The Soul of a Hometown
Saugerties Bicentennial
Celebrates Its Resilience
by Gregory Schoenfeld
This past November 1, Late Night host and Saugerties favorite
son Jimmy Fallon took a minute to give a nationally televised
"shout-out" to his hometown of Saugerties. With a sincere smile, the
comedian set aside his usual banter and explained that he had just been back
that weekend, and that Saugerties was "looking better than ever."
From the pristinely maintained 1727-built sitting room of Main Street's
Kiersted House—part Historical Society headquarters, part museum, part
community center—Block explains the expanse of what Fallon's comment truly
encompasses.
Block's family was right
here in 1677, when the land that is now Saugerties—known regionally for the
stream that powered Barent Cornelis Volge's saw mill, the "Sawyer’s"
or "Saugers Kill" in Dutch—was first purchased from the local
"Esopus" Indians. The area remained a sparsely populated outpost of
Kingston for decades to come: until 1825, in fact, when the vision of a New
York City industrialist sparked its meteoric growth.
When Henry Barclay arrived,
spurred north by the 1825 opening of the Erie Canal, he immediately saw
unlimited industrial potential; the serpentine Esopus Creek would provide the
power, and the adjacent Hudson River offered ideal transport access. By 1827,
Barclay had built the Ulster Iron Works on one branch of the creek, and a paper
mill on the other. With the continual expansion of other industries (Block
reports that Saugerties bluestone built the sidewalks of New York, Boston, and
even Havana, Cuba) the hamlet that boasted only 21 houses in 1811 had, by the
1880s, swelled to a population of nearly 5,000. By the end of the century,
Block explains with a smile, the Village of Saugerties sported 49 taverns. She
adds, wryly, that a law had to be enacted to prevent drivers, carrying
explosives to Quarryville, from stopping in for a couple of rounds along the
way.
Expansion and economic
growth remained a common Saugerties theme through the 20th century; it was,
perhaps, the economic devastation caused by the downsizing of Kingston's IBM
facility in the early 1990s that dealt Saugerties its greatest challenge. Yet
it is the response to that hardship—the continued reemergence that Fallon
enthusiastically points to—which speaks of the depth of spirit of the
Saugerties community. That community, which rebuilt the landmark Saugerties
Lighthouse, which restored its school district's sports program, refuses to be
deterred. From Harvey Fite's legendary sculpture park Opus 40 to the burgeoning
ranks of artists and artisans, to the annual Garlic Festival, to the new shops
and restaurants lining Partition Street, Saugerties continues to grow more
vibrant than ever before. There is certainly a lot to celebrate this coming
year, says Marjorie Block. "This is home," she proclaims. "This
is just the place to be."
For more information on
Saugerties, and upcoming events, visit www.saugertieshistoricalsociety.com and
the Chamber of Commerce website at www.welcometosaugerties.com.
Posted by Chris Hewitt
on 11:51 AM.
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