Rhinebeck
Historical
Society
UPCOMING PROGRAM:
Tom Mayer, "The Astors' Impact on the Village of Rhinebeck"
WHEN: 9/26 @ 7:30pm
WHERE: Lower floor of the Starr Library, entrance in the rear
ACCESS UPCOMING PROGRAMS HERE
UPCOMING PROGRAM:
Tom Mayer, "The Astors' Impact on the Village of Rhinebeck"
WHEN: 9/26 @ 7:30pm
WHERE: Lower floor of the Starr Library, entrance in the rear
ACCESS UPCOMING PROGRAMS HERE
FURTHER REFERENCES
Dows, Olin, et al. Murals in the Rhinebeck Post Office. Rhinebeck, 1940.
Kelly, Nancy V. A Brief History of Rhinebeck. New York, 2001.
Kelly, Nancy V. Rhinebeck's Historic Architecture. Charleston, 2009.
Morse, Howard H. Historic Old Rhinebeck, Echoes of Two Centuries. Rhinebeck, 1908.
Plumb, Brian & Matthew. Rhinebeck's Historic Beekman Arms. Charleston, 2014.
Shelton, Hal T. General Richard Montgomery and the American Revolution. New York, 1994.
Smith, Edward M. Documentary History of Rhinebeck, in Dutchess County, NY. Rhinebeck, 1881.
Tietjen, Sari. Rhinebeck, Portrait of a Town. Rhinebeck, 1990.
INTRODUCTION
The year 2025 marks the 250th anniversary of the start of the American Revolution. In honor of that occasion, this walking tour calls attention to Village sites and individuals who played a prominent role then and since. We should note there are equally important sites not included in this tour that lie outside the Village in the surrounding Town of Rhinebeck, sites associated with individuals who also played significant roles in the Revolution: Colonel Henry Beekman Livingston (at the Kip-Beekman-Heermance house on the road to Rhinecliff), Colonel Philip Schuyler (Schuyler House off Miller Road just east of the Village), Surgeon General Dr. Thomas Tillotson and General Morgan Lewis (both southwest of the Village and south of Rhinecliff).
Not incorporated as a Village separate from the surrounding Town until 1834, the history of the Village nevertheless pre-dates the Revolution. As far back as 1703 the predecessor of the current Route 9 was known as the Albany Post Road, linking mail service from New York City to Albany. Rote 308’s predecessor, Sepascot Indian Trail, connected Kipsbergen (today’s Rhinecliff) with Connecticut. By 1766 Arent Traphagen had built a tavern at this crossroads. In 1732, the earliest version of the Reformed Church stood to the south on land donated by Henry Beekman. Further south a stream named after local miller Casper Landsman carried sufficient water to power ten mills between its origin at Lake Sepasco and six miles downstream where it entered the Hudson at Vanderburgh Cove.
Route of this walking tour: Refer to the map immediately below
Distance: about a mile and a half for the full tour
Time: about 2 hours
WALKING TOUR MAP
1. DELAMATER HOUSE
6425 MONTGOMERY ST.
Delamater House was designed by Alexander Jackson Davis in 1844 for Henry Delamater, founder in 1853 of the First National Bank of Rhinebeck. Later owned by General Ross Delafield, this style of house is called Carpenter Gothic and is among the best examples of Gothic Revival architecture. Images of the house have been widely reproduced. It currently serves as a guest house for the Beekman Arms complex.
Delamater House from the late 19th or early 20th century
2. STARR INSTITUTE
6415 MONTGOMERY ST.
The Starr Institute, an 1862 Victorian Gothic style building, was given to Rhinebeck as a library and community hall by Mary Regina Miller, a descendant of Col. Philip Schuyler, in memory of her husband, Congressman William Starr Miller. The building was used to hold religious services when some local churches were built or restored. It was also a YMCA and a bowling alley, serves multiple uses today including over 50 years as host of Upstate Films.
The Starr Institute from the late 19th or early 20th century
3. FOSTER'S COACH HOUSE
6411 MONTGOMERY ST.
Foster's Coach House, which dates from about the 1850s, took its current name from Wallace Foster, a seasoned innkeeper who had managed the Eagle Hotel in Kingston, then the Beekman Arms for over a decade, before moving across West Market Street to set up another inn, which he would own and manage from 1933 until 1954. He was a serious horseman, and the present interior, complete with horse stalls, racehorse prints, and a coach owned by Levi P. Morton maintain the atmosphere he created.
Interior photo of Foster's Coach House. Booths are on the left and tables made from carriage wheels on the right.
4. TEMPERANCE HALL
6406 MONTGOMERY ST.
Temperance Hall dates from about 1840 and is believed to be the oldest structure in the Village originally intended as an office. It was probably built for one of the Livingstons practicing law in Rhinebeck at that time and was used by John Armstrong, Jr. The 1867 Beers Atlas identifies its occupancy by Town Supervisor and NY State Assemblyman Ambrose Wager. As the Women’s Exchange in the 1920s, it gave local women an opportunity to add to family income through their culinary skills and needlecraft. For most of the twentieth century three murals above the door (now in storage) highlighted Indian and Revolution subjects. They were commissioned by Harry Hill and painted by Tivoli artist von Thum. The building is now a retail business.
5. BEEKMAN ARMS
6387 MILL ST.
The Beekman Arms. Date unknown.
In 1705, Judge Henry Beekman, a resident of Kingston, sold 281 acres to William Traphagen, most of it in the northwest corner of what today is the Village of Rhinebeck. William was a wheelwright & blacksmith, and the location on the east-west Sepasco Trail would have been ideal for someone who could shoe horses and repair broken carriage wheels and axles. By 1710, William’s stepson Arie Hendrickse had taken title to the property. Arie was a brewer and later accounts speculate his home (a little west of the Beekman Arms, on the north side of the trail) was the first inn here, offering lodging and refreshments to travelers. But William died in 1739 and Arie died in 1746, so it was probably Arie’s widow with her second husband, Jacob Kip, who built the inn on the site of the current Beekman Arms, about 1766. The low-ceilinged rooms in the central part of the building and thick stone walls show that the original structure has been contained within the present building. Facing on the Albany Post Road with riders regularly delivering the mail between NY & Albany and soon with a stagecoach traveling the distance, the inn was in an ideal location. Traffic from the river, traveling east toward New England also passed here. By the time of the Revolutionary War, the owner was Everardus Bogardus. During the war, his brother, Lieutenant Benjamin Bogardus, fought in the various battles around New York City. Where a memorial stone is located today, closest to the intersection, there was a town pump. This began as a natural spring that offered refreshment to all and watered the horses of the travelers. The inn was known as The Rhinebeck Hotel until 1918, when local entrepreneur Tracy Dows invested in complete renovation, added the ballroom to the south, and at which time it was re-named The Beekman Arms.
The Beekman Arms at Christmas. Date unknown.
The Beekman Arms. Date unknown.
6. RHINEBECK POST OFFICE
6383 MILL ST.
The Rhinebeck Post Office during the winter. Date unknown.
The Rhinebeck Post Office was built in 1939 as a WPA (Works Progress Administration) project to make work during the depression. It replaced the earlier Rhinebeck Town Hall, which moved to East Market Street. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who lived nearby in Hyde Park, suggested that the new post office be designed as a replica of the first stone house built in Rhinebeck. That house with its frame additions burned down in 1910. Note that there is a round window near the roof, on the side facing the Beekman Arms. It mimics a round puncture in the wall of the original house caused by a British cannonball fired at the house from a British naval vessel in the Hudson River. This occurred in 1777 during the Revolutionary War. Inside the front door on the right is a display showing pictures of the couple who built the house. The original carved lintel stone from that house is on display with their initials and the date, 1700. Above that display and around the interior of the building are murals painted by local artist Olin Dows illustrating the settlement and development of Rhinebeck.
The Rhinebeck Post Office. Date unknown.
7. THE ASHER HOUSE
6380 MILL ST.
The Asher House, now a restaurant, is among the oldest extant buildings in the Village, dating to about 1800. Early 20th century occupants included Wilson Applegate, President of the First National Bank of Rhinebeck (lettering of which is still barely visible above the street windows of today’s M&T, across the street), and Russell Applegate, whose insurance office occupied the first floor, and Frank Asher in the 1940s.
8. THE ASTOR HOME FOR CHILDREN
6339 MILL ST.
The Astor Home for Children (originally named Holiday Farm) occupies the site once known as Bois Doré (Golden Woods) in the 19th century when owned by Robert Huntington as his country house. In June 1888, while living here temporarily, Levi P. Morton learned of his nomination to run on the Republican ticket for Vice-President with Benjamin Harrison as President. They won the election. Bois Doré burned in the early 1900s. Morton’s daughter, Alice Morton, who had founded Holiday Farm in Rhinecliff in 1904, moved to this site when Robert Huntington’s daughter, Mrs. Vincent Astor, gave the land in trust as a home for needy children. In 1913, Vincent Astor commissioned his architect friend Harrie T. Lindeberg to design the current building and as a memorial to his father, John Jacob Astor IV. It opened its doors in 1914.
Color slide of Astor Home for Children, circa 1970.
Astor Home for Children chapel interior in 1995.
9. THE DUTCH REFORMED CHURCH
6368 MILL ST.
The Dutch Reformed Church, first church in the village, was a frame construction wooden church built in 1731. The present building dates from 1808. Brick sides face Mill and South Streets, the less expensive stone sides face the cemetery and rear of the church. Plaques on the pews and memorial tablets in the walls are of interest. Interior details are by master carpenter Steven McCarty.
The Dutch Reformed Church. Date unknown.
10. REFORMED CHURCH GRAVEYARD
1 SOUTH ST.
East of the church, along South Street, the graveyard contains forty-three American Revolutionary War heroes. Some gravestones date back to 1733. Note also the historic bell (from the Rondout Lighthouse) and Revolutionary-War-era cannon placed there as memorials.
The Dutch Reformed Church Graveyard in 1981.
11. SOUTH STREET
(IN GENERAL)
South Street was originally a Native American path known as the Sepascot Indian Trail and the oldest street in Rhinebeck. The trail parallelled a stream to its south, the Landsman’s Kill, which came from Sepasco Lake east of Rhinebeck, once the site of a Native American village. By the Revolutionary War, it became the primary route eastward out of Rhinebeck heading toward Connecticut, eventually merging with the turnpike extending eastward from Market Street.
The then-residence of Charles Feroe on South Street, circa late 19th or early 20th centuries.
12. EDWARD M. SMITH HOUSE
27 SOUTH ST.
Edward M. Smith, author of the 1881 Documentary History of Rhinebeck and the 1894 History of Kipsbergen, lived here while researching and writing extensively about the history of the Town of Rhinebeck. Much of our information about families who lived here during the Revolutionary War comes from Smith. (This is a private home. Please respect the privacy of the homeowner by remaining on the sidewalk while admiring this house.)
13. RILEY DELAMATER HOUSE
12 CENTER ST.
Riley Delamater, the original owner of this house, served in the 1850s as the first principal of the first public school in the Village of Rhinebeck, located on Oak Street. During WWII, his grandson Walter would rise to the rank of Major General in the NY National Guard. Later, in his role as Most Eminent Sir Knight Walter Delamater, he served as the Grand Master in the US of the Knights Templar, a fraternal order affiliated with Freemasonry. (This is a private home. Please respect the privacy of the homeowner by remaining on the sidewalk while admiring this house.)
14. RHINEBECK TOWN HALL
80 EAST MARKET ST.
The new Rhinebeck Town Hall in 1939.
The Rhinebeck Town Hall was built through the efforts of Franklin D. Roosevelt with WPA funds in 1939. The offices of many town officials are here, and it serves as an important public meeting place for the citizens of Rhinebeck. The earlier town hall was located on Mill Street. It was torn down to make way for today’s post office.
15. DRURY HOUSE
58-60 EAST MARKET ST.
This circa 1810 building is typical of buildings from the early Revolutionary period. Today serving as both real estate and law offices, the house in its earliest days was owned by John Drury. He was one of the first trustees when the Village was incorporated in 1834.
16. SCHAAD BAKERY
55 EAST MARKET ST.
Schaad Bakery is an early Federal house, built about 1795. A barber, Nicholas Drury, owned it in 1867. Jacob Schaad lived there in 1876, and it remained in the Schaad family well into the 20th century. Currently a Thai restaurant, it previously housed a travel agency.
