Newburgh, New York

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The Newburgh New York is along the Hudson River, between the Town of Newburgh and the Town of New Windsor.

Just east of the city, across the Newburgh-Beacon Bridge, lies the city of Beacon, New York.

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History

The area that became Newburgh was first explored by Europeans when Henry Hudson stopped by during his 1609 expedition up the river that now bears his name. He is supposed to have called the site "a pleasant place to build a town>"

The first settlement was made a century later, in 1709 by German Lutherans from the Rhenish Palatinate, who named it the Palatine Parish by Quassic. By 1750, most of the Germans had been replaced by people of English and Scottish descent, who in 1752 changed the name to the Parish of Newburgh (after Newburgh, Scotland).

Newburgh was the headquarters of the Continental Army from March, 1782 until the latter part of 1783. While the army was camped at Newburgh, some of its senior officers began the "Newburgh conspiracy" to overthrow the government. General George Washington was able to persuade his officers to stay loyal to him. The army was disbanded here in 1783. Washington received the famous Newburgh letter from Lewis Nicola proposing that he become king here. The letter drew a vigorous rebuke from Washington.

Newburgh was incorporated as a village in 1800 and chartered as a city in 1865. At the time of its settlement it was in Ulster County and was that county's seat. When Rockland County was split from Orange County in 1798, Newburgh and the other towns north of Moodna Creek were put in a redrawn Orange County. Newburgh thus lost its status as the county seat to Goshen. The former Ulster County courthouse still stands as Newburgh's old city courthouse building.

Newburgh became quite prosperous during the Gilded Age that followed. Its industries included manufactories of cottons, woolens, silks, paper, felt hats, baking powder, soap, paper boxes, brick, plush goods, steam boilers, tools, automobiles, coin silver, bleach, candles, waterway gates, ice machines, pumps, moving-picture screens, overalls, perfumes, furniture, carpets, carburetors, spiral springs, spiral pipe, shirt waists, shirts, felt goods, lawn mowers; shipyards; foundries and machine shops; tanneries; leatherette works; plaster works.

It has been a city with many distinctions. It is home to the first Edison power plant and thus was the first American city to be electrified and have street lights. In 1915 it became one of the first American cities to delegate routine governmental authority to a city manager. Portions of Liberty Street are still paved in the original brick. Newburgh was also one of the first two cities in the country to fluoridate its water.

Newburgh's preservation history can be traced all the way back to 1850 when Washington's Headquarters was designated a state historic site, the first in the country. Newburgh's Historical Society was founded in 1884. It purchased the 1834 Captain David Crawford house, its museum, in 1958, saving it from being demolished to make way for a parking lot for a funeral home.

The city's modern preservation efforts began when the Dutch Reformed Church, a Greek Revival structure designed by Alexander Jackson Davis, was slated for demolition as part of urban renewal after the congregation left the decaying building in 1967. The movement to stop it led to the development of a Historic District, now the second largest in New York State. The Dutch Reformed church was added to the National Register of Historic Places three years later, and in 2001 became a National Historic Landmark.

Broadway, the city's main street, was the widest street in the country at one time.

Geography

The city is on the west bank of the Hudson River. Next to it the land rises at first sharply to a bluff, where many historic homes are located due to the sweeping views it offers of the Hudson Highlands to the south, Mount Beacon to the east and the bridge to the north; then more gradually to a relatively level western half. There are some notable hills in outlying areas, such as Overlook Terrace in the city's southeast corner and Mount St. Mary's at the northeast.

The lowest elevation in the city is sea level along the river; the highest is roughly 690 feet (210 m) on Snake Hill along the city's southern boundary with the Town of New Windsor.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 4.8 mi?(12.4 km?. 9.9 km?(3.8 mi? of it is land and 2.5 km?(1.0 mi? of it (20.08%) is water.

New York State Route 32 and U.S. Route 9W pass through the city. New York State Route 17K and New York State Route 207 also reach their eastern termini within city limits. Interstate 84 passes just north of the city and the New York State Thruway is not far to the west.

Facts

• 1952 - Given title "All American City" by Look Magazine
• Lucille Ball & Desi Arnaz debuted their act at the modest Ritz Theatre on Broadway in Newburgh - December 17, 1941.
• Home to Mount Saint Mary College and an extension center for SUNY Orange County Community College.
• Karpele's Manuscript Museum is found in the City of Newburgh.
• Highest ratio of houses of worship to residents of any city in the country.
• Downing Park, designed by Calvert Vaux and Frederick Law Olmsted (designers of NYC's Central Park), is named after Andrew Jackson Downing, Vaux's partner and Olmsted's mentor.
• Home to the House of God Hebrew Pentecostal Church at 149 William Street.
• Home to Sweet-Orr (now defunct): quality work clothes turned popular, trendy carpenter pants in the 70s.  

Famous Newburghians

• Andrew Jackson Downing (architect and landscape designer, b. 1815)
• George Inness (artist and member of the Hudson River school of painting, b. 1825)
• Ellsworth Kelly (artist, b. 1923)
• Geraldine Ferraro (member of Congress and vice presidential candidate, b. 1935)
• James Patterson (bestselling author of thriller novels, b. 1947)
• Saul Williams (hip hop musician and poet, b. 1972)

Literature

• E. M. Ruttenber, History of Orange County with History of the City of Newburgh, (Newburgh, 1876)
• J. J, Nutt, Newburgh: Her Institutions, Industries, and Leading Citizens, (Newburgh, 1891)
• L. P. Powell, (editor) Historic Towns of the Middle States, (New York, 1899)
• J.P. Ritz, "The Despised Poor, Newburgh's War on Welfare", (Beacon Press, 1966)

Newburgh Real Estate

The Newburgh real estate market is active with a wide variety of homes available to select from.  Situated near two major highways and an international airport is an advantage to the buyer who wants easy access for personal and business travel.