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Part of Marist College Land History: Hudson River Shoreline and Adjacent Railroads
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Hudson River shoreline and adjacent Railroads
Marist College
The eighteenth and nineteenth century were
periods of strong commercial and industrial
activity along the riverfront in the
Poughkeepsie vicinity. Almost all of the
industrial activity has disappeared. It, s
northernmost reach was above Hoffman
Street, notably the Fallkill Iron Works and
Poughkeepsie Iron Works operated by
Edward Bech and the Myers Dock,
immediately north of the iron works.
see note
1
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Hudson River Railroad
PoughkeeQsie
&
Eastern Railroad
HenrY. D MY.ers dock
Water Treatment Plant
HarveY. G Eastman (1832-1878).
Cornell, California and Washington Boathouses
ExQansion of railroad tracks in 1913
A C Dutton Lumber ComQanY.,
William Martin Boathouse 1963
Longview Park
Endnotes
Hudson River Railroad
The development of the Hudson River Railroad in the
Poughkeepsie area occurred in 1848 - 1852.
see note 2
The
tracks ran normally along shore, but at other places slightly
inland, thus dividing lands of the landowners into two sections,
one between the Highland turnpike and the railroad, the other
between the Hudson River and the railroad tracks. The
descriptions of the land acquired by the railroad give
interesting details of the north/south length of the properties
affected.
see note 3
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Poughkeepsie
&
Eastern RR
The path of the Poughkeepsie
&
Eastern Railroad Company
started at Boston Corners and Millerton on the Connecticut
border and ran across Dutchess County through Pleasant
Valley, passing next to the Fallkill Creek where it borders St.
Peter, s Cemetery, moving directly into the city of
Poughkeepsie near Smith Street where it stored its trains and
equipment.It could not move directly westward across the city
to the Hudson River Railroad because the slope from the city
center to the level of the Hudson River shore was too steep.
Instead it took an s-curve first northward into what would
become the Hudson River State Hospital, then making a U-turn
to move it south, eventually crossing the Highland Turnpike
(now route 9) and sloping downwards to meet the Hudson
River Railroad Company tracks just south of the present Marist
College property, close to the location of the Poughkeepsie Iron
Works.
There were extensive iron ore properties in Amenia and
Millerton and Pine Plains. John Winslow was well aware of this,
as his Troy Iron Works had secured mining rights in that area
and was able to transport the ore by rail to his foundry in Troy.
At the same time, Poughkeepsie Iron Works hauled its ore from
Beekman and Fishkill Plains using oxen and plank roads. In
addition there were several foundries in the east of Dutchess
County which used wood for its furnaces. But the supply of
wood was running out.
Although Winslow was not the originator of the idea of an east-
west railroad in Dutchess County, he was a strong supporter
and was President of the Poughkeepsie
&
Eastern during the
construction and early operation of the railroad
Discussions about such an east west railroad had been held for
two decades, with the main arguments to design an access
route for railroad transportation from New England to the
West. The Connecticut and Western railroad already had
reached Boston Corners in Columbia County. The delay in
organizing and building the P
&
E led to several competing
railroads, such as the Dutchess and Columbia, the Dutchess
and Rhinebeck. Eventually the more favorable route was taken
through Hopewell Junction and Danbury Ct.
The Poughkeepsie
&
Eastern failed during the panic of 1873.
However, it kept operating under different names, even
reverting to its original name toward the end of the nineteenth
century. The last passenger service to Pleasant Valley from the
east county ended in 1937.
see note 4
The path of the Poughkeepsie
&
Eastern became an important
freight route for Western Publishing Company and Shatz
Federal Bearings and several smaller industries in the Fairview
section. As of 2013 its path abuts the Mccann Baseball field
on the Marist campus and runs through the east campus. The
College installed a footbridge over the track bed. The County
is negotiating with the CSX to take over this route as a walking
trail.
see note 5
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Henry D Myers Dock
The Myers dock was never a part of the Marist College campus,
but it is an excellent southern starting place to study the lands
along the river. Henry D Myers built an icehouse there, and
operated an ice harvesting business for two decades. The dock
was sold to Arthur Dutton of Springfield MA who started a
wholesale lumber yard which would at one time be the largest
yard in the Northeast.
see note
6
The Myers dock was important to Dutton because he imported
much of the lumber. When I was a student at Marist (1947-
1950) we constantly saw ships docked there, many of them
from Russia.
see note
7
The wood was aged after unloading,
which entailed spreading it out for several months. This
required more space than Dutton originally owned. On two
occasions the lumber company purchased riverfront land from
the Marist Brothers, first 150 x 100 feet in 1928, and then 600
more riverfront feet in 1929.
see notes
This left the brothers
a small section of about 180 feet immediately to the north of
what had been sold. There was a small cove on this section,
which Dutton filled in with blasting debris it created as it
leveled the 750 feet purchased. This small parcel became the
location of the Martin Boathouse in 1963.
see note
9
Water Treatment Plant
Although the population of Poughkeepsie
City reached 20,000 by 1870, the city had
no central water supply suitable for
household use.
see note
10
In 1855 an
engineer recommended Morgan, s Pond (now called Vassar
College Lake) as a reservoir, but the financial panic of 1857
and the Civil War prevented carrying out this plan. By 1869 an
act of the legislature authorized a committee which would have
borrowing power (subject to a taxpayers, vote) to establish a
water supply. Then began a series of public meetings at which
two of the principal speakers were Harvey G Eastman and
Mayor Morgan. Assemblyman Hegman indicated he did not
believe there was a natural well in Poughkeepsie that was fit
for use for family purposes. Mr. Eastman said that in his visits
to other localities to promote the virtues of Poughkeepsie he
was met with the response that Poughkeepsie had fine schools
and churches, but "Oh so sickley" The taxpayers voted
overwhelmingly to go ahead with planning and implementation
of a water system. About this time Mayor Morgan constructed
Morgan Lake on College Hill, it is said for the purpose of selling
it to the City as part of the water supply.
see note 11
The committee sought the advice of James P Kirkwood of New
York City, a well-known engineer and a specialist in the setting
up water systems. He recommended obtaining the water from
the Hudson River, using sand filtration as the principal means
of treating the water. The commissioners chose a site owned
by Alanson and Sarah Swain from 1858 to 1874. This was a
southernmost section of the Barnard parcel.
see note
12
In
1872 the Swains sold additional land to the City of
Poughkeepsie.
see note
13
Two sand filters were installed,
and remained in use at least until 1905.
The cost of the water works installation and piping to the city
had reached $428,000 by the end of 1873. The panic of 1873
was unforeseen beforehand, and placed heavy burdens on the
City of Poughkeepsie.
see note
14
In 1896 the plant was enlarged using more land from the
Barnard parcel.
see note
1s
Again in 1907 the plant was
expanded, this time taking land from the former Bech estate.
see note
16
About 1970 the plant expanded again, taking more land from
the Barnard lot, but abandoning the original filter beds that
were located east of the railroad where the current
water works road splits, one branch turning north toward the
newer plant, the other turning south towards the Champagnat
mid-rise dormitory near the rotunda.
see note
17
When the
city located a new sewage treatment plant at the southwest
corner of the Myers parcel, the college negotiated a swap of
land, taking possession of the unused portion of the water
treatment facility extending from across the road from the new
water treatment facility to land almost touching the
foundations of the Champagnat dormitory additions. The
original empty filter beds were large enough to fit five
regulation size tennis courts. There was a building adjacent to
the filter beds used for maintenance until the maintenance
department moved across route nine.
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Harvey Gridley Eastman ( 1832 - 1878)
For several decades prior to the Civil War,
an informal group of leading citizens worked
together on projects for the good of
Poughkeepsie. They received the name
Improvement Group, proposing and
investing on several projects, sometimes via government,
sometimes via private enterprise, sometimes with a
combination of public and private. Their enthusiasm was not
always matched with success; many of them sustained large
financial losses in these ventures. After the Civil War another
group of leading citizens worked to improve the City. The water
works project was one such project. Among this group, and
probably the most enthusiastic example was Harvey Gridley
Eastman.
Harvey G Eastman was born near Rochester NY a member of
the Eastman Family.
see note 1s
He began to teach in a
business school run by his uncle in Rochester, and then decided
to found his own school in Oswego NY. In 1959 he moved the
school to Saint Louis, where he made the mistake of hiring
several abolitionist teachers in the slave state of Missouri. In
1959 he moved his school to Poughkeepsie, enrolling one
student in November 1859 but quickly growing to enroll over
1600 students by 1865.
One of his bright ideas was to have the school concentrate on
preparation for business rather than the liberal arts. This was a
variation of the concept of New York University of whom
Samuel F B Morse was a founder. The course work was to
emphasize the practical rather than the theoretical. The
course work might take from one to two years. A second
unusual idea was this: Eastman Business College owned no
buildings! The college rented five separate buildings for its
library and classroom space. There were no college
dormitories. Students were placed with families living in
Poughkeepsie.
Among its distinguished alumni was Sebastian S Kresge,
founder of Kresge variety stores ( often called five-and-dimes)
which has morphed into K-Mart, one of the largest discount
institutions in the United States, especially since K-Mart
acquired Sears store. Another alumna was my first secretary
at Marist College, Mary Travis. She had retired from head
stenographer position at Central Hudson, then worked for me
part time for sixteen years. The contrast between Kresge and
Travis showed that Eastman Business School was a hands-on
institution which covered the entire business spectrum.
Eastman Business School closed its doors in 1931.
Eastman was a promoter. The Eastman College Band played at
Lincoln, s second inauguration and after the assassination
accompanied Lincoln, s body in the official train from
Washington DC to Albany NY. The band helped make the
College known through its frequent trips to play in other cities.
Eastman also plugged for the construction of a bridge across
the Hudson. He was elected to the Assembly in 1873 and
introduced a bill to authorize construction of such a bridge. He
presided over the laying of a cornerstone for the eastern tower
on 17 December 1873. However, the bridge was not opened
for train traffic until 1 January 1889.
Another project for Harvey Eastman was the establishment of
Eastman Park between Market Street and Jefferson Street
which run north/south and Montgomery and Franklin Streets
which run east and west.
see note 19
Eastman envisioned a
park similar to Washington Square in New York City. He
developed a series of homes within a single building
structure.
see note 20
These were placed near the division
between the lower one third and upper two thirds of the Park.
They faced north and onto a new street named Terrace Street.
He was supported in this venture by several leading citizens,
including John Winslow, who purchased a large section of the
lot including the houses.
see note 21
The remainder of Eastman Park was a swampy area fed by
several streams shown on nineteenth century maps. At great
expense Eastman developed drainage systems to convert the
land into parkland. But he built in the capacity to create a pond
in the center with a bandstand. The pond was very popular for
ice skating in the winter months, and the band
once more reminded citizens of the existence of Eastman
Business College, perhaps encouraging some to offer housing
to students coming from other parts of the country.
Harvey G Eastman developed congestion of the lungs. He
traveled to Denver CO in hopes of improving the congestion in
the mile high city. He died there, not yet 46 years old. The
obituary in the New York Times described him as possessing
alert intellect, strong will power, and unimpeachable integrity.
He left his wife Minnie Clark Eastman and two daughters, Cora,
age 19 and Charlotte age 11.
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Land for Cornell, California and Washington boathouses
Just north of the Marist Martin Boathouse
there were four buildings used for the
famed Poughkeepsie regatta. They were the
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Cornell boathouse, the California boathouse, the Washington
boathouse, and a mess hall. These were named after the
colleges and used by several other colleges also, but never
owned by the colleges. They were constructed and owned by
the City of Poughkeepsie on land taken originally for water
works use from the Swain family who owned the lower section
of the Barnard parcel. When the regatta moved away from
Poughkeepsie around 1950, local high schools used the
boathouses to store their shells. Other colleges built and
owned or rented space along the river for their boathouses.
Notable among these was Navy, whose original boathouse still
stands at Quiet Cove north of the Marist College property, and
Columbia whose boathouse was visible from the Marist dock
across the river and north of Marist.
The mess hall and Washington boathouse had disappeared by
the time I returned to Marist as President in 1958, and I
understand the California boathouse experienced a fire in the
early 1960s.
see note
22
During the negotiations for creating
Longview park, the College acquired all the land from below
the Martin Boathouse to the tunnel leading under the tracks,
save for the lot containing the pumping station (and probably
allowing easement rights to the City of Poughkeepsie for repair
and/or replacement of the pipes leading from the pumping
station to the new water works facility east of the railroad
tracks.
Expansion of railroad tracks 1913
Around 1913 the railroad decided to widen its track area to
provide for four tracks rather than two. It hoped to increase
the speed of the trains and carry more freight. As part of its
planning it hoped to eliminate several track crossings.
see note
23
Besides widening its space along the lines, it
negotiated an agreement with the Marist Brothers to diminish
track level crossings. Three different groups of Brothers--
juniors on the Barnard parcel and novices and scholastics on
the Bech parcel-- had been using the Hudson River for
swimming. The railroad agreed to install a tunnel under the
tracks, It is labeled 1912 and the only vehicular entry to Marist
river property, except permissive use of entry from the former
Dutton lumber property. In addition the railroad built two
pedestrian bridges over the tracks. When I negotiated the
purchase of the Myers parcel in 1963, the railroad
representative asked permission to remove the two bridges.
The college agreed to eliminate the northern bridge as
swimming activity had moved to the outdoor pool, but wanted
to maintain the southern bridge which connected the Martin
Boathouse to the area near Leo dormitory. This proved
impractical since students avoided climbing the many steps to
access and leave the bridge, preferring to cross the tracks
themselves. So that bridge was removed by common
agreement between the college and the railroad.
see note 24
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A C Dutton Lumber Company
When one industry dies, others arise to take
their place. The Poughkeepsie Iron Works
and Fallkill Iron Works ceased business in
1913, unable to match newer competition
from the Mesabi Range of ore deposits in
-
Minnesota coupled with coal supply near
Pittsburgh. Arthur C Dutton investigated the
potential for a lumber yard on the docks of
the iron companies, defunct whaling companies and Myers
dock (whose ice harvesting industry was also declining). He
assembled a large area from several sources that he intended
to use as a wholesale distribution center for servicing lumber
yards in the northeastern United States.
see note 2s
The area assembled included space for docking two oceangoing
ships. The lumber company imported lumber, unloaded it on its
docks, allowed it to age/cure by spreading it out in the fresh
air for several months, and then shipping it to local lumber
companies, usually by rail, as it had inherited and upgraded
several spurs to the New York Central Railroad.
Dutton realized that it needed more room to spread out its
aging/curing wood. It arranged two purchases of land from its
northern neighbor, the Marist Brothers.
see note
26
To level
the shoreline required blasting. The rock debris was deposited
in a small cove on the 180 x 150 lot north/south belonging to
the Marist Brothers that was now sandwiched between Dutton
land and land belonging to the City of Poughkeepsie used for
hosting the Poughkeepsie regatta and the intake for the water
works. The rock debris fill created a level spot for Marist
College to locate its Martin Boathouse in 1973. The prices paid
by Dutton for the two land acquisitions ($10,000 and $50,000)
were used to enlarge the Bech carriage house by raising the
roof about ten feet, and equipping the building as the key
academic unit for the forerunner of Marian/Marist
College,Marist Training School which had begun operation in
1929. The wooden Marian Building adjacent to Greystone was
also upgraded for academic use. Dutton Lumber Company
remained in full operation to the decade of the 1950, but its
business began to decline as curing moved more and more to
kilns operated at the points of origin of the lumber harvesting
companies and the capacity for delivery by trucks direct to the
local lumber yards increased. By the 1970s Dutton had ceased
operation.
William Martin Boathouse 1963
When I became President of Marist College
in November 1958, I realized that the
athletic facilities, while adequate for a small
number of student Brothers, would not be
adequate for a college of 600 or more
students. There was a tiny gymnasium, two
small baseball or softball fields, an outdoor swimming pool,
and four decrepit handball courts. How ought a small college to
develop a sports program?
There was one obvious sports venue- the Hudson River, with a
four mile racing course which had been used by the fabled
Poughkeepsie Regatta. There was also a cadre of experienced
oarsmen from the nearby high schools that had taken up
rowing after the departure of the Poughkeepsie Regatta in
1949. The high schools used the existing California and Cornell
boathouses, but space was limited. But enthusiasm ran high
among the Marist students who had rowed in their high school
years. The establishment of crew at Marist is an interesting
testimonial to cooperation between many individuals.
First we needed a shell. Daniel Kirk, a professor of psychology,
contacted his friend, Ed Brady, a New York City attorney with
an office in Wall Street ... Both had rowed along the Harlem
River in their high school days.
see note
27
Brady suggested
there was a four person shell in the Harlem River boathouse
which was in need of repair.
John Mylod, a student and an accomplished oarsman had
rigged his auto to port shells. He enlisted Gary Smith,
coxswain of a national championship Poughkeepsie High School
shell, and James Callahan, a Poughkeepsie High School
graduate to accompany him to New York to pick up the shell.
see note
28
What about a coach? Bill Lenehan '62 was a
student who had rowed for Poughkeepsie
High School. He suggested I contact Joseph
Catanzaro, an art teacher and successful crew
coach at Poughkeepsie High.
see note
29
Joe agreed to become the first Marist Crew coach. When he
came to inspect the shell from the Hudson River, he told us
that the shell could be repaired, but would never be
competitive. So he managed to borrow an eight person shell
from Poughkeepsie High School, and coaxed a place in one of
the boathouses for storage. Soon Joe managed to receive a gift
from Columbia University of an old shell, which the oarsmen
named "Leaky Lizzie". Despite its age, it looked impressive in
the water, because Ken Knapp, another oarsman, and his
father removed all the hardware, took it home during the
winter, polished it to its pristine condition, then remounted it
on the shell.
see note
30
Bill Martin was an insurance agent in a local company. He was
an early supporter of Marist College, and offered to run a
campaign to fund a boathouse. He was successful in raising
$60,000.
see note
31
Paul Canin, who had designed the Leo
Dormitory, designed the boathouse at a much reduced price.
When the successful contractor began the actual construction,
he alerted Brother Nilus that the structure would need bracing.
Brother Nilus contacted Arbak A Abdalian, a New York City
based structural engineer who had done the engineering specs
for the Fontaine Building behind the Chapel and the Leo
Dormitory.
see note
32
Paul Canin had not used a structural
engineer to keep costs down. Arbak designed the bracing,
which holds to this day.
To develop dock area in front of the new
boathouse, Brother Nilus located large
rocks, the result of blasting along Parker
Avenue. The rocks were loaded on trucks
and transported to the shore area. However,
Brother Nilus, existing crane was not
powerful enough to lift and place the boulders. So he procured
a second crane from the US Government surplus with much
shorter reach but more powerful lifting capacity. He also
purchased a surplus truck, and mounted the crane on the
truck. The hybrid apparatus would not fit under the tunnel
leading to the shore, Dutton Lumber provided access from its
yard. The wooden float and access ramp were constructed by
the Marist maintenance crew. The crane remained at the
boathouse area to remove the float and ramp.
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Longview Park activity
During the last decade of the twentieth
century and the first decade of the twenty
first century, Marist took leadership in
transforming the shoreline into an attractive
park facility open to the public. Marist took
over ownership of the entire strip, except
the location of the water intake unit for the Poughkeepsie
Water Works, and combined its own resources with grants from
foundations and several government agencies. The work was
spearheaded by Susan Brown under the direction of President
Murray. Upon completion of this project, Susan left Marist
College to take a position with the Cary Arboretum in
Millbrook NY.
see note 33
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Endnotes
Note
1.
Some vestiges of these long gone industries remain, usually transformed in
imaginative ways, such as the transformation of a brick hotel operated by the
Dutchess Whaling Company into legal offices. The Dyson Foundation is taking a
lead role to preserve and restore some of this history stretching from Main Street
northward.
Note 2. This chapter confines its focus to railroads which directly touched the future
Marist College property.
The term Highland turnpike was used in early deeds, and later became Hyde
Park road.
Note 3. Representative deeds to the Hudson River Railroad for properties currently
owned by Marist College are:
Newbold parcel: not yet located
Winslow parcel: deed 16 June 1849 liber 89 page 459 James and Elizabeth Van
Schoonhoven to Hudson River Railroad Co parcels
#
204 and 205 on railroad map
filed with the county
Barnard parcel: deed 5 March 1850 liber 93 page 191 Joseph C Johnson to
Hudson River Railroad Co 1007 line feet
Bech parcel: 20 Feb 1849 liber 88 page 415 Abraham Van Anden to Hudson River
Railroad Co 328 line feet
deed 23 Dec 1849 liber 88 page 237 Jahiel and Phebe Smith to Hudson River
Railroad Co 369 line feet
Myers parcel: not yet located
Note 4 The Pleasant Valley station house was preserved and located on one of the
school grounds in Pleasant Valley. Arrangements are being made to relocate it to
the Dutchess County Fairgrounds in Rhinebeck NY, which is developing a site for
historic Dutchess County buildings. See Poughkeepsie Journal article by John Davis
Old train stop may find new home November 26, 2009
Note 5. For more details about the Poughkeepsie and Eastern RR, see Platt History
of Poughkeepsie pp. 214 - 216
Note 6. Deed 16 Sept 1913 liber381 page 501 John Townsend
&
wife to
Arthur C Dutton. Arthur Dutton made several other purchases after that time to
increase the size of his holdings.
Note 7. The dock was part of a deep water port which meant it could handle
oceangoing vessels.
It
could accommodate two large vessels at one tim
Note 8. Sale details and prices are taken from the Annals of St. Ann, s Hermitage
1904-1934 pages 65 and 68. The relevant deeds list a nominal price of $100. 26
Feb 1929 liber 498 page 244 Marist Brothers to Dutton Lumber Company 0.552
acres and 22 July 1929 liber 498 page 249 Marist Brothers to Dutton Lumber
Company 3.08 acres.
Note 9. When Susan Brown worked on the development of the Longview Park-
section, she discovered that the ownership of the Brothers was only to the high
water mark of the Hudson marked on maps in an earlier time. The fill provided by
Dutton technically belonged to the State of New York. This was rectified in the
course of arrangements for Longview Park.
Note 10. For a fuller explanation of the water and sewage development, see Platt
History of Poughkeepsie 1904-1934 pp. 210-214.
Note 11. Details taken from Edmund Platt, >History of Poughkeepsie pp. 210 -212
Note 12. The original taking of land from the Swains was in 1871 or 1872 via a
Supreme Court Order in Book 10 page 93. This has been cited in several
subsequent deeds, especially 5 November 1874 liber 177 page 589 Alanson and
Sarah Swain to Jane and John Robinson. I requested the county records division to
retrieve Book 10 from remote storage, but have not (as of 2 August 2012) been
informed that the Book 10 has arrived.
Note 13. See deed Alanson and Sarah Swain 26 April 1872 liber 164 page 482
Alanson and Sarah Swain to City of Poughkeepsie. The deed specifies three parcels,
two adjoining the Bech properly and one west of the Hudson River Railroad.
Note 14. In addition to the water works, the city had embarked on sewer
construction work costing $253,000 and improvement of the Fall kill Creek and
removal of four of the ponds used to power the mills, as steam power was now
more efficient than water power, and the ponds caused flooding. The work cost
$115,000. To add more pressure on City finances, the City had subscribed to
$600,000 for bonds to help in construction of the Poughkeepsie and Eastern
railroad, which by 1873 had declared bankruptcy, so that recoup of the bonds was
questionable. See Edmond Platt, History of Poughkeepsie, pp. 212-214. In fairness
to the city planners, recall between 1868 and 1873 over 33,000 miles of railroad
track had been built in the United States, of which the Poughkeepsie
&
Eastern was
only 40 miles. This over construction of railroads, coupled with the falling price of
silver when Germany stopped minting silver coins triggered problems not only in the
United States but through Europe, leading to runs on banks.
Note 15. See deed 1 October 1892 liber 287 page 486 Cordelia Yvelin executrix of
estate of Gardiner Yvelin to the City of Poughkeepsie. This parcel extended 300+
feet east from the railroad tracks, then formed a second rectangle moving
southward 251 x 57 feet alongside the existing water works property. The net
result was like an inverted letter L tucked against the water works property east of
the railroad.
Note 16. See deed 10 October 1907 liber 355 page 437 Nicolaus and Gertrud
Jungeblut to City of Poughkeepsie. Elizabeth, s granddaughter Pauline transferred
the ownership to the Jungebluts, probably to make sale of the property simpler as
the principals would all be based in the United States. The deed cites two lots, the
first between the Hudson River and the tracks of the Hudson River Railroad 267 feet
wide by 349 feet north-south amounting to 2.652 acres, the second east of the
tracks 320 feet wide and 220 feet north-to-south containing 2.348 acres. Sale price
was $4,000.
Note 17. See deeds 19 November 1974 liber 1397 page 585 Marist College to the
City of Poughkeepsie which ceded a lot 153, x 303, next to the new water
treatment plant; and 4 December 1974 liber 1397 page 587 which acquired the
original filter beds, forming a large concrete basin. The beds were converted into
five tennis courts used until the construction of the Mid-rise dormitory adjacent to
the Rotunda.
Note 18. Harvey was a cousin of George Eastman, who founded Eastman Kodak
Company.
Note 19. Principal deed was 7 May 1863 liber 131 page 265 Jennettte Jewett
(widow) to Harvey Eastman. This lot encompassed all the land along Market Street
and all the land along Franklin Street, forming a reverse letter L. Several other
deeds completed the entire rectangle bounded by Montgomery, Jefferson, and
Franklin and Market streets.
Note 20. The model for this was the Row houses in northeast corner of Washington
Square built on part of the 21 acre Minto farm deeded to Sailors, Snug Harbor by
Robert Richard Randall to be used to establish a home for aged or debilitated
sailors. The Snug Harbor association decided to build a unified series of homes for
sale or rent, retaining ownership of the land and use the proceeds to establish and
maintain a permanent home for retired sailors in Staten Island. The Row is a
unified group in Greek Revival style. The sailors, home on Staten Island is also
Greek Revival. Emily Kies Folpe,
It
Happened on Washington Square, Johns Hopkins
University Press,
©
2002 352pp. see pages 73-77.
Note 21. See deed 23 Nov 1874 liber 178 page 52 George Innis
&
George P Pelton
to John F Winslow. For $18,604 Winslow purchased the eastern rectangle bordered
by Terrace Street, Market Street, and Franklin Street measuring 241, north to south
and 336, west of Market Street. This was a section of the land sold to Innis and
Pelton by Eastman 1 April 1874 liber 176 page 262 Harvey G Eastman
&
wife to
George Innis
&
George P Pelton.
Note 22. Aerial photos taken from the top floor of Leo Dormitory show the
California and Cornell boathouses still standing after completion of the Leo
Dormitory in 1963.
Note 23. See deed 18 December 1912 liber 377 page 355 Marist Brothers to New
York Central Railroad.
Note 24. The bridge requirement led to a conclusion that students would prefer not
to have to climb many steps to access an overhead bridge. The sloping topography
on the west side of route nine would have provided too many steps to reach the
ground or access the road closing level west side. New York State changed its
proposal to a tunnel under route nine, and it seems to have worked satisfactorily
Note 25. See deeds 11 September 1913 liber 381 page 501 John Townsend and
wife to Arthur C Dutton
11 September 1913 liber 381 page 499 John Sague and Sam Robinson to Arthur C
Dutton
11 August 1919 liber 407 page 37 Robert and Cornelius Wilkinson to AC Dutton
Lumber Company
7 November 1921 liber 419 page 336 Church of Saint Peter to AC Dutton Lumber
Company
Note 26. Deed 20 February 1929 liber 498 page 244 Marist Brothers to A C Dutton
Lumber Company for 0.533 acres which amounted to 150 feet north-to-south along
the Hudson shore.
Deed 22 July 1929 liber 498 page 249 Marist Brothers to AC Dutton Lumber
Company for 3.08 acres which amounted to 600 feet north/south along the Hudson
shore.
Note 27. Ed Brady also handled the mortgages with the Housing and Home Finance
Authority for the Sheahan and Leo Dormitories
Note 28. John Mylod has careered as a champion of the Hudson River, supporting
and operating many causes to improve the appearance and water quality of the
Hudson. James Callahan, Marist Class of 1962, received his PhD in Mathematics
from the Courant Institute at New York University, and taught at Harvard and later
Smith College. Gary Smith, class of 1963,became an accomplished salesman for
IBM, and served as a Trustee of Marist College for many years.
Note 29. Before I met Joe Catanzaro, I wondered how an art teacher wound up
coaching a championship sport. When I met him I thought he might have been an
extra for the film the Godfather
.
I was mistaken. He was a gentle soul but
passionate about teaching his crews to row in coordination. Anyone watching crews
race or practice could recognize a Catanzaro crew by its smooth impact on the
water. When other crews raised their stroke rhythm to 40 per minute, Joe kept
his crews below 35, insisting that coordination was more important then power.
Note 30. In Fall 1960 the organizers put out a call to the lay students for volunteers
who wished to learn to row. They practiced on rowing machines located in the
former Saint Marys Dormitory near the former Bech residence:, The newcomers did
not get into a shell until late Spring 1961 .. Marist College had no means to transport
shells, so it arranged to borrow a shell from competitors when it raced away.
Anthony Campilii , 62, former VP for Business at Marist was a member of the first
crew. He was a commuter from Wappinger Falls, transferring in from Dutchess
Community College. He remembers the names of most of his fellow crew members:
Ken Knapp , 64 stroke; Tony Campilii , 62 #7; Edmund Di Santo , 63 #6; Tony Rotolo
'63 #5; James Callahan '62 #4; Walter J Herbst '63; #3; Thomas F Erts '81
#2; John Doss '64 bow; Gary Smith '63, coxswain.
Note 31. The college began to fund purchase of new shells. The best known shells
were from Pocock in Seattle WA, but there was a waiting list of three years. An
alternate was the Garafalo shell from Worchester MA. Catanzaro preferred the
Garafalo shells because they could better weather the rough waters of the Hudson.
Note 32 Abdalian was introduced to the college in an unusual way. The architect
for the Fontaine Building was suffering from brain tumor which his wife did not
disclose. When Brother Nilus suspected there was something wrong with the plans,
he donned his clerical suit, took the train to New York City and picked the first
structural engineer listed in the Yellow pages: A. A Abdalian. Arbak shook hands
with Nilus and was stunned to feel calluses on the hand of a clergyman! He
reviewed and modified the plans for the plans for the Fontaine Building. In New
York City his specialty was flat plate construction, and he used this type of
framework for the Leo and Champagnat Dormitories.
Note 33. There is an adage The devil is in the details! In the course of her seeking
support and permissions from a myriad of foundations and government agencies,
Susan Brown was alerted to a glitch in former activities. When the Martin
Boathouse was built in 1973, the college officials relied on an incorrect
understanding of riparian rights. The interpretation assumed that the fill provided by
Dutton Lumber Company to close the cove on Marist Brothers shoreline belonged to
Marist College. The riparian rights gave the college ownership only to the high water
mark on maps of the Hudson prior to the fill operation. So technically the
boathouse lay on New York State land! This misunderstanding was corrected by
agreements between the State of New York and Marist College.
Research on this project was conducted from January 2008 through August 2012 by Richard Foy,
assisted by student assistants Paul Contarino and Kayla Benefield.
Most recent revision and spell check July 22, 2013
Marist College
The eighteenth and nineteenth century were
periods of strong commercial and industrial
activity along the riverfront in the
Poughkeepsie vicinity. Almost all of the
industrial activity has disappeared. It, s
northernmost reach was above Hoffman
Street, notably the Fallkill Iron Works and
Poughkeepsie Iron Works operated by
Edward Bech and the Myers Dock,
immediately north of the iron works.
see note
1
Read the entire essay, or
click on item below to go directly to that section.
to return to this directory click arrow at upper left
Hudson River Railroad
PoughkeeQsie
&
Eastern Railroad
HenrY. D MY.ers dock
Water Treatment Plant
HarveY. G Eastman (1832-1878).
Cornell, California and Washington Boathouses
ExQansion of railroad tracks in 1913
A C Dutton Lumber ComQanY.,
William Martin Boathouse 1963
Longview Park
Endnotes
Hudson River Railroad
The development of the Hudson River Railroad in the
Poughkeepsie area occurred in 1848 - 1852.
see note 2
The
tracks ran normally along shore, but at other places slightly
inland, thus dividing lands of the landowners into two sections,
one between the Highland turnpike and the railroad, the other
between the Hudson River and the railroad tracks. The
descriptions of the land acquired by the railroad give
interesting details of the north/south length of the properties
affected.
see note 3
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Poughkeepsie
&
Eastern RR
The path of the Poughkeepsie
&
Eastern Railroad Company
started at Boston Corners and Millerton on the Connecticut
border and ran across Dutchess County through Pleasant
Valley, passing next to the Fallkill Creek where it borders St.
Peter, s Cemetery, moving directly into the city of
Poughkeepsie near Smith Street where it stored its trains and
equipment.It could not move directly westward across the city
to the Hudson River Railroad because the slope from the city
center to the level of the Hudson River shore was too steep.
Instead it took an s-curve first northward into what would
become the Hudson River State Hospital, then making a U-turn
to move it south, eventually crossing the Highland Turnpike
(now route 9) and sloping downwards to meet the Hudson
River Railroad Company tracks just south of the present Marist
College property, close to the location of the Poughkeepsie Iron
Works.
There were extensive iron ore properties in Amenia and
Millerton and Pine Plains. John Winslow was well aware of this,
as his Troy Iron Works had secured mining rights in that area
and was able to transport the ore by rail to his foundry in Troy.
At the same time, Poughkeepsie Iron Works hauled its ore from
Beekman and Fishkill Plains using oxen and plank roads. In
addition there were several foundries in the east of Dutchess
County which used wood for its furnaces. But the supply of
wood was running out.
Although Winslow was not the originator of the idea of an east-
west railroad in Dutchess County, he was a strong supporter
and was President of the Poughkeepsie
&
Eastern during the
construction and early operation of the railroad
Discussions about such an east west railroad had been held for
two decades, with the main arguments to design an access
route for railroad transportation from New England to the
West. The Connecticut and Western railroad already had
reached Boston Corners in Columbia County. The delay in
organizing and building the P
&
E led to several competing
railroads, such as the Dutchess and Columbia, the Dutchess
and Rhinebeck. Eventually the more favorable route was taken
through Hopewell Junction and Danbury Ct.
The Poughkeepsie
&
Eastern failed during the panic of 1873.
However, it kept operating under different names, even
reverting to its original name toward the end of the nineteenth
century. The last passenger service to Pleasant Valley from the
east county ended in 1937.
see note 4
The path of the Poughkeepsie
&
Eastern became an important
freight route for Western Publishing Company and Shatz
Federal Bearings and several smaller industries in the Fairview
section. As of 2013 its path abuts the Mccann Baseball field
on the Marist campus and runs through the east campus. The
College installed a footbridge over the track bed. The County
is negotiating with the CSX to take over this route as a walking
trail.
see note 5
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Henry D Myers Dock
The Myers dock was never a part of the Marist College campus,
but it is an excellent southern starting place to study the lands
along the river. Henry D Myers built an icehouse there, and
operated an ice harvesting business for two decades. The dock
was sold to Arthur Dutton of Springfield MA who started a
wholesale lumber yard which would at one time be the largest
yard in the Northeast.
see note
6
The Myers dock was important to Dutton because he imported
much of the lumber. When I was a student at Marist (1947-
1950) we constantly saw ships docked there, many of them
from Russia.
see note
7
The wood was aged after unloading,
which entailed spreading it out for several months. This
required more space than Dutton originally owned. On two
occasions the lumber company purchased riverfront land from
the Marist Brothers, first 150 x 100 feet in 1928, and then 600
more riverfront feet in 1929.
see notes
This left the brothers
a small section of about 180 feet immediately to the north of
what had been sold. There was a small cove on this section,
which Dutton filled in with blasting debris it created as it
leveled the 750 feet purchased. This small parcel became the
location of the Martin Boathouse in 1963.
see note
9
Water Treatment Plant
Although the population of Poughkeepsie
City reached 20,000 by 1870, the city had
no central water supply suitable for
household use.
see note
10
In 1855 an
engineer recommended Morgan, s Pond (now called Vassar
College Lake) as a reservoir, but the financial panic of 1857
and the Civil War prevented carrying out this plan. By 1869 an
act of the legislature authorized a committee which would have
borrowing power (subject to a taxpayers, vote) to establish a
water supply. Then began a series of public meetings at which
two of the principal speakers were Harvey G Eastman and
Mayor Morgan. Assemblyman Hegman indicated he did not
believe there was a natural well in Poughkeepsie that was fit
for use for family purposes. Mr. Eastman said that in his visits
to other localities to promote the virtues of Poughkeepsie he
was met with the response that Poughkeepsie had fine schools
and churches, but "Oh so sickley" The taxpayers voted
overwhelmingly to go ahead with planning and implementation
of a water system. About this time Mayor Morgan constructed
Morgan Lake on College Hill, it is said for the purpose of selling
it to the City as part of the water supply.
see note 11
The committee sought the advice of James P Kirkwood of New
York City, a well-known engineer and a specialist in the setting
up water systems. He recommended obtaining the water from
the Hudson River, using sand filtration as the principal means
of treating the water. The commissioners chose a site owned
by Alanson and Sarah Swain from 1858 to 1874. This was a
southernmost section of the Barnard parcel.
see note
12
In
1872 the Swains sold additional land to the City of
Poughkeepsie.
see note
13
Two sand filters were installed,
and remained in use at least until 1905.
The cost of the water works installation and piping to the city
had reached $428,000 by the end of 1873. The panic of 1873
was unforeseen beforehand, and placed heavy burdens on the
City of Poughkeepsie.
see note
14
In 1896 the plant was enlarged using more land from the
Barnard parcel.
see note
1s
Again in 1907 the plant was
expanded, this time taking land from the former Bech estate.
see note
16
About 1970 the plant expanded again, taking more land from
the Barnard lot, but abandoning the original filter beds that
were located east of the railroad where the current
water works road splits, one branch turning north toward the
newer plant, the other turning south towards the Champagnat
mid-rise dormitory near the rotunda.
see note
17
When the
city located a new sewage treatment plant at the southwest
corner of the Myers parcel, the college negotiated a swap of
land, taking possession of the unused portion of the water
treatment facility extending from across the road from the new
water treatment facility to land almost touching the
foundations of the Champagnat dormitory additions. The
original empty filter beds were large enough to fit five
regulation size tennis courts. There was a building adjacent to
the filter beds used for maintenance until the maintenance
department moved across route nine.
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Harvey Gridley Eastman ( 1832 - 1878)
For several decades prior to the Civil War,
an informal group of leading citizens worked
together on projects for the good of
Poughkeepsie. They received the name
Improvement Group, proposing and
investing on several projects, sometimes via government,
sometimes via private enterprise, sometimes with a
combination of public and private. Their enthusiasm was not
always matched with success; many of them sustained large
financial losses in these ventures. After the Civil War another
group of leading citizens worked to improve the City. The water
works project was one such project. Among this group, and
probably the most enthusiastic example was Harvey Gridley
Eastman.
Harvey G Eastman was born near Rochester NY a member of
the Eastman Family.
see note 1s
He began to teach in a
business school run by his uncle in Rochester, and then decided
to found his own school in Oswego NY. In 1959 he moved the
school to Saint Louis, where he made the mistake of hiring
several abolitionist teachers in the slave state of Missouri. In
1959 he moved his school to Poughkeepsie, enrolling one
student in November 1859 but quickly growing to enroll over
1600 students by 1865.
One of his bright ideas was to have the school concentrate on
preparation for business rather than the liberal arts. This was a
variation of the concept of New York University of whom
Samuel F B Morse was a founder. The course work was to
emphasize the practical rather than the theoretical. The
course work might take from one to two years. A second
unusual idea was this: Eastman Business College owned no
buildings! The college rented five separate buildings for its
library and classroom space. There were no college
dormitories. Students were placed with families living in
Poughkeepsie.
Among its distinguished alumni was Sebastian S Kresge,
founder of Kresge variety stores ( often called five-and-dimes)
which has morphed into K-Mart, one of the largest discount
institutions in the United States, especially since K-Mart
acquired Sears store. Another alumna was my first secretary
at Marist College, Mary Travis. She had retired from head
stenographer position at Central Hudson, then worked for me
part time for sixteen years. The contrast between Kresge and
Travis showed that Eastman Business School was a hands-on
institution which covered the entire business spectrum.
Eastman Business School closed its doors in 1931.
Eastman was a promoter. The Eastman College Band played at
Lincoln, s second inauguration and after the assassination
accompanied Lincoln, s body in the official train from
Washington DC to Albany NY. The band helped make the
College known through its frequent trips to play in other cities.
Eastman also plugged for the construction of a bridge across
the Hudson. He was elected to the Assembly in 1873 and
introduced a bill to authorize construction of such a bridge. He
presided over the laying of a cornerstone for the eastern tower
on 17 December 1873. However, the bridge was not opened
for train traffic until 1 January 1889.
Another project for Harvey Eastman was the establishment of
Eastman Park between Market Street and Jefferson Street
which run north/south and Montgomery and Franklin Streets
which run east and west.
see note 19
Eastman envisioned a
park similar to Washington Square in New York City. He
developed a series of homes within a single building
structure.
see note 20
These were placed near the division
between the lower one third and upper two thirds of the Park.
They faced north and onto a new street named Terrace Street.
He was supported in this venture by several leading citizens,
including John Winslow, who purchased a large section of the
lot including the houses.
see note 21
The remainder of Eastman Park was a swampy area fed by
several streams shown on nineteenth century maps. At great
expense Eastman developed drainage systems to convert the
land into parkland. But he built in the capacity to create a pond
in the center with a bandstand. The pond was very popular for
ice skating in the winter months, and the band
once more reminded citizens of the existence of Eastman
Business College, perhaps encouraging some to offer housing
to students coming from other parts of the country.
Harvey G Eastman developed congestion of the lungs. He
traveled to Denver CO in hopes of improving the congestion in
the mile high city. He died there, not yet 46 years old. The
obituary in the New York Times described him as possessing
alert intellect, strong will power, and unimpeachable integrity.
He left his wife Minnie Clark Eastman and two daughters, Cora,
age 19 and Charlotte age 11.
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Land for Cornell, California and Washington boathouses
Just north of the Marist Martin Boathouse
there were four buildings used for the
famed Poughkeepsie regatta. They were the
-·
~~
-
...
....
- ,l
'
,.JI
-
•
'
'
..
-
-
~
Cornell boathouse, the California boathouse, the Washington
boathouse, and a mess hall. These were named after the
colleges and used by several other colleges also, but never
owned by the colleges. They were constructed and owned by
the City of Poughkeepsie on land taken originally for water
works use from the Swain family who owned the lower section
of the Barnard parcel. When the regatta moved away from
Poughkeepsie around 1950, local high schools used the
boathouses to store their shells. Other colleges built and
owned or rented space along the river for their boathouses.
Notable among these was Navy, whose original boathouse still
stands at Quiet Cove north of the Marist College property, and
Columbia whose boathouse was visible from the Marist dock
across the river and north of Marist.
The mess hall and Washington boathouse had disappeared by
the time I returned to Marist as President in 1958, and I
understand the California boathouse experienced a fire in the
early 1960s.
see note
22
During the negotiations for creating
Longview park, the College acquired all the land from below
the Martin Boathouse to the tunnel leading under the tracks,
save for the lot containing the pumping station (and probably
allowing easement rights to the City of Poughkeepsie for repair
and/or replacement of the pipes leading from the pumping
station to the new water works facility east of the railroad
tracks.
Expansion of railroad tracks 1913
Around 1913 the railroad decided to widen its track area to
provide for four tracks rather than two. It hoped to increase
the speed of the trains and carry more freight. As part of its
planning it hoped to eliminate several track crossings.
see note
23
Besides widening its space along the lines, it
negotiated an agreement with the Marist Brothers to diminish
track level crossings. Three different groups of Brothers--
juniors on the Barnard parcel and novices and scholastics on
the Bech parcel-- had been using the Hudson River for
swimming. The railroad agreed to install a tunnel under the
tracks, It is labeled 1912 and the only vehicular entry to Marist
river property, except permissive use of entry from the former
Dutton lumber property. In addition the railroad built two
pedestrian bridges over the tracks. When I negotiated the
purchase of the Myers parcel in 1963, the railroad
representative asked permission to remove the two bridges.
The college agreed to eliminate the northern bridge as
swimming activity had moved to the outdoor pool, but wanted
to maintain the southern bridge which connected the Martin
Boathouse to the area near Leo dormitory. This proved
impractical since students avoided climbing the many steps to
access and leave the bridge, preferring to cross the tracks
themselves. So that bridge was removed by common
agreement between the college and the railroad.
see note 24
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A C Dutton Lumber Company
When one industry dies, others arise to take
their place. The Poughkeepsie Iron Works
and Fallkill Iron Works ceased business in
1913, unable to match newer competition
from the Mesabi Range of ore deposits in
-
Minnesota coupled with coal supply near
Pittsburgh. Arthur C Dutton investigated the
potential for a lumber yard on the docks of
the iron companies, defunct whaling companies and Myers
dock (whose ice harvesting industry was also declining). He
assembled a large area from several sources that he intended
to use as a wholesale distribution center for servicing lumber
yards in the northeastern United States.
see note 2s
The area assembled included space for docking two oceangoing
ships. The lumber company imported lumber, unloaded it on its
docks, allowed it to age/cure by spreading it out in the fresh
air for several months, and then shipping it to local lumber
companies, usually by rail, as it had inherited and upgraded
several spurs to the New York Central Railroad.
Dutton realized that it needed more room to spread out its
aging/curing wood. It arranged two purchases of land from its
northern neighbor, the Marist Brothers.
see note
26
To level
the shoreline required blasting. The rock debris was deposited
in a small cove on the 180 x 150 lot north/south belonging to
the Marist Brothers that was now sandwiched between Dutton
land and land belonging to the City of Poughkeepsie used for
hosting the Poughkeepsie regatta and the intake for the water
works. The rock debris fill created a level spot for Marist
College to locate its Martin Boathouse in 1973. The prices paid
by Dutton for the two land acquisitions ($10,000 and $50,000)
were used to enlarge the Bech carriage house by raising the
roof about ten feet, and equipping the building as the key
academic unit for the forerunner of Marian/Marist
College,Marist Training School which had begun operation in
1929. The wooden Marian Building adjacent to Greystone was
also upgraded for academic use. Dutton Lumber Company
remained in full operation to the decade of the 1950, but its
business began to decline as curing moved more and more to
kilns operated at the points of origin of the lumber harvesting
companies and the capacity for delivery by trucks direct to the
local lumber yards increased. By the 1970s Dutton had ceased
operation.
William Martin Boathouse 1963
When I became President of Marist College
in November 1958, I realized that the
athletic facilities, while adequate for a small
number of student Brothers, would not be
adequate for a college of 600 or more
students. There was a tiny gymnasium, two
small baseball or softball fields, an outdoor swimming pool,
and four decrepit handball courts. How ought a small college to
develop a sports program?
There was one obvious sports venue- the Hudson River, with a
four mile racing course which had been used by the fabled
Poughkeepsie Regatta. There was also a cadre of experienced
oarsmen from the nearby high schools that had taken up
rowing after the departure of the Poughkeepsie Regatta in
1949. The high schools used the existing California and Cornell
boathouses, but space was limited. But enthusiasm ran high
among the Marist students who had rowed in their high school
years. The establishment of crew at Marist is an interesting
testimonial to cooperation between many individuals.
First we needed a shell. Daniel Kirk, a professor of psychology,
contacted his friend, Ed Brady, a New York City attorney with
an office in Wall Street ... Both had rowed along the Harlem
River in their high school days.
see note
27
Brady suggested
there was a four person shell in the Harlem River boathouse
which was in need of repair.
John Mylod, a student and an accomplished oarsman had
rigged his auto to port shells. He enlisted Gary Smith,
coxswain of a national championship Poughkeepsie High School
shell, and James Callahan, a Poughkeepsie High School
graduate to accompany him to New York to pick up the shell.
see note
28
What about a coach? Bill Lenehan '62 was a
student who had rowed for Poughkeepsie
High School. He suggested I contact Joseph
Catanzaro, an art teacher and successful crew
coach at Poughkeepsie High.
see note
29
Joe agreed to become the first Marist Crew coach. When he
came to inspect the shell from the Hudson River, he told us
that the shell could be repaired, but would never be
competitive. So he managed to borrow an eight person shell
from Poughkeepsie High School, and coaxed a place in one of
the boathouses for storage. Soon Joe managed to receive a gift
from Columbia University of an old shell, which the oarsmen
named "Leaky Lizzie". Despite its age, it looked impressive in
the water, because Ken Knapp, another oarsman, and his
father removed all the hardware, took it home during the
winter, polished it to its pristine condition, then remounted it
on the shell.
see note
30
Bill Martin was an insurance agent in a local company. He was
an early supporter of Marist College, and offered to run a
campaign to fund a boathouse. He was successful in raising
$60,000.
see note
31
Paul Canin, who had designed the Leo
Dormitory, designed the boathouse at a much reduced price.
When the successful contractor began the actual construction,
he alerted Brother Nilus that the structure would need bracing.
Brother Nilus contacted Arbak A Abdalian, a New York City
based structural engineer who had done the engineering specs
for the Fontaine Building behind the Chapel and the Leo
Dormitory.
see note
32
Paul Canin had not used a structural
engineer to keep costs down. Arbak designed the bracing,
which holds to this day.
To develop dock area in front of the new
boathouse, Brother Nilus located large
rocks, the result of blasting along Parker
Avenue. The rocks were loaded on trucks
and transported to the shore area. However,
Brother Nilus, existing crane was not
powerful enough to lift and place the boulders. So he procured
a second crane from the US Government surplus with much
shorter reach but more powerful lifting capacity. He also
purchased a surplus truck, and mounted the crane on the
truck. The hybrid apparatus would not fit under the tunnel
leading to the shore, Dutton Lumber provided access from its
yard. The wooden float and access ramp were constructed by
the Marist maintenance crew. The crane remained at the
boathouse area to remove the float and ramp.
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Longview Park activity
During the last decade of the twentieth
century and the first decade of the twenty
first century, Marist took leadership in
transforming the shoreline into an attractive
park facility open to the public. Marist took
over ownership of the entire strip, except
the location of the water intake unit for the Poughkeepsie
Water Works, and combined its own resources with grants from
foundations and several government agencies. The work was
spearheaded by Susan Brown under the direction of President
Murray. Upon completion of this project, Susan left Marist
College to take a position with the Cary Arboretum in
Millbrook NY.
see note 33
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Endnotes
Note
1.
Some vestiges of these long gone industries remain, usually transformed in
imaginative ways, such as the transformation of a brick hotel operated by the
Dutchess Whaling Company into legal offices. The Dyson Foundation is taking a
lead role to preserve and restore some of this history stretching from Main Street
northward.
Note 2. This chapter confines its focus to railroads which directly touched the future
Marist College property.
The term Highland turnpike was used in early deeds, and later became Hyde
Park road.
Note 3. Representative deeds to the Hudson River Railroad for properties currently
owned by Marist College are:
Newbold parcel: not yet located
Winslow parcel: deed 16 June 1849 liber 89 page 459 James and Elizabeth Van
Schoonhoven to Hudson River Railroad Co parcels
#
204 and 205 on railroad map
filed with the county
Barnard parcel: deed 5 March 1850 liber 93 page 191 Joseph C Johnson to
Hudson River Railroad Co 1007 line feet
Bech parcel: 20 Feb 1849 liber 88 page 415 Abraham Van Anden to Hudson River
Railroad Co 328 line feet
deed 23 Dec 1849 liber 88 page 237 Jahiel and Phebe Smith to Hudson River
Railroad Co 369 line feet
Myers parcel: not yet located
Note 4 The Pleasant Valley station house was preserved and located on one of the
school grounds in Pleasant Valley. Arrangements are being made to relocate it to
the Dutchess County Fairgrounds in Rhinebeck NY, which is developing a site for
historic Dutchess County buildings. See Poughkeepsie Journal article by John Davis
Old train stop may find new home November 26, 2009
Note 5. For more details about the Poughkeepsie and Eastern RR, see Platt History
of Poughkeepsie pp. 214 - 216
Note 6. Deed 16 Sept 1913 liber381 page 501 John Townsend
&
wife to
Arthur C Dutton. Arthur Dutton made several other purchases after that time to
increase the size of his holdings.
Note 7. The dock was part of a deep water port which meant it could handle
oceangoing vessels.
It
could accommodate two large vessels at one tim
Note 8. Sale details and prices are taken from the Annals of St. Ann, s Hermitage
1904-1934 pages 65 and 68. The relevant deeds list a nominal price of $100. 26
Feb 1929 liber 498 page 244 Marist Brothers to Dutton Lumber Company 0.552
acres and 22 July 1929 liber 498 page 249 Marist Brothers to Dutton Lumber
Company 3.08 acres.
Note 9. When Susan Brown worked on the development of the Longview Park-
section, she discovered that the ownership of the Brothers was only to the high
water mark of the Hudson marked on maps in an earlier time. The fill provided by
Dutton technically belonged to the State of New York. This was rectified in the
course of arrangements for Longview Park.
Note 10. For a fuller explanation of the water and sewage development, see Platt
History of Poughkeepsie 1904-1934 pp. 210-214.
Note 11. Details taken from Edmund Platt, >History of Poughkeepsie pp. 210 -212
Note 12. The original taking of land from the Swains was in 1871 or 1872 via a
Supreme Court Order in Book 10 page 93. This has been cited in several
subsequent deeds, especially 5 November 1874 liber 177 page 589 Alanson and
Sarah Swain to Jane and John Robinson. I requested the county records division to
retrieve Book 10 from remote storage, but have not (as of 2 August 2012) been
informed that the Book 10 has arrived.
Note 13. See deed Alanson and Sarah Swain 26 April 1872 liber 164 page 482
Alanson and Sarah Swain to City of Poughkeepsie. The deed specifies three parcels,
two adjoining the Bech properly and one west of the Hudson River Railroad.
Note 14. In addition to the water works, the city had embarked on sewer
construction work costing $253,000 and improvement of the Fall kill Creek and
removal of four of the ponds used to power the mills, as steam power was now
more efficient than water power, and the ponds caused flooding. The work cost
$115,000. To add more pressure on City finances, the City had subscribed to
$600,000 for bonds to help in construction of the Poughkeepsie and Eastern
railroad, which by 1873 had declared bankruptcy, so that recoup of the bonds was
questionable. See Edmond Platt, History of Poughkeepsie, pp. 212-214. In fairness
to the city planners, recall between 1868 and 1873 over 33,000 miles of railroad
track had been built in the United States, of which the Poughkeepsie
&
Eastern was
only 40 miles. This over construction of railroads, coupled with the falling price of
silver when Germany stopped minting silver coins triggered problems not only in the
United States but through Europe, leading to runs on banks.
Note 15. See deed 1 October 1892 liber 287 page 486 Cordelia Yvelin executrix of
estate of Gardiner Yvelin to the City of Poughkeepsie. This parcel extended 300+
feet east from the railroad tracks, then formed a second rectangle moving
southward 251 x 57 feet alongside the existing water works property. The net
result was like an inverted letter L tucked against the water works property east of
the railroad.
Note 16. See deed 10 October 1907 liber 355 page 437 Nicolaus and Gertrud
Jungeblut to City of Poughkeepsie. Elizabeth, s granddaughter Pauline transferred
the ownership to the Jungebluts, probably to make sale of the property simpler as
the principals would all be based in the United States. The deed cites two lots, the
first between the Hudson River and the tracks of the Hudson River Railroad 267 feet
wide by 349 feet north-south amounting to 2.652 acres, the second east of the
tracks 320 feet wide and 220 feet north-to-south containing 2.348 acres. Sale price
was $4,000.
Note 17. See deeds 19 November 1974 liber 1397 page 585 Marist College to the
City of Poughkeepsie which ceded a lot 153, x 303, next to the new water
treatment plant; and 4 December 1974 liber 1397 page 587 which acquired the
original filter beds, forming a large concrete basin. The beds were converted into
five tennis courts used until the construction of the Mid-rise dormitory adjacent to
the Rotunda.
Note 18. Harvey was a cousin of George Eastman, who founded Eastman Kodak
Company.
Note 19. Principal deed was 7 May 1863 liber 131 page 265 Jennettte Jewett
(widow) to Harvey Eastman. This lot encompassed all the land along Market Street
and all the land along Franklin Street, forming a reverse letter L. Several other
deeds completed the entire rectangle bounded by Montgomery, Jefferson, and
Franklin and Market streets.
Note 20. The model for this was the Row houses in northeast corner of Washington
Square built on part of the 21 acre Minto farm deeded to Sailors, Snug Harbor by
Robert Richard Randall to be used to establish a home for aged or debilitated
sailors. The Snug Harbor association decided to build a unified series of homes for
sale or rent, retaining ownership of the land and use the proceeds to establish and
maintain a permanent home for retired sailors in Staten Island. The Row is a
unified group in Greek Revival style. The sailors, home on Staten Island is also
Greek Revival. Emily Kies Folpe,
It
Happened on Washington Square, Johns Hopkins
University Press,
©
2002 352pp. see pages 73-77.
Note 21. See deed 23 Nov 1874 liber 178 page 52 George Innis
&
George P Pelton
to John F Winslow. For $18,604 Winslow purchased the eastern rectangle bordered
by Terrace Street, Market Street, and Franklin Street measuring 241, north to south
and 336, west of Market Street. This was a section of the land sold to Innis and
Pelton by Eastman 1 April 1874 liber 176 page 262 Harvey G Eastman
&
wife to
George Innis
&
George P Pelton.
Note 22. Aerial photos taken from the top floor of Leo Dormitory show the
California and Cornell boathouses still standing after completion of the Leo
Dormitory in 1963.
Note 23. See deed 18 December 1912 liber 377 page 355 Marist Brothers to New
York Central Railroad.
Note 24. The bridge requirement led to a conclusion that students would prefer not
to have to climb many steps to access an overhead bridge. The sloping topography
on the west side of route nine would have provided too many steps to reach the
ground or access the road closing level west side. New York State changed its
proposal to a tunnel under route nine, and it seems to have worked satisfactorily
Note 25. See deeds 11 September 1913 liber 381 page 501 John Townsend and
wife to Arthur C Dutton
11 September 1913 liber 381 page 499 John Sague and Sam Robinson to Arthur C
Dutton
11 August 1919 liber 407 page 37 Robert and Cornelius Wilkinson to AC Dutton
Lumber Company
7 November 1921 liber 419 page 336 Church of Saint Peter to AC Dutton Lumber
Company
Note 26. Deed 20 February 1929 liber 498 page 244 Marist Brothers to A C Dutton
Lumber Company for 0.533 acres which amounted to 150 feet north-to-south along
the Hudson shore.
Deed 22 July 1929 liber 498 page 249 Marist Brothers to AC Dutton Lumber
Company for 3.08 acres which amounted to 600 feet north/south along the Hudson
shore.
Note 27. Ed Brady also handled the mortgages with the Housing and Home Finance
Authority for the Sheahan and Leo Dormitories
Note 28. John Mylod has careered as a champion of the Hudson River, supporting
and operating many causes to improve the appearance and water quality of the
Hudson. James Callahan, Marist Class of 1962, received his PhD in Mathematics
from the Courant Institute at New York University, and taught at Harvard and later
Smith College. Gary Smith, class of 1963,became an accomplished salesman for
IBM, and served as a Trustee of Marist College for many years.
Note 29. Before I met Joe Catanzaro, I wondered how an art teacher wound up
coaching a championship sport. When I met him I thought he might have been an
extra for the film the Godfather
.
I was mistaken. He was a gentle soul but
passionate about teaching his crews to row in coordination. Anyone watching crews
race or practice could recognize a Catanzaro crew by its smooth impact on the
water. When other crews raised their stroke rhythm to 40 per minute, Joe kept
his crews below 35, insisting that coordination was more important then power.
Note 30. In Fall 1960 the organizers put out a call to the lay students for volunteers
who wished to learn to row. They practiced on rowing machines located in the
former Saint Marys Dormitory near the former Bech residence:, The newcomers did
not get into a shell until late Spring 1961 .. Marist College had no means to transport
shells, so it arranged to borrow a shell from competitors when it raced away.
Anthony Campilii , 62, former VP for Business at Marist was a member of the first
crew. He was a commuter from Wappinger Falls, transferring in from Dutchess
Community College. He remembers the names of most of his fellow crew members:
Ken Knapp , 64 stroke; Tony Campilii , 62 #7; Edmund Di Santo , 63 #6; Tony Rotolo
'63 #5; James Callahan '62 #4; Walter J Herbst '63; #3; Thomas F Erts '81
#2; John Doss '64 bow; Gary Smith '63, coxswain.
Note 31. The college began to fund purchase of new shells. The best known shells
were from Pocock in Seattle WA, but there was a waiting list of three years. An
alternate was the Garafalo shell from Worchester MA. Catanzaro preferred the
Garafalo shells because they could better weather the rough waters of the Hudson.
Note 32 Abdalian was introduced to the college in an unusual way. The architect
for the Fontaine Building was suffering from brain tumor which his wife did not
disclose. When Brother Nilus suspected there was something wrong with the plans,
he donned his clerical suit, took the train to New York City and picked the first
structural engineer listed in the Yellow pages: A. A Abdalian. Arbak shook hands
with Nilus and was stunned to feel calluses on the hand of a clergyman! He
reviewed and modified the plans for the plans for the Fontaine Building. In New
York City his specialty was flat plate construction, and he used this type of
framework for the Leo and Champagnat Dormitories.
Note 33. There is an adage The devil is in the details! In the course of her seeking
support and permissions from a myriad of foundations and government agencies,
Susan Brown was alerted to a glitch in former activities. When the Martin
Boathouse was built in 1973, the college officials relied on an incorrect
understanding of riparian rights. The interpretation assumed that the fill provided by
Dutton Lumber Company to close the cove on Marist Brothers shoreline belonged to
Marist College. The riparian rights gave the college ownership only to the high water
mark on maps of the Hudson prior to the fill operation. So technically the
boathouse lay on New York State land! This misunderstanding was corrected by
agreements between the State of New York and Marist College.
Research on this project was conducted from January 2008 through August 2012 by Richard Foy,
assisted by student assistants Paul Contarino and Kayla Benefield.
Most recent revision and spell check July 22, 2013
