Kingston Point Park

Kingston, Ulster County, New York

7 acres

Directions:

Route 9W to Delaware Avenue east to Kingston Point Park

or, Lower Broadway left onto East Strand to Kingston Point Park

History:

late 1600s  --  the Dutch established a trading post inland along the Rondout Creek.

Dutch settlers named Kingston Point, Ponck Hockie (meaning a point of land)

1777  --  Kingston became New York state's first capital.  British troops disembarked at Ponck Hockie and their soldiers marched through the city and burned it to the ground..

post Revolutionary War  --  lime deposits were mined from High Falls to Kingston, including a hill in Ponck Hockie, in order to make cement.  The people of Ponck Hockie made their living through cement mining and shipping.

1825  -- work begins on the Delaware and Hudson Canal.

1840-1890  --  lime mining took place on that hill that is now the site of Hasbrouck Park.

1872  --  the village of Rondout combined with the village of Kingston into the City of Kingston.

The Hudson River Day Line ignored the Kingston Point landing for Rhinecliff in Dutchess County on the opposite shore of the Hudson River, even though the destination of most of the passengers was Kingston. Passengers desiring to get over to Kingston took the ferry service between Rhinebeck and Kingston.

There were several disadvantages to Kingston Point: there was limited dock space, Kingston Point was relatively isolated and the road to the Point ran across a swamp.

But a prominent Kingston businessman had an idea to make Kingston Point an important hub of transportation.  Samuel Decker Coykendall, president of the Cornell Steamboat Company, had significant interests in the Ulster & Delaware Railroad running from Kingston into the Catskill Mountains. Coykendall wanted to run the tracks of the Ulster & Delaware Railroad out to Kingston Point providing steamboat passengers easy access to his trains. And he wanted to add Kingston Point as a stop for the Day Line passengers. With these changes Coykendall could take Day Line passengers bound for the landing at Catskill to Kingston Point and from there into the Catskill Mountains.

1896  -- Kingston Point became a Day Line landing.

1896-1920  --  the heyday of Kingston Point Park.  Along with the transportation changes, Coykendall transformed the Kingston Point swamp into a recreational park with merry-go-round, dance hall, and shooting gallery. A man-made island behind the steamboat landing was created and here fireworks and concerts were held.

1899  --  the Oriental Hotel was built on a bluff overlooking Kingston Point Park.

1903  -- Kingston Point Park drew one million visitors.

1922  -- Oriental Hotel burned down.

1928  -- nothing was left of the amusement park.

Sources:

Bond Brungard. 2004, "Ponck Hockie was a landing point for British troops," Poughkeepsie Journal, http://cityguide.pojonews.com/fe/Heritage/stories/he_ponck_hockie.asp

Jack Matthews, "Kingston Point Park," Hudson River Maritime Museum.  http://www.ulster.net/~kpanza/2003rivernews/sept2003-3.html

Facilities:

playground, ball field, BMX Raceway for bikes, lawns, picnic tables. Across the road is Kingston Point Beach.

Trails:

This park is one of the designated sites of the Hudson River Greenway Water Trail. There is a good view of the Kingston-Rhinecliff Bridge from here.

09/02/04.  This is mostly a park for recreational enoyment, but there are areas of woods on the edges of the lawn areas and a large marsh area.  We did not walk it, but it looks as if one can walk a good part of the way around the big marsh by crossing over the bridge to the causeway-like area where the old railroad tracks are and following the area between the Hudson River and the marsh in a semi-circle.  Dr. Patrick L. Cooney.

PLANT LIST:
Dr. Patrick L. Cooney
* = plant found in bloom  on day of field trip, September 02, 2004

Trees:
Acer negundo (box elder maple)
Acer platanoides (Norway maple)
Acer saccharinum (silver maple)
Acer saccharum (sugar maple)
Betula lenta (black birch)
Betula populifolia (gray birch)
Catalpa sp. (catalpa)
Celtis occidentalis (American hackberry) lots
Fraxinus americana (white ash)
Juglans nigra (black walnut)
Morus alba (white mulberry) lots
Populus deltoides (cottonwood) quite a bit of it
Pyrus malus (crab apple) planted
Robinia pseudoacacia (black locust)
Ulmus rubra (slippery elm)

Shrubs and sub-shrubs:
Amorpha fruticosa (false indigo)
Cornus amomum (swamp dogwood)
Lonicera morrowii (Morrow's honeysuckle)
Rhamnus cathartica (common buckthorn)
Rubus occidentalis (black raspberry)
Rhus typhina (staghorn sumac)
Syringa vulgaris (lilac) planted

Vines:
Celastrus orbiculatus (Asiatic bittersweet)
Humulus japonicus (Japanese hops)
Parthenocissus quinquefolia (Virginia creeper)
Toxicodendron radicans (poison ivy)
Vitis sp. (grape)

Herbs:
Acalypha sp. (three-seeded mercury)
Amaranthus cannabinus (salt marsh water hemp) *
Arctium lappa (greater burdock)
Artemisia vulgaris (common mugwort) *
Asclepias syriaca (common milkweed)
Bidens spp. (beggar ticks) *
Centaurea maculosa (spotted knapweed) *
Chelone glabra (white turtlehead) *
Chenopodium album (pigweed)
Cichorium intybus (chicory) *
Conyza canadensis (horseweed)  *
Echium vulgare (viper's bugloss) *
Erechtites hieraciifolia (pileweed)
Erigeron annuus (daisy fleabane) *
Euthamia graminifolia (grass-leaved goldenrod) *
Geum canadense (white avens)
Glechoma hederacea (gill over the ground)
Helenium autumnale (sneezeweed) *
Impatiens capensis (orange jewelweed) *
Iris sp. (yellow or blue flag)
Lactuca serriola (prickly lettuce)
Lepidium virginicum (poor man's pepper)
Lotus corniculatus (birdfoot trefoil) *
Lythrum salicaria (purple loosestrife) *
Melilotus alba (white sweet clover) *
Mirabilis nyctaginea (wild four o'clock)
Oenothera biennis (common evening primrose) *
Oxalis sp. (yellow wood sorrel) *
Peltandra virginica (arrow arum)
Phytolacca americana (pokeweed)
Plantago lanceolata (English plantain) *
Plantago major (common plantain)
Polygonum hydropiper (water pepper) *
Potentilla argentea (silvery cinquefoil) *
Solidago canadensis var. scabra (tall goldenrod) *
Taraxacum officinale (common dandelion) *
Trifolium pratense (red clover) *
Trifolium repens (white clover) *
Vallisneria americana (water celery)
Verbena urticifolia (white sweet clover) *
Xanthium strumarium (clotbur) *

Sedges:
Scirpus sp. (three-square bulrush)

Grasses:
Phragmites australis (giant reed grass)
Setaria faberi (nodding foxtail grass)
Setaria glauca (yellow fox tail grass)
Setaria viridis (green foxtail grass)