How I fell in love with the Rondout Pt.2
2ft.D Design and Data
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How I fell in love with the Rondout Pt.2
Kingston has been around a really long time. (It was torched by the British Army during the? revolutionary war!) It stretches down an ancient Lenape trade route to the Rondout creek, a? tributary of the majestic Hudson River.??
My confusing GPS led me to the dog food store.? This was in“Stockade District” which still? boasts four seventeenth century stone houses at a crossroads, colonial houses, and more.? Driving uptown (the local name of the Stockade District) requires a certain patience for one? way streets. This provides an enchanting and slow tour.?
Dog food procured, Annie and I went in search of human treats. My perusal of Yelp led me to? search out an area called the “Rondout” (old Dutch for fort.) Off we went down a precipitous? curved road, or so it seemed to someone used to the flat roads of Milwaukee, where we? passed a sign that says “historic district.”??
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This district is a different historical moment than uptown. Driving to the water, I saw on the right? side a charming area of 19c mixed use buildings featuring lovely architecture and local wrought? iron. The bluestone sidewalks are still there. Beyond these mercantile structures on the right? and up the hill, stretches an area of large Victorian houses and some church steeples. Even in? the pandemic the shops are populated by local and unique businesses.??
On the left side of the street, Broadway, there is a different story. I came to learn that (in what? the town now understands was a mistake,) the entire working neighborhood was “removed”? by urban renewal of the 1960's. At that time what had been a hundred year old port had fallen? on rough times. Shipping had changed and highways had been built. Even so it was an area?rich in history, architecture, and diversity. Generations of Kingstonians has learned and lived? together in an area where people of all kinds resided in a kind of density that grows? relationships and ideas.?
At the bottom of the hill is the glittery river and the mountains full of color. I popped into some? of the stores and grabbed a treat or two. (Handmade donuts, a wonderful wine bar and store,? some excellent HV items are here for the visitor) ... ??
By?Rebecca Holderness, CEO & Founder of?2ftD Design Data