northeastern section of the town.

Points of interest

 * Graham-Brush Log House
 * The Pines
 * Stissing Mountain and Thompson Pond Preserve
 * Evergreen Cemetery

Government
Pine Plains operates under a council-manager form of government. The town supervisor is the chief administrative officer of the city selected to carry out the directives of the council. The manager monitors the town's fiscal condition and enforces its ordinances and laws. The town supervisor is also involved in the discussion of all matters coming before council yet has no final vote. The town board is the legislative body consisting of the town supervisor and four council members. The town supervisor serves as the presiding officer of the council. The council functions to set policy, approve the annual budget, appoint the town supervisor and town clerk, and enact local laws, resolutions & ordinances.

Fire and emergency medical services
The Pine Plains Fire District serves the town of Pine Plains as well as a portion of the town of Gallatin in southern Columbia County. With the sole fire station located in the center of the town at the corner of Lake Rd and South Main St, Pine Plains has been assigned a department ID number of "55". Firefighters in Pine Plains get alerted via paging through the Dutchess County Department Of Emergency Response, as well as text notifications to phones. Roughly 20 active members respond to any emergencies 24/7. The fire department is 100% volunteer.

The Pine Plains Hose Company is made up of two fire engines for fire calls (55-11, 12), one tanker (55-31), one heavy rescue for car accidents and specialty incidents (55-51), and one brush truck and one ATV for brush fire and off-road capabilities (55-61, 55-96). The Pine Plains Rescue Squad operates two basic life support ambulances (55-71, 72) and responds to medical emergencies in the district. These ambulances are able to handle many of the medical calls. Northern Dutchess Paramedics is the paramedic provider for the town and are headquartered in Rhinebeck, NY. They are called upon if the medical call requires a higher level of care.

Police
Police protection to the Town of Pine Plains includes three different entities; Pine Plains Police, Dutchess County Sheriff's Office and New York State Police. The local town of Pine Plains police force is a part-time force, providing coverage roughly half of the week, at different times. The department includes three patrol cars and seven officers as of 2019 with hopes of continued expansion. When someone calls 911, the call is routed to the Dutchess 911 center in Hyde Park and then police are polled for, and the closest unit responds.

Medical
Pine Plains has one small medical facility in the form of a Veteran's Affairs clinic. The town lies within a short distance from four medical centers. These include Northern Dutchess Hospital in Rhinebeck, Sharon Hospital in Sharon, CT, Vassar Brothers Medical Center in the City of Poughkeepsie, and MidHudson Regional Hospital located in the town of Poughkeepsie, New York.

Schools
Pine Plains is the center of the Pine Plains Central School District. The district comprises parts or all of nine towns, spanning two counties; Ancram, Clermont, Gallatin & Livingston in Columbia County and Clinton, Milan, North East, Pine Plains & Stanford in Dutchess County. Roughly 1000 students make up the student body as of 2023. Two of the three schools making up the district lay within the town of Pine Plains including Seymour Smith Intermediate Learning Center (Grades 3-5) and Stissing Mountain Jr/Sr High School.

Transportation
Wassaic station on Metro-North Railroad's Harlem Line is located 13 miles south of Pine Plains. The Rhinecliff Station on Amtrak's line is about 18 miles to the west.

Culture
From 1920 into the 1970s, Stissing Lake was the site of the Stissing Lake camps (boys' facilities on the east side, girls' on the west). There an adolescent, Jerry Herman, son of the owners, honed his musical skills during the 1940s, leading many years later to his Tony award-winning shows Hello, Dolly! and La Cage aux Folles, and other Broadway musicals such as the hit Mame. Pine Plains was the original home of Tri-Arts, located in the Carvel Theatre.

Starting in 2016, talk of major renovations to a large town building started. The building would come to be known as Memorial Hall. Originally built in 1915 and serving as a theater for silent films, then as a first-run cinema, as well as vaudeville shows. In 1975 after the original foundation ran out of money, it was reconfigured into a number of different shops. With many changes and overhauls, Memorial Hall morphed into The Stissing Center, with continuing renovations as of 2023.

In addition to several cattle farms, Pine Plains is also the home to many horse farms. Berkshire Stud farm which has had several horses race in the Kentucky Derby, including Audible who was foaled here in 2015. The former Briarcliff farms location is also home to the current Mashomack Polo club which has been home to many cup events throughout its history.

Notable people

 * Philip Amelio, (1977–2005); actor and teacher
 * Thomas Carvel, (1906–1990); Greek born American businessman of Carvel Ice Cream fame
 * Lenora Champagne (b.?); American playwright and actor
 * Thom Christoper, (b. 1940); television and stage actor
 * Matt Finley, (b. 1951); Brazilian Jazz musician
 * Don Hastings, (b. 1934); actor of "As the World Turns" fame
 * Priscilla Herdman, (b. 1948); American folk singer
 * John Eric Herlitz, (1942–2008); car designer of Plymouth Barracuda fame
 * Fred Hersch, (b.1955); Grammy nominated Jass pianist
 * Eileen Hickey, (1945–1999); Dutchess County politician
 * Evelyn Fox Keller, (1936-2023); Physicist and author
 * Eleanora Knopf, (1883–1974); prominent American Geologist who spent many years studying Stissing Mountain in the town
 * Tyler Lydon, (b. 1996); NBA Player who went to High School in Pine Plains
 * Robert Lyons (b.1959); American director and playwright
 * George Morgan, (1816–1879); New York State politician
 * William Snyder, (1864–1934); Head keeper at the Central Park Zoo
 * Tim and Nina Zagat, (b. 1940 & b.1942); founders and publishers of Zagat Restaurant Surveys

title: Pine Plains (town), New York


text:
Pleasant Valley (CDP), New York

Pleasant Valley is a census-designated place (CDP) in the southwestern part of the town of Pleasant Valley in Dutchess County, New York, United States. The population was 1,145 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Poughkeepsie–Newburgh–Middletown, NY Metropolitan Statistical Area as well as the larger New York–Newark–Bridgeport, NY-NJ-CT-PA Combined Statistical Area.

Geography
Pleasant Valley CDP is located in the southwestern part of the town of Pleasant Valley at 41.745°N, -73.82333°W (41.745205, -73.823395). Wappinger Creek, a tributary of the Hudson River, flows through the center of the community.

U.S. Route 44 passes through the CDP as Main Street and leads southwest 7 mi to Poughkeepsie and northeast 8 mi to Millbrook.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the Pleasant Valley CDP has a total area of 2.48 sqkm, of which 2.42 sqkm is land and 0.06 sqkm, or 2.56%, is water.

Demographics
As of the census of 2000, there were 1,839 people, 753 households, and 502 families residing in the CDP. The population density was 1,172.7 PD/sqmi. There were 775 housing units at an average density of 494.2 /sqmi. The racial makeup of the CDP was 94.13% White, 3.15% Black or African American, 0.05% Native American, 1.09% Asian, 0.05% Pacific Islander, 0.82% from other races, and 0.71% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 2.61% of the population.

There were 753 households, out of which 33.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 55.1% were married couples living together, 7.3% had a female householder with no husband present, and 33.3% were non-families. 27.8% of all households were made up of individuals, and 10.2% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.44 and the average family size was 3.00.

In the CDP, the population was spread out, with 24.5% under the age of 18, 6.0% from 18 to 24, 31.7% from 25 to 44, 24.6% from 45 to 64, and 13.2% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 38 years. For every 100 females, there were 94.2 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 95.2 males.

The median income for a household in the CDP was $50,353, and the median income for a family was $57,888. Males had a median income of $41,992 versus $32,436 for females. The per capita income for the CDP was $24,598. About 2.7% of families and 2.7% of the population were below the poverty line, including 1.0% of those under age 18 and none of those age 65 or over.

Education
It is in the Arlington Central School District, which operates Arlington High School.

title: Pleasant Valley (CDP), New York


text:
Pleasant Valley (town), New York

Pleasant Valley is a town in Dutchess County, within the Hudson Valley of New York, United States. The population was 9,799 at the 2020 census. The town is centrally located in the county, northeast of the city of Poughkeepsie. U.S. Route 44 passes through the town.

History
Settlers began arriving after 1735. The town was part of the Great Nine Partners Patent of 1697. The town was formed in 1821 from part of the town of Clinton.

Notable people

 * Blythe Auffarth, actress
 * Julia Dean (1830-1868), stage actress, originally from Pleasant Valley
 * Jacob R. Evertson (1734–1807), delegate to the Second New York Provincial Congress 1774-1775 and Deputy 1776, and father in law of John Cotton Smith, the First Governor of Connecticut. Buried in Pleasant Valley Presbyterian Churchyard.
 * Thomas T. Flagler, US congressman
 * Jackson Kemper (1789-1870), the first missionary bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America, born in Pleasant Valley
 * Irene McGee, cast member of The Real World: Seattle
 * Tony Romeo, songwriter who wrote "Indian Lake" by The Cowsills, and "I Think I Love You" by The Partridge Family; lived in Pleasant Valley from 1980 to 1995, when he died at age 56
 * Thomas R. Sherwood, Chief Justice of the Michigan Supreme Court
 * Melancton Smith, delegate to the ratification of the U.S. Constitution
 * Jeffrey Wigand, former vice president of research and development at Brown & Williamson
 * James Kirke Paulding, born in Pleasant Valley a former United States Secretary of the Navy, an American writer and childhood friend of Washington Irving
 * Carson Robison (1890-1957), early country and western music and radio performer

Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 85.8 sqkm, of which 84.4 sqkm is land and 1.5 sqkm, or 1.7%, is water.

Major roads
A section of U.S. Route 44 goes through the town in a southwestern-northeastern direction. It intersects with the Taconic State Parkway, a north–south highway, in the northern part of the town.

Demographics
As of the census of 2000, there were 9,066 people, 3,467 households, and 2,485 families residing in the town. The population density was 275.4 PD/sqmi. There were 3,614 housing units at an average density of 109.8 /sqmi. The racial makeup of the town was 95.46% white, 1.93% black or African American, .12% Native American, .64% Asian, .02% Pacific Islander, .83% from other races, and 1% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 2.65% of the population.

There were 3,467 households, out of which 35.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 58.9% were married couples living together, 8.7% had a female householder with no husband present, and 28.3% were non-families. 23.2% of all households were made up of individuals, and 7.9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.61 and the average family size was 3.09.

In the town, the population was spread out, with 26.1% under the age of 18, 6.4% from 18 to 24, 30.6% from 25 to 44, 26.2% from 45 to 64, and 10.6% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 38 years. For every 100 females, there were 97.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 95.1 males.

The median income for a household in the town was $54,578, and the median income for a family was $62,264. Males had a median income of $47,647 versus $31,496 for females. The per capita income for the town was $25,942. About 3.9% of families and 5.6% of the population were below the poverty line, including 6.6% of those under age 18 and 6.2% of those age 65 or over.

Library
The Pleasant Valley Free Library was founded in 1903, and originally operated under State Charter and was governed by five trustees. The library has moved locations twice, the first time after it burned in 1913, and the second in 1974, where it remains currently. The library offers adult, young adult, and children's materials in the form of books, audiobooks, music CDs, and DVDs. There are eight public computers available for use, as well as two public computers in the young adult area. Additionally, the library offers services such as printing, faxing, photocopying, and tech help. Digital services offered by the library include Overdrive, Inc., Hoopla, and NovelNY, among others.

The library's programming includes book discussion groups, children's storytimes, in-depth tech help, and yoga.

2018 Fire
On November 6, 2018, an electrical fire started in the basement of the library and spread through the walls to the upper floor. It was estimated that the library lost about 52,000 items in the collection, primarily due to smoke damage, though in the year after the fire, the library acquired 30,000 items mostly through donations. The historic building, built in the 1870s, required about $3 million dollars to rebuild and expand, and finally reopened in early February 2022.

Board of trustees
The Pleasant Valley Free Library Board of Trustees currently has 12 members, though it can have up to 13, and the Board meets on the third Thursday of each month.
 * President: Joy Dyson
 * Vice President: Julie Kessler
 * Treasurer: Steve MacNish
 * Secretary: Gail Rau
 * Dorothy Denny
 * Pauline Herr
 * Dave Kruger
 * Kathy Kruger
 * Michael Rifenburgh
 * Don Sagliano
 * Kim Sears
 * Anna Wei

Communities and locations in Pleasant Valley

 * Bloomvale – a former mill hamlet north of Washington Hollow, at Route 82 and Clinton Corners Road.
 * Clark Heights – a location southwest of Pleasant Valley hamlet on Route 44.
 * Gretna – a location in the western part of the town.
 * Netherwood – a location southwest of Salt Point.
 * Pleasant Valley – the hamlet and census-designated place of Pleasant Valley is in the southwestern part of the town, on Route 44. It was formerly called "Charlotte."
 * Salt Point – a hamlet near the northeastern town line.
 * Timothy Heights – a location south of Pleasant Valley hamlet on Route 44.
 * Valleydale – a development northeast of Pleasant Valley off Traver Road.
 * Washington Hollow – a hamlet near the eastern town line. It is the former location of the Dutchess County Fair.

title: Pleasant Valley (town), New York


text:
Poughkeepsie, New York

Poughkeepsie, officially the City of Poughkeepsie, which is separate from the Town of Poughkeepsie around it, is a city in the U.S. state of New York. It is the county seat of Dutchess County, with a 2020 census population of 31,577. Poughkeepsie is in the Hudson River Valley region, midway between the core of the New York metropolitan area and the state capital of Albany. It is a principal city of the Kiryas Joel–Poughkeepsie–Newburgh metropolitan area which belongs to the New York combined statistical area. It is served by the nearby Hudson Valley Regional Airport and Stewart International Airport in Orange County, New York.

Poughkeepsie has been called "The Queen City of the Hudson". It was settled in the 17th century by the Dutch and became New York State's second capital shortly after the American Revolution. It was chartered as a city in 1854. Major bridges in the city include the Walkway over the Hudson, a former railroad bridge called the Poughkeepsie Bridge which reopened as a public walkway on October 3, 2009; and the Mid-Hudson Bridge, a major thoroughfare built in 1930 that carries U.S. Route 44 over the Hudson. The city of Poughkeepsie lies in New York's 18th congressional district.

The City of Poughkeepsie and neighboring Town of Poughkeepsie are generally viewed as a single place and are commonly referred to collectively as "Poughkeepsie", with a combined population of 77,048 in 2020.

Poughkeepsie is situated between the Lower Hudson and the Capital District regions, and the city's economy is stimulated by several major corporations, including IBM. Educational institutions include Marist College, Vassar College, Dutchess Community College and The Culinary Institute of America.

Etymology
The name Poughkeepsie is derived from a word in the Wappinger tribe's Munsee language, roughly U-puku-ipi-sing, meaning 'the reed-covered lodge by the little-water place', referring to a spring or stream feeding into the Hudson River south of the downtown area.

History
English colonist Robert Sanders and Dutch colonist Myndert Harmense Van Den Bogaerdt acquired the land from a local Native American tribe in 1686, and the first settlers were the families of Barent Baltus Van Kleeck and Hendrick Jans van Oosterom. The settlement grew quickly, and the Reformed Church of Poughkeepsie was established by 1720.

The city of Poughkeepsie was spared from battle during the American Revolutionary War and became the second capital of the State of New York after Kingston was burned by the British. In 1788, the Ratification Convention for New York State included Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and George Clinton. They assembled at the courthouse on Market Street and ratified the United States Constitution, and New York State entered the new union as the eleventh of the original Thirteen Colonies to become the United States. In 1799, a new seal was created for the city.

The community was set off from the town of Poughkeepsie when it became an incorporated village on March 27, 1799. The city of Poughkeepsie was chartered on March 28, 1854.

Poughkeepsie was a major center for whale rendering, and the industry flourished during the 19th century through shipping, millineries, paper mills, and several breweries along the Hudson River, including some owned by Matthew Vassar, founder of Vassar College. Families built palatial weekend homes nearby, such as the Astors, Rogers, and Vanderbilts, due to the area's natural beauty and proximity to New York City. The Vanderbilt Mansion is located several miles up the Hudson from Poughkeepsie in the town of Hyde Park and is registered as a national historic site; it is considered to be a sterling example of the mansions built by American industrialists during the late 19th century. The city is home to the Bardavon 1869 Opera House, the oldest continuously operating entertainment venue in the state.

Geography

The city of Poughkeepsie is located on the western edge of Dutchess County, in Downstate New York's Hudson River Valley Area.

It is bordered by the town of Lloyd across the Hudson River to the west and by the town of Poughkeepsie on the north, east and south. There are two crossings of the Hudson River in Poughkeepsie: the Mid-Hudson Bridge for motor vehicles and pedestrians, and the pedestrian Walkway over the Hudson.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has an area of 14.8 km2, of which 13.3 km2 is land, and 0.6 km2 (comprising 10.05%) is water. Poughkeepsie lies approximately 75 mi north of the center of the New York megacity. It is 73.5 mi south of the New York state capital of Albany. The highest elevation of Poughkeepsie is 380 ft above sea level on College Hill. Its lowest is on the Hudson River.

Poughkeepsie makes up a part of the Kiryas Joel–Poughkeepsie–Newburgh metropolitan statistical area, which is a part of the wider NY-NJ-CT combined statistical area.

Historic districts

 * Academy Street Historic District
 * Balding Avenue Historic District
 * Dwight-Hooker Avenue Historic District
 * Garfield Place Historic District
 * Mill Street-North Clover Street Historic District
 * Mount Carmel District
 * Union Street Historic District

Climate
Poughkeepsie has a humid continental climate (Köppen Dfa) with relatively hot summers and cold winters. It receives approximately 44.12 in of precipitation per year, much of which is delivered in the late spring and early summer. Due to its inland location, Poughkeepsie can be very cold during the winter, with temperatures dropping below 0 F a few times per year. Poughkeepsie can also be hit by powerful nor'easters, but it usually receives significantly less snow or rain from these storms compared to locations towards the south and east. Extremes range from -30 F on January 21, 1961, to 106 F on July 15, 1995.

Demographics
The American Community Survey's 2018 estimates placed the population at 30,356. There were 14,240 housing units. 39.8% of Poughkeepsans were non-Hispanic white, 36.4% were Black or African American, 0.2% American Indian or Alaska Native, 1.2% Asian American, 5.0% multiracial, and 0.3% from some other race. An estimated 15 persons were of Pacific Islander heritage according to 2018's estimates. Hispanic and Latin Americans collectively made up 17.1% of the city's inhabitants. Mexican Americans and Puerto Ricans made the two largest groups of Hispanic and Latin Americans in the city, followed by Cubans and others.

In 2018, there were 12,627 households, out of which 19.8% had children under the age of 6 living in them. 56.1% of households has children from 6 to 17 living with them. 14.0% of householders aged 65 and older lived alone. The average household size was 2.33. A total of 6,606 families lived within the city of Poughkeepsie and the average family size was 3.21.

The median household income from 2014 to 2018 was $42,296 and the mean income was $60,763.

At the 2010 census there were 32,736 people. The population density was 5,806.2 PD/sqmi. There were 13,153 housing units at an average density of 2,556.6 /sqmi. The racial makeup of the city was 52.8% White, 35.7% Black or African American, 10.6% Hispanic or Latino of any race, 1.6% Asian, 0.4% Native American, 5.3% from other races, and 4.1% from two or more races.

There were 12,014 households, out of which 28.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 29.8% were married couples living together, 19.7% had a female householder with no husband present, and 45.4% were non-families. 35.4% of all households were made up of individuals, and 13.2% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.40 and the average family size was 3.15.

In the city, the population was spread out, with 25.9% under the age of 18, 12.2% from 18 to 24, 29.2% from 25 to 44, 19.0% from 45 to 64, and 13.6% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 33 years. For every 100 females, there were 91.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 88.0 males.

The median household income in the city was $29,389, and the median income for a family was $35,779. Males had a median income of $31,956 versus $25,711 for females. The per capita income for the city was $16,759. About 18.4% of families and 22.7% of the population were below the poverty line, including 30.3% of those under age 18 and 13.8% of those age 65 or over.

Religion
Per Sperling's BestPlaces, nearly 54% of Poughkeepsie and its surrounding area have religious affiliation. The largest Christian organization is the Catholic Church (37.8%), served by the Latin Church Archdiocese of New York. The second and third largest Christian organizations are Methodism (2.6%) and Presbyterianism (2.0%), and third, Anglicanism/Episcopalianism (1.7%). Anglicans or Episcopalians within the city limits and surrounding area are primarily served by the Episcopal Diocese of New York.

The fifth largest Christian group is Pentecostalism (1.3%), followed by Lutheranism (1.1%), the Baptist Church (0.9%), the Latter-Day Saints (0.3%), and Christians of other denominations including the Eastern Orthodox and United Church of Christ (2.7%). The second largest religious group outside of Christianity is Islam (2.4%). The Islamic community primarily identifies with Sunni Islam in the area. Following Islam, 0.8% of the population profess Judaism and 0.1% practice an eastern religion.

Economy
As of 2020, the dominant industries in Poughkeepsie are healthcare, retail, education, science and technology, finance, and manufacturing. The arts community is part of the current wave or revitalization in Poughkeepsie with creative people moving from New York City and elsewhere, affectionately called "Poughkipsters."

IBM has a large campus in the adjacent town of Poughkeepsie. It was once referred to as IBM's "Main Plant", although much of the workforce has been moved elsewhere in the company (2008). The site once built the IBM 700/7000 series of computers as well as the IBM 7030 Stretch computer and later, together with the Endicott site, IBM mainframes. The RS/6000 SP2 family of computers, which came to fame after one of them won a chess match against world chess master Garry Kasparov, were also manufactured by IBM Poughkeepsie. In October 2008, IBM's Poughkeepsie facility was named "Assembly Plant of the Year 2008" by the editors of Assembly Magazine. Poughkeepsie remains IBM's primary design and manufacturing center for its newest mainframes and high-end Power Systems servers, and it is also one of IBM's major software development centers for z/OS and for other products.

Until 1972, Poughkeepsie was home to the Smith Brothers cough drop factory. The Smith Brothers' gravesite is in the Poughkeepsie Rural Cemetery.

Media
Poughkeepsie and Dutchess County are within the media market of the New York—New Jersey—Connecticut combined statistical area, though the city is headquarters for The Poughkeepsie Journal, the third-oldest active newspaper in the United States. Poughkeepsie Journal is owned by USA Today. News 12 Hudson Valley is a regional television channel targeting the Poughkeepsie and the Hudson Valley region.

FM radio stations in the area are:

 * WRRV-96.9 (alternative rock)
 * WPDH-101.5 (album-oriented rock)
 * WRHV-88.7 (classical music, and NPR affiliate)
 * WCZX-97.7 (country)
 * WKXP-94.3 (soft adult contemporary)
 * WRWD-FM-107.3 (country)
 * WSPK-104.7 (top 40)
 * WHUD-100.7 (adult contemporary)
 * WDST-100.1 (independent rock)
 * WPKF-96.1 (top 40)
 * WVKR-91.3 (Vassar College Radio)
 * WRNQ-92.1 ('80s to current music)

AM radio stations in the area are:

 * WEOK-1390 (oldies)
 * WGNY-1220 (sports)
 * WHVW-950 ('50s and older blues and country)
 * WKIP-1450 (talk radio)

Education
The Poughkeepsie City School District is the public K–12 school system, serving approximately 5,000 students.

The Oakwood Friends School is a co-ed boarding and day school serving approximately 170 students, grades 5–12. Located about 75 mi north of New York City, it is the oldest college preparatory school in New York State, founded in 1796. Oakwood was founded on the Quaker principles of Simplicity, Peace, Integrity, Community, Equality, and Stewardship. The school's vibrant community nurtures the spirit, scholar, artist, and athlete in each student. Poughkeepsie Day School, also outside the city, is a progressive co-ed pre-K-through-12 day school serving approximately 140 students, founded in 1934 by local families and members of the Vassar College faculty. Other private schools in the area include Tabernacle Christian Academy and Our Lady of Lourdes High School.

Spackenkill Union Free School District, comprising generally the southern part of the town of Poughkeepsie, consists of Hagan Elementary School, Nassau Elementary School, Orville A. Todd Middle School, and Spackenkill High School.

Arlington Central School District, covers substantial parts of Poughkeepsie as well as parts of the towns of Beekman, La Grange, Pleasant Valley, and Union Vale.

Colleges and universities
Three institutions of higher learning operate campuses within the city: Adelphi University's Hudson Valley Center, Marist College, and the Ridley-Lowell Business and Technical Institute.

The Culinary Institute of America's main campus is located in the suburb of Hyde Park, north of the city of Poughkeepsie.

Dutchess Community College, Marist College, and Vassar College are all located in the surrounding Town of Poughkeepsie.

Fire
The city is protected by the career firefighters in the City of Poughkeepsie Fire Department. By keeping buildings up to code, controlling illegal occupancies, monitoring the safety of living areas and issuing licenses and permits, the department works to limit the potential for dangerous situations and the occurrences of fire hazards. The Poughkeepsie Fire Department operates out of three fire stations, located throughout the city, and operates and maintains a fire apparatus fleet of four engines, including one reserve engine; two ladder trucks; one rescue vehicle, cross-staffed as needed; and one fireboat. The Arlington Fire District, Fairview Fire District, and New Hamburg Fire Department cover the surrounding town of Poughkeepsie. The Fire Department is capable of handling fires, rescues, extractions and natural disasters. It is a certified Emergency Medical Services first responder fire department and first responder to calls with Mobile Life Support Services.

Police
Police protection to the city is provided by the City of Poughkeepsie Police Department. The police department has over 125 employees, including 96 sworn police officers and 34 civilians, of which 13 are emergency dispatchers. The Police Department also operate a Citizen Observer Alert Network to keep citizens informed about local crime, emergency situations, and other important information. The Dutchess County Sheriff Station is based in Poughkeepsie and is adjacent to the Dutchess County Jail, which houses around 250 inmates maximum capacity at any time, with the same number of inmates housed at out-of-county facilities.

Medical
Poughkeepsie is home to Vassar Brothers Medical Center, a 365-bed hospital situated next to U.S. Route 9 on Reade Place. The hospital has an advanced birthing center and a Level III Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. Vassar Brother Medical Center is owned and operated by Nuvance Health (formerly HealthQuest), a local nonprofit collection of hospitals and healthcare providers.

Emergency medical services are provided by Mobile Life Support Services, which are contracted to provide full-time ambulance coverage to the city. They provide paramedic level service, including advanced life support, and have ambulances stationed in the city on Pershing Avenue. Mobile Life also has a staff of specially trained paramedics that provide tactical Emergency Medical Services support to the city police during ESU/SWAT operations, as well as emergency responses for the Fire Department via their Special Operations Response Team. They also provide advanced life support ambulance service to other agencies and municipalities in Dutchess, Ulster, and Orange counties, and their headquarters building is located in New Windsor in Orange County.

Sports
The Hudson Valley Renegades is a minor league baseball team affiliated with the New York Yankees. The team is a member of the High-A East, and play at Dutchess Stadium in the nearby town of Fishkill.

The Hudson Valley Hawks were a team in the National Professional Basketball League until 2009 when the league disbanded. The team's home court was at Beacon High School, located approximately 16 mi south in the city of Beacon.

The Hudson Valley Highlanders of the North American Football League played their home games at Dietz Stadium in nearby Kingston.

Poughkeepsie hosted a founding member of the North Eastern Hockey League with the formation of the Poughkeepsie Panthers in 2003. However, due to financial problems, the team only played for one season and became the Connecticut Cougars the following year. The league folded due to financial problems in January 2008. Subsequently, the city was home to the Hudson Valley Bears, one of four founding members of the Eastern Professional Hockey League, for one season. Both teams played their home games at the McCann Ice Arena in the Mid-Hudson Civic Center.

One of Poughkeepsie's most notable sports events was the annual Poughkeepsie Regatta of the Intercollegiate Rowing Association, which was held on the Hudson River from 1895 to 1949. The top college teams would attend along with tens of thousands of spectators. Poughkeepsie was known as the rowing capital of the world. Spectators watched from the hills and bluffs overlooking the river and from chartered boats and trains that followed the races along the entire length of the course; which were longer than present-day races, with varsity eights rowing a 4 mi race. When the rowing association moved the regatta to other venues, the Mid-Hudson Rowing Association was formed to preserve rowing in the area. It successfully lobbied to preserve the regatta's facilities for use by area high schools and club rowing programs. As part of the 400th anniversary celebration of Henry Hudson's trip up the Hudson River a recreation of the regatta was held with Marist College Crew as its host. The events included a fireworks display, a large dinner, and the unveiling of the restored historic Cornell Boathouse, now property of Marist Crew. Historically accurate, the four mile long course started off Rogers Point in Hyde Park and ended about a mile south of the Poughkeepsie-Highland Railroad Bridge. Competitors included Marist, Vassar, Army, Penn, Navy, Syracuse, Columbia and Cornell. Notably this was the first time women's crew teams were allowed to participate in the historic Poughkeepsie Regatta.

Established British racing team Carlin Motorsport have chosen Poughkeepsie as their U.S. base whilst racing in Indy Lights.

Arts and entertainment

Poughkeepsie has a number of notable institutions for arts and entertainment. The Bardavon 1869 Opera House, located on Market Street just below Main Street, is a theater that has an array of music, drama, dance, and film events and is the home of the Hudson Valley Philharmonic.

The Mid-Hudson Civic Center, located down the street from the Bardavon 1869 Opera House, hosts concerts, professional wrestling and trade shows and has an ice rink next door for ice hockey. From July 1984 to August 5, 1986, the Civic Center was the location for filming WWF Championship Wrestling. The Chance, located at 6 Crannell Street in downtown Poughkeepsie, hosts live rock concerts with local as well as major artists.

The collections of the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center at Vassar College chart the history of art from antiquity to the present and comprise over 21,000 works, including paintings, sculptures, prints, and photographs.

The Barrett Art Center at 55 Noxon Street offers exhibits, classes, and lectures on the visual arts.

Locust Grove, the home of Samuel Morse and a National Historic Landmark, features paintings by Morse, as well as historically important examples of telegraph technology.

For shopping and movie theater entertainment, the Poughkeepsie Galleria is located in the town of Poughkeepsie, southeast of the hamlet of Crown Heights and north of Wappingers Falls. The mall, which opened in 1987, consists of two floors with 250 shops, restaurants, and a multi-plex theater with 16 screens.

The Mid-Hudson Children's Museum is located at 75 North Water Street.

The Cunneen-Hackett Arts Center at 9 and 12 Vassar Street provides venues for music, dance and the visual arts.

Bananas Comedy Club is a comedy club that presents comedians such as Jim Norton, Rich Vos, Patrice O'Neal, and Nick DiPaolo. Jimmy Fallon started his career performing at the club.

Joseph Bertolozzi's Bridge Music is a sound-art installation on the Mid-Hudson Bridge.

The Chance Theater and Mid-Hudson Civic Center ranked #4 and 5, respectively, on a list of Poughkeepsie's most Instagrammed locations in 2016.

Library
The Poughkeepsie Public Library has a central branch on Market Street and a branch location on Boardman Road.

Transportation
Poughkeepsie sits at the junction of the north–south US 9 and east–west US 44 and NY 55 highways.

Rail commuter service to New York City is provided at the Poughkeepsie Metro-North station by the MTA's Metro-North Railroad. Poughkeepsie is the northern terminus of Metro-North's Hudson Line. Amtrak also serves the station, along the Hudson River south to New York City's Pennsylvania Station and north along the river to Albany-Rensselaer station and points further north and west. Amtrak trains serving Poughkeepsie are the Adirondack, Empire Service, Ethan Allen Express, Maple Leaf, and Lake Shore Limited. The Mid-Hudson Bridge, opened in 1930, carries US 44 and NY 55 across the Hudson River from Poughkeepsie to Highland. The Poughkeepsie Bridge opened in 1889 to carry railroad traffic across the Hudson, the usage of the bridge came to an end when a 1974 fire damaged its decking. A local group (Walkway over the Hudson) raised the funds to convert the bridge into a unique linear park connecting rail-trails on both sides of the Hudson River. The Walkway Over The Hudson opened on October 3, 2009, coinciding with the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson's first exploration of the river named for him. The bridge is now open for pedestrian and bicycle use and is a state historic park. The Dutchess County Airport in nearby Wappinger services general aviation, although it once had scheduled air carrier service by Colonial Airlines in the 1950s and regional airline service by Command Airways and others in the 1960s–1980s. The nearest major airport to Poughkeepsie is Stewart International Airport about 25 mi south in Newburgh. Other nearby airports include Westchester County Airport approximately 58.1 mi south, Albany International Airport approximately 85 mi north and the three major metropolitan airports for New York City: John F. Kennedy International Airport approximately 88 mi south, Newark Liberty International Airport approximately 88 mi south, and LaGuardia Airport approximately 80 mi south.

Bus transit service is provided by Dutchess County Public Transit, operated by Dutchess County, which travels throughout Dutchess County and also serves as the main link to the Route 9 corridor, including Poughkeepsie Galleria and South Hills Mall.

Both services have a quasi-hub at the intersection of Main and Market streets, adjacent to the Mid-Hudson Civic Center and at the west end of the former pedestrian-only Main Mall (the mall was removed in 2001, with those blocks being restored back to traffic and to the name Main Street). Other buses serving this area include Adirondack Trailways, Short Line, commuter runs to White Plains, and a shuttle to New Paltz.

Notable people

 * George Appo, pickpocket and con artist: operated in a green goods scam in Poughkeepsie for a short period in the 19th century
 * George G. Barnard, state judge impeached by the Court for the Trial of Impeachments for events during the Erie War
 * Chris Bell, film director and producer
 * Joseph Bertolozzi, composer, musician, and creator of Bridge Music and Tower Music projects
 * Josh Billings, pen name of Henry Wheeler Shaw, humorist of mid-to-late 19th century
 * Jane Bolin, the first black woman to serve as a judge in the United States
 * Alfred Mosher Butts (1899-1993), architect; inventor of Scrabble
 * Rob Chianelli, drummer for We Are the In Crowd
 * Shawn Christensen, Oscar-winning screenwriter, film director, singer-songwriter, actor and painter
 * Richard Connell, author
 * Philip Schuyler Crooke (1810–1881), was a U.S. Representative
 * Andrew Jackson Davis (1826–1920), known variously as the "Poughkeepsie Seer" or "The Seer of Poughkeepsie"
 * Cathy Davis, boxer
 * Amanda Minnie Douglas (1831–1916), writer
 * Bill Duke, actor and film director
 * Chris Dyson, racecar driver
 * Martin Faust, actor
 * Kendall Francois, serial killer
 * Carolyn Garcia, a/k/a "Mountain Girl", Merry Prankster, wife of Grateful Dead guitarist Jerry Garcia
 * Benjamin A. Gilman, former U.S. congressman
 * Alex Goot, YouTube musician
 * Against The Current (band), pop/rock musicians with Chrissy Costanza as their lead singer
 * Dustin Higgs, convicted murderer executed by the United States federal government
 * Mela Hudson, actress, producer
 * Jonathan Idema, self-proclaimed counter-terrorism expert and covert operations specialist, partially served sentence in Pul-e-Charkhi prison in Afghanistan before being pardoned by Hamid Karzai
 * Tibor Kalman, graphic designer, emigrated from Hungary to Poughkeepsie as a child
 * Hevad Khan, poker player
 * G. Gordon Liddy, key figure in Watergate scandal
 * Keith Lockhart, conductor of Boston Pops Orchestra
 * Bartlett Marshall Low, Minnesota state legislator and businessman
 * Terry MacAlmon, Christian musician
 * Jocko Maggiacomo, race car driver
 * Joe McPhee, jazz multi-instrumentalist
 * Johnny Miller, pioneering aviator, brother of Lee Miller
 * Lee Miller, fashion model, photographer and World War II correspondent, sister of Johnny Miller
 * Alison Mountz, political geographer
 * Sergio Rossetti Morosini, artist, conservator
 * Sterling Morrison, guitarist for the 1960s rock band The Velvet Underground
 * Anna Morton, Second Lady of the United States from 1889 to 1893
 * Billy Name, photographer, filmmaker, artist and Andy Warhol collaborator
 * Homer Augustus Nelson, lawyer, Representative, Secretary of State of New York and colonel in Union Army
 * Michelle Nijhuis, science journalist
 * Mark Parker, president and CEO of Nike, Inc.
 * Edmund Platt, former U.S. Representative
 * Dave Price, WNBC-TV Weatherman
 * William Radford (1814–1870), former U.S. Representative
 * Barbara Rhoades, film and television actress
 * Richard Rinaldi, NBA guard
 * Robert Sheckley, author, nominated for Hugo and Nebula awards
 * Leonard B. Smith, jazz cornetist and composer
 * Charles Spencer, professional football offensive tackle
 * Monty Stickles, AFL and NFL football player
 * Debi Thomas, figure skater, 1986 world champion and 1988 Olympic bronze medalist
 * Matthew Vassar, founded Vassar College in 1861
 * Riley Weston, screenwriter best known for her work on Felicity
 * Andre Williams, NFL running back, 2013 Heisman Trophy finalist
 * Ed Wood, film director
 * Cory Wong, musician

Scientists and inventors

 * Sara Josephine Baker, physician, inventor of infant formula
 * William Henry Brewer, chemist, geologist and botanist
 * Alfred Mosher Butts, architect and inventor of board game Scrabble
 * Donald Klein, chemist and inventor of MOSFET transistor
 * Fritz Lipmann, biochemist and Nobelprizewinner
 * Calvin D. MacCracken, inventor
 * Harold J. Morowitz, biophysicist
 * Samuel Morse, Morse code
 * Samuel Slocum, inventor
 * William Wallace Smith 2nd, chemist: first cough drops produced and advertised in the United States

Major League Baseball players

 * Frank Bahret
 * Tommy Boggs
 * Buttons Briggs
 * Frank Cimorelli
 * Bill Daley
 * Ricky Horton
 * Fred Lasher
 * Mickey McDermott
 * Jeff Pierce
 * Elmer Steele

Bands

 * Against the Current (pop rock)
 * Genghis Tron (grindcore metal)
 * Matchbook Romance (emo punk)
 * Pound (rock)
 * Shai Hulud (hardcore metal)
 * That's Outrageous! (metalcore)
 * We Are the In Crowd (pop punk)

title: Poughkeepsie, New York


text:
Poughkeepsie (town), New York

Poughkeepsie, officially the Town of Poughkeepsie, is a town in Dutchess County, New York, United States. As of the 2020 United States Census, the population was 45,471. The name is derived from the native compound Uppuqui-ipis-ing, from Uppuqui meaning "lodge-covered", plus ipis meaning "little water", plus ing meaning "place", all of which translates to "the reed-covered lodge by the little water place". This later evolved into Apokeepsing, then into Poughkeepsing, and finally Poughkeepsie.

The area includes a large IBM campus noted for its ongoing development and manufacturing of IBM mainframes.

History
The town was first settled circa 1780 and was part of the Schuyler Patent of 1788. The town of Poughkeepsie was established in 1788 as part of a general organization of towns in the county. In 1854, part of the western section of the town, already an independent village, became the city of Poughkeepsie. At least two National Historic Landmarks are located in the town: the Vassar College Observatory and the Main Building of Vassar College.

Education
Vassar College, Dutchess Community College, and Marist College are located in the town of Poughkeepsie.

Sections of the town are in several school districts: Arlington Central, Spackenkill Union Free, Hyde Park Central, and Wappingers Central. The first Arlington High School was in Poughkeepsie before being moved to the more rural Lagrangeville.

Our Lady of Lourdes High School is a private, co-educational, Catholic high school located at a former IBM site on Boardman Road.

Poughkeepsie Day School is an independent, co-educational, day school for students from pre-kindergarten (3 years) through grade 12, located at another former IBM site on Boardman Road.

Oakwood Friends School is a private, co-educational middle school and high school located near the western end of State Route 113 (Spackenkill Road).

Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 80.7 sqkm, of which 73.9 sqkm is land and 6.8 sqkm, or 8.44%, is water.

The Hudson River, which marks the boundary of the Ulster County towns of Lloyd and Marlborough and the Orange County town of Newburgh, forms the majority of the western border of the town. The city of Poughkeepsie occupies the remainder of the town's western border. The town is bordered by Hyde Park to the north, Pleasant Valley to the northeast, LaGrange to the east, and Wappinger to the southeast.

U.S. Route 9, U.S. Route 44 and State Route 55 pass through the town.

Government
The town of Poughkeepsie operates under a council–manager form of government. The Town Supervisor is the chief administrative officer of the town and village, selected to carry out the directives of the council. The Deputy Supervisor monitors the town's fiscal condition and enforces its ordinances and laws. The Town Supervisor is also involved in the discussion of all matters coming before council yet has no final vote. The Town Board is the legislative body consisting of the Town Supervisor and five council members. The Town Supervisor serves as the presiding officer of the council. The council functions to set policy, approve the annual budget and enact local laws, resolutions and ordinances. The Town Supervisor and Town Clerk are elected officials, as are the Town Council members from the six wards of the town.

Fire
Three fire departments cover the town of Poughkeepsie: the Arlington Fire District covers most of the town, from the southern end to the LaGrange line, from the city line north, the Fairview Fire Department covers a small 4 mi section in the northern section of the town near Saint Francis Hospital, and the New Hamburg Fire Department covers the south end. The fire districts operate a total of seven fire stations spread out over the town, as their district covers a very large area. The departments are capable of handling fires, rescues, extrications and natural disasters. The departments operate a varied fire apparatus fleet, along with basic life support and advanced life support emergency medical services (EMS) within the Arlington Fire District. Within the Fairview section, Mobile Life Support Services is contracted to handle advanced life support calls. All EMS transports in the New Hamburg Fire District are covered by Mobile Life Support Services through a contract with the town of Poughkeepsie.

Police
Police protection is provided by the Town of Poughkeepsie Police Department. When someone calls 911, the call is routed to the Dutchess 911 center in the town of Poughkeepsie, and they route it to the town police department's communications center, who then dispatch the closest unit(s) based on a GPS map.

Medical
The Mid-Hudson Regional Hospital of Westchester Medical Center is located in the town, and Vassar Brothers Medical Center is located a mile away in the city of Poughkeepsie.

Demographics

As of the census of 2000, there were 42,777 people, 14,605 households, and 10,121 families residing in the town. The population density was 1,487.5 PD/sqmi. There were 15,132 housing units at an average density of 526.2 /sqmi. The racial makeup of the town was 63.01% White, 38.07% Black or African American, 0.14% Native American, 5.13% Asian, 0.02% Pacific Islander, 1.62% from other races, and 2.00% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 5.27% of the population.

There were 14,605 households, out of which 32.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 55.8% were married couples living together, 9.6% had a female householder with no husband present, and 30.7% were non-families. 25.0% of all households were made up of individuals, and 9.6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.57 and the average family size was 3.10.

In the town, the population was spread out, with 22.6% under the age of 18, 16.9% from 18 to 24, 26.4% from 25 to 44, 21.3% from 45 to 64, and 12.9% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 35 years. For every 100 females, there were 91.8 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 88.3 males.

The median income for a household in the town was $55,327, and the median income for a family was $65,258. Males had a median income of $46,701 versus $31,005 for females. The per capita income for the town was $23,589. About 3.3% of families and 5.7% of the population were below the poverty line, including 5.6% of those under age 18 and 5.0% of those age 65 or over.

Rail
Amtrak, the national passenger rail system, provides regular service to Poughkeepsie city. Poughkeepsie also has commuter rail service via the Hudson Line (Metro-North).

Bus
Dutchess County Public Transit bus system provides service throughout the town.

Communities and locations in or near the town of Poughkeepsie

 * Arlington – A suburb that is located in the town, east of the city line. The Arlington Central School District takes its name from the area.
 * Barnegat – A location in the southwestern part of the town.
 * Colonial Heights – A hamlet west of Rochdale.
 * Clark Heights – A location at the northeastern town line in Pleasant Valley. (Home of the Boy)
 * Crown Heights – A hamlet on the western side of the town.
 * Fairview – A community in the northern part of the town that borders the northern city line.
 * MacDonnell Heights – A hamlet southwest of Rochdale.
 * New Hamburg – A small hamlet along the Hudson River that is home to a popular marina and a busy Metro-North train station. Adjacent to Wappingers Falls, the hamlet is the southwesternmost point in the town.
 * Poughkeepsie – The town of Poughkeepsie wraps around the city of Poughkeepsie in a crescent shape.
 * Red Oaks Mill - A suburb located southeast of the city. The area borders Spackenkill on the east and centers on the intersection of Vassar Road (Dutchess County 77), Spackenkill Road (New York State Route 113) and New Hackensack Road (New York State Route 376). A small, residential side street also feeds into the intersection.
 * Rochdale – A hamlet by the eastern town line, sandwiched between Arlington and Pleasant Valley.
 * Rudco – Once a small parcel of farmland before World War II, it was purchased in 1942 by IBM to expand upon.
 * Spackenkill – Hamlet located in the town occupies the area south of the city line, including the Hagantown and Kingwood Park neighborhoods. The Spackenkill Union Free School District takes its name from the area. An IBM plant is also located in the area, and many of its employees live in Spackenkill.
 * Van Keurens – Hamlet; this land is mostly taken over by the Clinton Point Quarry, owned by Tilcon, Inc.
 * Wappingers Falls – A small part of the Village of Wappingers Falls is in the southern part of the town.

Notable people

 * Bill Duke, actor
 * Taylor Jardine, lead singer for We Are The In Crowd
 * Jeh Johnson, United States Secretary of Homeland Security (Cottam Hill)
 * Johnny Miller, pioneering aviator, brother of Lee Miller
 * Lee Miller, Vogue photographer and World War II correspondent
 * Samuel Morse, American painter who turned inventor
 * Matthew Vassar of England, who died at his namesake Vassar College

title: Poughkeepsie (town), New York


text:
Red Hook (village), New York

Red Hook is a village in Dutchess County, New York, United States. The population was 11,975 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Poughkeepsie–Newburgh–Middletown, NY Metropolitan Statistical Area as well as the larger New York–Newark–Bridgeport, NY-NJ-CT-PA Combined Statistical Area. The name is derived from the Dutch "Roode Hoeck" – hoeck meaning peninsula, and roode meaning red – a reference to the vibrant reds in the area's fall foliage.

The village is in the town of Red Hook, located on U.S. Route 9. Red Hook is near Bard College and the Hudson River.

History
The region was part of the Schuyler Patent. The village was formerly "Lower Red Hook" and sometimes referred to as "Hardscrabble".

Nicholas Bonesteel and his wife, Anna Margretha Kuhns, were among the early settlers, possibly as early as 1723. A portion of the village lies on the easterly part of what once was their farm.

Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the village has a total area of 2.9 sqkm, of which 0.03 sqkm, or 1.12%, is water.

Demographics
As of the census of 2000, there were 1,805 people, 765 households, and 491 families residing in the village. The population density was 1,664.9 PD/sqmi. There were 798 housing units at an average density of 736.1 /sqmi. The racial makeup of the village was 95.46% white, .66% African-American, .06% Native American, 1.72% Asian, .06% Pacific Islander, 1.11% from other races, and .94% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 3.55% of the population.

There were 765 households, out of which 29.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 49.3% were married couples living together, 10.6% had a female householder with no husband present, and 35.7% were non-families. Of all households, 28.8% were made up of individuals, and 11.8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.36 and the average family size was 2.92.

In the village, the population was spread out, with 23.2% under the age of 18, 9.1% from 18 to 24, 28.0% from 25 to 44, 22.8% from 45 to 64, and 16.8% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 39 years. For every 100 females, there were 98.1 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 90.6 males.

The median income for a household in the village was $37,284, and the median income for a family was $48,125. Males had a median income of $35,580 versus $25,563 for females. The per capita income for the village was $20,618. About 4.9% of families and 8.6% of the population were below the poverty line, including 6.3% of those under age 18 and 2.0% of those age 65 or over.

Transportation
Red Hook is served by Dutchess County Public Transit's route "C" bus.

title: Red Hook (village), New York


text:
Red Hook, New York

Red Hook is a town in Dutchess County, New York, United States. The population was 9,953 at the time of the 2020 census, down from 11,319 in 2010. The name is supposedly derived from the red foliage on trees on a small strip of land on the Hudson River The town contains two villages, Red Hook and Tivoli. The town is in the northwest part of Dutchess County.

The town also contains two hamlets. Bard College is in the hamlet of Annandale-on-Hudson. The Unification Theological Seminary is in the hamlet of Barrytown. Both hamlets are located within the Hudson River Historic District.

History
The original inhabitants of this land were the Mohican, Munsee and Lenape people. During European settlement, Native American tribes played a fundamental role in the area's economy as they traded beaver skin with European settlers. European settlers imported several foreign goods, such as cattle, horses, and sheep. Enslaved African American individuals were also brought. Through importing non-native species, the landscape and ecology of this region has been dramatically changed.

European settler-colonial understandings of land-ownership are different from the perspectives of Mohican, Munsee and Lenape land use, a difference not often reflected in the land deeds that establish European presence on this land. The Lenape believed that Kishelëmukòng had created the earth for all people and creatures, meaning that land could not be appropriated by any individual or despoiled for personal profit. In this way, this group of people did not understand the process of selling land but believed they would receive continued access to it to hunt, fish, forage, or even plant crops. Through Schuyler's Patent, Dutch settler Peter Schuyler acquired two tracts of land from unidentified native peoples, “one near Red Hook and one south of Poughkeepsie” in 1688. One of the three place-names identified in Schuyler's Patent is given in the Munsee language.

Prior to 1812, Red Hook was part of the town of Rhinebeck. Because Rhinebeck, as well other towns, had populations over 5,000 residents, the state legislature authorized the separation of these two precincts on June 12 to accommodate and encourage public attendance at town meetings via horseback or carriage. The first documented Town of Red Hook meeting was on April 6, 1813, in a local inn and held yearly afterwards as required by law. Wealthy landowning farmers oversaw the maintenance of their assigned roads with the help of their farm workers and neighbors. The Red Hook Society for the Apprehension and Detention of Horse Thieves is thought to be one of the oldest formal organizations in the state and still holds an annual meeting.

Geography
Prior to European settlement, the land surrounding the Mahicannituck, or the Hudson River, included “forested hills, meadows, and tributary streams”. This landscape of the river, as well as the surrounding land, was often portrayed in a romanticized, naturalized fashion to depict an American “wilderness” that was devoid of Indigenous presence to further narratives of European exploration of the Americas. This same landscape was described in small detail in Hendrick Aupaumut’s written account of the Native history of the Mohicans in 1791, showing that Native people enjoyed this same landscape prior to these settlers’ arrival. Upon their arrival, settlers changed this landscape through the building of grist mills, sawmills, a carding machine, a trip hammer, and a distillery in 1797. Other more contemporary examples of the change in the geography of the town of Red Hook include the development of Tivoli North Bay and Stony Creek watershed as well as the Tivoli South Bay and the Saw Kill watershed. European settlement did not always cause environmental change but it may or may not have altered the rate at which environmental change naturally occurs.

The Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohicans have identified Dutchess County, which includes Red Hook, as an area of archeological interest.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the town currently has a total area of 103.7 sqkm, of which 93.7 sqkm is land and 10.0 sqkm, or 9.67%, is water. The northern town line is the border of Columbia County. The western town boundary is the border of Ulster County and is delineated by the center of the Hudson River.

Education
The town of Red Hook has its own school district (which also includes part of the neighboring towns of Milan and Livingston). Grades pre-kindergarten to five attend the Mill Road Elementary School, grades 6–8 attend the Linden Avenue Middle School, and grades 9–12 attend the Red Hook High School. Over 80% of its graduates go on to two and four-year colleges.

Bard College (nee St. Stephen's College), established, 1860, is a private college in the hamlet of Annandale-on-Hudson with undergraduate and graduate programs.

Culture
Bard College has various components that are open to the general public.
 * Bard Conservatory of Music, events at Fisher Center for the Performing Arts.
 * Hannah Arendt Center for Politics and Humanities.
 * Hessel Museum of Art at Bard College.

The Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome, a living museum of aircraft, is in the southeast part of the town.

Poets' Walk Park is to the southwestern part of Red Hook. Created by landscape architect Hugo Jacob Ehlers, it is managed by the Scenic Hudson Land Trust and on its western side it overlooks the Hudson River.

Demographics (2010)
As of the census of 2010, there were 11,149 people, 3,851 households, and 2,473 families residing in the town. The population density was 283.6 PD/sqmi. There were 3,851 housing units at an average density of 104.6 /sqmi. The racial makeup of the town was 90.1% white, 1.44% African American, .50% Native American, 3.3% Asian, 0% Pacific Islander, .65% from other races, and 1.6% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 6.7% of the population.

There were 3,851 households. 18.4% were children under the age of 18, 56.5% were married couples living together, 9.3% had a female householder with no husband present, and 30.8% were non-families. Of all households 23.4% were made up of individuals, and 9.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.63 and the average family size was 3.14.

In the town, the population was spread out, with 18.4% under the age of 18, 15.0% from 18 to 24, 25.8% from 25 to 44, 22.6% from 45 to 64, and 16.0% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 36 years. For every 100 females, there were 94.5 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 89 males. The percentage of female persons was 51.3%.

The median income for a household in the town was $46,701, and the median income for a family was $57,950. Males had a median income of $42,099 versus $26,694 for females. The per capita income for the town was $20,410. About 5.0% of families and 8.7% of the population were below the poverty line, including 7.8% of those under age 18 and 5.2% of those age 65 or over.

Communities and locations in the town of Red Hook

 * Annandale-on-Hudson: a hamlet in the northwest part of the town by the Hudson River. Because this community does not have a well-developed business district, students of Bard College often use the villages of Tivoli and downtown Red Hook as "college towns".
 * Bard College: a college located in the northwestern part of the town, which was listed as a CDP in 2020.
 * Barrytown: a hamlet south of Annandale-on-Hudson. The north junction of NY 9G and NY 199 is known as Barrytown Corners.
 * Cokertown: a hamlet in the northeastern part of the town, located along County Route 56.
 * College Park: a housing development east of Bard College.
 * Forest Park: a housing development in the southern section of the town.
 * Fraleighs: a hamlet in the eastern part of the town.
 * Kerleys Corners: a hamlet near the north town line at the junction of US 9 and County Route 78.
 * Linden Acres: a housing development northwest of Red Hook village.
 * Red Hook, the village.
 * Red Hook Mills: a hamlet north of Red Hook village.
 * Spring Lakes: a small hamlet along County Route 55.
 * Tivoli: this village is in the northwestern part of the town, by the Hudson River, on the western side of NY 9G.
 * Upper Red Hook: a hamlet north of Red Hook village.

Airport
Sky Park Airport was a public use general aviation facility located two nautical miles (4 km) east of Red Hook's central business district (Broadway-US 9 and Market Street -NY 199). Sky Park Airport is no longer in service.

Roads
U.S Route 9 runs north-south through Red Hook. New York State Route 9G passes north-south through villages in that are adjacent to the Hudson River. New York State Route 199 runs east-west through the town, and it passes west over the Hudson River towards Kingston, New York.

Railroad
Until 1956, as many as three New York Central Railroad trains a day south-bound from Albany to New York City made stops at Barrytown's depot (in the hamlet to the Hudson River tributary, Sawkill Creek, south of Bard College). As many as four north-bound trains a day, including the Delaware & Hudson's Laurentian, made stops at Barrytown. By 1960, the depot fell from the NYC's passenger schedules as a station stop.

Notable people

 * Hannah Arendt, philosopher and author
 * Egbert Benson, first New York Attorney General
 * Lewis Combs, admiral
 * Jon Dalzell, American-Israeli basketball player
 * Dorothy Day, founder of the Catholic Worker Movement
 * Stephen Hickman, artist
 * Gary Hill, video artist
 * Samantha Hunt, writer
 * George E. Jonas, industrialist and founder of Camp Rising Sun, an international scholarship summer leadership program
 * Robert Kelly, poet
 * Alison Knowles, artist active in the Fluxus movement
 * Charlotte Mandell, literary translator
 * Brice Marden, noted abstract painter and printmaker
 * Joseph G. Masten, mayor of Buffalo, 1843–1844 and 1845–1846
 * John Morris, film and TV composer.
 * Kyle Murphy, professional soccer player
 * Peter Serkin, classical pianist.
 * Robert Sheckley, science fiction writer
 * William B. Sheldon, Wisconsin territorial legislator and lawyer
 * Sheridan Shook, businessman and tax collector
 * Gore Vidal, writer and public intellectual

title: Red Hook, New York


text:
Rhinebeck (village), New York

Rhinebeck is a village in the town of Rhinebeck in Dutchess County, New York, United States. The population was 2,657 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Poughkeepsie–Newburgh–Middletown, NY Metropolitan Statistical Area as well as the larger New York–Newark–Connecticut.

The postal ZIP code is 12572. U.S. Route 9 passes through the village.

Native American presence
The Sepasco band of Native Americans lived in the area of today's Rhinebeck at the time white colonists arrived. Sepasco/Sepascot is derived from the word sepuus, which means little river or stream, and refers to the Landman's Kill stream whose cot or coot, meaning mouth, opens onto the southwestern shoreline of present-day Rhinebeck. This was the watershed of the Sepascos.

The Sepasco tribe had established a fertile stretch of land as a trail or tract leading from what is currently White School House Road to what later became the Rock City Community, east of where the village of Rhinebeck is now. A stopping point on the trail must have been a spring located there, that then led to the Landman's Kill stream and followed it to the east, along the north bank. The trail continued to a native village at what is currently known as Lake Sepasco, close in proximity to the cave later called Welch's Cave.

Colonial settlement
European settlement in the Rhinebeck area dates to 1686, when a group of Dutch crossed the river from Kingston and bought 2200 acre of land from three members of the local Sepasco tribe. Later, Henry Beekman obtained a patent for the land and saw a need for development to begin. He brought into the area Casper Landsman, a miller, and William Traphagen, a builder. In 1703, the New York colonial assembly approved money for the construction of the King's Highway, later known as the Albany Post Road and today most of Route 9. Three years later Traphagen bought a tract of land in Beekman's patent where the King's Highway intersected the Sepasco Indian Trail, the route today followed by Market Street. He built a house and tavern on the trail a short distance west of the King's Highway. This was the beginning of Rhinebeck.

A decade later, in 1715, Beekman's son brought in 35 German Palatines who had fled religious persecution at home and had just concluded an attempt to produce naval stores for the British government on the lands of Robert Livingston to the north in what is now Columbia County. The village grew with the new arrivals. New trades established themselves, and in 1733 the Reformed Dutch Church was built. Its first building was on the site of its current one at Mill and South streets. In 1766 the beginnings of the current Beekman Inn were erected. It has remained in operation as a hotel ever since. In the mid-1770s, a former soldier named Richard Montgomery moved from Knight's Bridge (now the Bronx) into the Rhinebeck village with his new wife, a member of the Livingston family. He had just begun to settle into life as a farmer when the American Revolution began. After being elected to the New York Provincial Congress, he was commissioned a general in the Continental Army, and died at the end of 1775 in the Battle of Quebec. Montgomery's cottage still stands, although it was moved to 77 Livingston Street, where it houses the local Daughters of the American Revolution chapter; the street it was on was later named in his honor. After independence from Britain the village continued to grow. The town of Rhinebeck, which contains the village, was organized in 1788. The current Dutch Reformed Church was built in 1802, making it the oldest church in the village. The current route of East Market Street was laid out the same year during construction of the Ulster-Saulsbury Turnpike, later to become Route 308. Rhinebeck continued to attract politicians. George Washington visited in 1796, dining at Bogardus's, the second Traphagen Tavern, when he stayed at a nearby friend's house. During the 1804 gubernatorial election, both Aaron Burr and Morgan Lewis used taverns in Rhinebeck as campaign headquarters. The village was incorporated in 1834. Ten years later, Alexander Jackson Davis built the Henry Delamater House at 44 Montgomery Street. It still stands today, one of the best examples in the area of the early use of the Gothic Revival style in American residential architecture.

By the 1850s, Rhinebeck had grown even further and acquired a reputation as a woodworking center. The town's name on milled products was a symbol of quality, and its furniture was shipped as far away as South Carolina. It was said to have no better in making carriages, coaches and sleighs. Some makers of clothing also achieved national prestige. The area was also acquiring a cachet as a location for the country estates of the Gilded Age wealthy, and those people could frequently be seen in town during the summer and on weekends.

In 1885, former congressman and ambassador to France Levi P. Morton settled in Bois Dore on Mill Street. Benjamin Harrison chose him to be his running mate on the 1888 Republican ticket. Harrison was visiting him in Rhinebeck later that year when word came to them that they had just been elected. Later, Morton would serve as governor of the state. He died there in 1920 and is buried in Rhinebeck Cemetery.

The end of the 19th century saw a new industry center on Rhinebeck: the cultivation of violets. Roughly 20% of the village's population during the Gay Nineties was in this business in some way, and the total crop was later estimated to have exceeded a million dollars in value some years. Several of the "violet houses" built during this era survive and are located in the district.

An 1890 map of the village shows it as nearly coterminous with today's historic district. That area has remained mostly as it was at that time. A third president, Franklin D. Roosevelt, himself a native of nearby Hyde Park, would play a role in the town's history during the later years of the Great Depression when he oversaw the design process for the new post office. He had long promoted Dutch-style fieldstone as a material for public buildings in the area, and told the architects to use Henry Beekman's house (burned in a 1910 fire) as their model and some of its remaining stones for the post office. He spoke at the dedication ceremony and helped lay the cornerstone. The oldest building in the village is the Benner House, built in 1739.

The Wilderstein mansion, a current historical site on the Hudson River, features both colonial and archaeological history dating from June 1853. "Wilderstein", named by Thomas Suckley and his wife Catherine Murray Bowne and which translates to "wild man's stone", references a petroglyph from local Sepasco or Esopus peoples on the property, serving as a historical reminder of pre-European settlement.

Geography
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the village has a total area of 4.0 sqkm, of which 0.05 sqkm, or 1.31%, is water.

Via U.S. Route 9 it is 17 mi south to Poughkeepsie, the county seat, 5 mi north to Red Hook, and 26 mi north to Hudson. Rhinecliff, with its Amtrak station, is 2 mi to the west, along the Hudson River.

Demographics
As of the census of 2000, there were 3,077 people, 1,376 households, and 690 families residing in the village. The population density was 1902.1 PD/sqmi. There were 1,463 housing units at an average density of 904.4 /sqmi.

There were 1,376 households, out of which 19.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 40.7% were married couples living together, 7.5% had a female householder with no husband present, and 49.8% were non-families. 43.6% of all households were made up of individuals, and 22.7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.00 and the average family size was 2.78.

In the village, the population was spread out, with 18.9% under the age of 18, 4.8% from 18 to 24, 23.3% from 25 to 44, 24.2% from 45 to 64, and 28.7% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 47 years. For every 100 women there were 80.6 men. For every 100 women age 18 and over, there were 70.5 men.

The median income for a household in the village was $41,639, and the median income for a family was $57,000. Males had a median income of $46,653 versus $40,058 for females. The per capita income for the village was $28,773. About 3.4% of families and 9.2% of the population were below the poverty line, including 10.7% of those under age 18 and 6.4% of those age 65 or over.

Racial demographics
As of 2017, the residents of Dutchess County were reported as the following: American Indian and Alaska native (.04%), Asian (4%), black or African American (8.5%), Hispanic or Latino (12.5%), native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander (.016%), some other race (.35%), two or more races (3%), White (71%).

Education
It is within the Rhinebeck Central School District.

Notable people

 * John Alvin, film poster artist
 * Alexander Ahab Arnold, Speaker of the Wisconsin State Assembly
 * John Jacob Astor IV, wealthy author and businessman, famous for being a casualty of the sinking of the RMS Titanic
 * Vincent Astor, wealthy businessman and philanthropist
 * Joan Juliet Buck, writer, editor and style icon
 * Antonio Delgado, lieutenant governor of New York and former U.S. Congressman
 * Lacey Schwartz Delgado, filmmaker and wife of the lieutenant governor of New York
 * Todd Dezago, comic book writer and co-creator of The Perhapanauts
 * Amy Goldman Fowler, gardener and horticulturist
 * KL Going, author
 * James Gurney, painter and creator of the Dinotopia series of books
 * Grayson Hall, film and television actress
 * Joseph Mazzello, actor
 * Levi P. Morton, 22nd Vice President of the United States, died in Rhinebeck and buried in Rhinebeck Cemetery
 * Richard Nelson, playwright and librettist
 * John A. Quitman, 10th and 16th governor of Mississippi, and congressman from Mississippi
 * Jacob Radcliff, former mayor of New York City
 * Emma Roberts, American actress
 * Paul Rudd, actor
 * Anthony "Fat Tony" Salerno, former head of the Genovese Crime Family
 * Ramona Singer, of The Real Housewives of New York City
 * Margaret Suckley, cousin of Franklin Delano Roosevelt
 * Elizabeth Weston Timlow, writer and educator
 * Rufus Wainwright, American-Canadian singer-songwriter

title: Rhinebeck (village), New York