View no19, Kingston Landing and Lighthouse

Watercolor on Linen / 13“ X 18.5”

The Half Moon passed the Rondout tributary, where Indian villages existed. Here the Dutch established an early trading post which in time, became Rondout Village. In 1658 they also built the fortified village of Wiltwyck a few miles upland. After the British took over the Dutch colony in 1663, the village was renamed Kingston. It became the first capital of the State of New York in 1776, and was burned to the ground the following year by the British. It was quickly rebuilt and in 1872 it was combined with the Village of Rondout to form Kingston.

When the Delaware and Hudson Canal (linking Pennsylvania coal fields with the Hudson River) was built in 1828, Rondout became a bustling port village. At the head of the Rondout, a lighthouse was built in 1837. In the late 1800’s, it also became a steamboat port for vacationers boarding trains for the nearby Catskill Mountains. The adjoining waterfront was mined for cement and brick making for over a century, and has now been converted into the Sojourner Truth State Park.