Explore Hudson Valley APRIL - JUNE 2017 • ULSTER PUBLISHING • WWW.HUDSONVALLEYONE.COM Where to Guide A river has two sides A season full of destinations, events, traditions, histories and musings 2 • April - June, 2017 Explore Hudson Valley Our river has two sides, and it’s very wide By Paul Smart tanding by the banks of the Hudson near the site of an old ice house (which could be most Sanywhere on either shoreline), my kid’s jumping rock to rock with the dog. A duck of some sort skirts the still water headed north (must be that mo- ment between the incoming and outgo- ing tides). I can see houses, a small city in the distance. There’s a hint of distant hills, and even more distant mountains. A train scurries north not a half hour since the last one did the same. Things must have gotten blocked up down in the city, I think. Behind me is a small hillside, fields to the north and forest to the south. I’m facing east, of course, towards Columbia and Dutchess counties, and Connecticut and Massachusetts, along with the rest of New England. Do I feel the Catskill Mountains, Pennsylvania and Ohio and the rest of the Midwest and West behind me? Not really, only if I start to put my mind to it. A river has two sides. This idea came up at a recent meeting. The concept envel- oped much of our region’s history, as well as that of our modern politics. Son Milo tries skipping rocks. After a while he settles for plunking the biggest he can the farthest he can. The dog is sniffing for whatever inhabits both sides of the water flowing before us. I think back to the time I watched a friend join a huge crowd down in Newburgh, all swimming east towards Beacon for some benefit. I think of smaller rivers I’ve swum across — the Thames (far upstream from London), the Connecticut (New Hamp- shire to Vermont), and the James near my boyhood home in Virginia — as well as those I’ve dreamed of at least trying to swim in, from the Seine and the Tiber to PHOTO COURTESY OF NY PARKS DEPARTMENT the mighty Mississippi. The view from Clermont in Columbia County, which looks west beyond Some things start to make sense when the Hudson River to the lands the Livingston family owned in the Catskills, you look at a wide river. Without the captures much of what still draws people to the Hudson Valley. Explore Hudson Valley April - June, 2017 • 3 bridge I see from here, it would be almost left? Or thought deeply about how the brand-new urban scenes. impossible for me to get from here to there Potomac must have seemed during the Remember the first crack of the bat on without serious help. Which means I could Civil War? the opening day of the fishing season? go a lifetime without knowing what I can I’ve heard people from the west of the Looking forward to running local trails see from here. I resolve to feel more kindly Hudson, where the valley yields to the with hundreds of others? ‘Tis that season. disposed to the toll-swallowing New York Catskills or Shawangunks and eventually Bittersweet to some, yes, but also a mo- State Bridge Authority. the Appalachians, talk about the eastern ment to engage. Remember Saul Steinberg’s picture of shore as “the moneyed side.” On the east ANTIQUE CENTER ~ AUCTION GALLERY the world as seen from Manhattan? Ever side, the gentler landscape rises through heard Parisians battle over the merits of the Berkshires into a land of old shires and RHINEBECK the right bank versus the allures of the endless stone walls still being maintained. ANTIQUE Suffice it to say that we have two sides to EMPORIUM this river. They’re quite different to us who Table of contents Between Rhinebeck & Hyde Park live here, but as a French person I once 5229 Albany Post Rd escorted around observed, they’re all quite Staatsburg,NY 12580 Introduction the same to someone from elsewhere. ~ OPEN DAILY 10-5 ~ Our river has two sides, and it s very Within these pages, we take a look at 845-876-8168 wide 2 what some from each side have seen and by Paul Smart www.rhinebeckantiqueemporium.com actually come to appreciate after cross- — 10% OFF WITH AD — Hanging out on the Hudson ing our various bridges. We’ll investigate On or by the river is the place to be what our town and city folk think is cool Village Antique Center by Lynn Woods 4out in the rural stretches, along with our country mouse’s view of some interesting at Hyde Park East of Eden A beginners’ guide to the east side of Antiques the Hudson River by Sparrow 10 The east’s view The draw of the left bank of the Hudson Route 9, between Roosevelt and Vanderbilt Mansions River by Jennifer Brizzi 14 (845) 229-6600 Village life Sometimes you need more than the countryside can offer by Lissa Harris 16 Family outings Thrift Shop Downstairs: Fun things for kids and grownups by Roxanne Ferber 20 HIDDEN TREASURES The “Premier Destination for Antiques & Unique Collectibles” Spring sports (845) 229-8200 Getting outdoor exercise 35 N. Front St., Kingston, NY 4192 Albany Post Road by Chris Rowley 28 331-5439 www.hydeparkantiques.net Tuneful colonization There’s a lot of music around this spring by John Burdick 32 To Buy... To Sell Cerebral springtime or just for the fun of it Area campuses offer lots to do Be a part of this Hudson Valley Tradition by Paul Smart 36 Art, grit and history George W. Cole, CAI & Robin B. Mizerak Auctioneer & Appraisers Newburgh, a quirky city on the upswing by Violet Snow 40 Red Hook Business Park, 7578 North Broadway River dharma Just north of the light on Route 9 (next to IGA) For some looking west from Peekskill, 845-758-9114 the Hudson was enough www.georgecoleauctions.com by Rich Corozine 46 4 • April - June, 2017 Explore Hudson Valley Hanging out on the Hudson On or by the river is the place to be By Lynn Woods early every day, I walk my dog at Kingston Point. I park next to an abandoned brick N industrial building and walk along the tracks past a fenced-in area of the former Central Hudson gas field where earth-moving equipment and workers in hardhats are doing some kind of cleanup. The tracks, built on a spur of land in the 19th century to con- vey disembarking passengers by train from the enormous steamships that once docked there to resort hotels in the Catskills, pass through a swampy former lagoon now full of chortling red-winged blackbirds. There’s a magnificent south- ward view of the Hudson River. Every day, the river is different. On a WIKICOMMONS sunny morning, its broad pale-grey sur- Looking up the Hudson River from the Bear Mountain Bridge just south face dazzles with a million points of light. of West Point, one gets a sense of the river’s great width, which has On a windless, overcast day, it’s a silver helped shape the great differences between its two sides. We’ve found innovative ways to bridge our differences. Antiques Hoffman’s Barn ANTIQUE MARKET Antiques ~ Collectibles 1000s of Items OverOveO r 3030 DealersDeallers AMERICANA • COUNTRY • PRIMITIVE VENDORS SPACE PERIOD JEWELRY • ACCESSORIES AVAILABLE DECORATIVE FURNITURE • BOOKS Hours: Fri. & Sat: 9 - 5:30, Sun. 10 - 5 or call for an appointment Located behind historic Beekman Arms Hotel www.hoffmansbarn.com in the center of Rhinebeck, New York email: [email protected] 845-876-3477 Buy & Sell 19 Old Farm Road Rte. 28 • 3 miles west of Phoenicia (845) 758-5668 Red Hook, NY 12571 688-2161 OPEN EVERY DAY 11 AM - 5 PM Explore Hudson Valley April - June, 2017 • 5 mirror, vanishing into mist, otherworldly. who daringly raced over the waves on a a straight line, marking the location of On a sunny, breezy afternoon, the river is terrifically windy March afternoon. Earth- the old pier. deep blue, whipped into peaks laced with bound, I could only experience the wild Such aimless rambling is a luxury in white froth, a flock of lesser scaup docks domain of water and wind vicariously. To today’s world, where so much coastal real riding the waves. In a gale, the surface is be sure, sailing on the river is a thrill (more estate is private, expensive, or spoiled by purple-brown, broken up like clods in a about how you can do that in a minute). a roaring highway. While the opposite freshly plowed field. The more time I’ve spent ambling along shore of the Hudson is bordered by Often an eagle soars overhead, flapping the shore, the more I’m happy to do noth- the Amtrak tracks — watching the tiny its powerful, slab-like wings before land- ing at all except walk, observe, and exult distant silver caterpillar, its horn dispro- ing on a rock along a jetty. Soon the herons in the wide-open space of the river. Every portionately loud, chug into view is yet will return to fish in the shallows by the day offers up its treasure, depending on another pleasure of my walks — access to jetty. The stilt-legged birds, slender as the season. A snapping turtle digging a the river is unimpeded in most of Ulster fashion models, stand motionless before nest in the gravel and soft loam along County.