Kingston: Postcard History

Located midway up the legendary Hudson River, the city of Kingston has its own storied past.

In the Stockade National Historic District in uptown Kingston where the city was founded in 1658, many of the sturdy limestone houses built by the early European settlers still stand. Downtown Kingston offers a view of the thriving maritime village that mushroomed on the waterfront in the 19th century when the Delaware and Hudson Canal opened there in 1828. The storefronts, homes, and churches of the former village of Rondout, now the Rondout National Historic District of Kingston, are the legacy of the immigrants and entrepreneurs who poured in hoping to ride the tide of prosperity promised by the canal, while Midtown reflects the pride of the new city of Kingston after the two villages united in 1872 and a robust industrial district grew on former grazing fields.