Columbia County History Events
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Latest News from the Hudson Area Library- History Room
Life (and death) Along Ghent’s Boston & Albany Railroad
February 15, 2025 at 4 PM, Claverack Free Library
Come along as Ghent Town Historian Gregg Berninger takes us for a ride along the Hudson Branch of the Boston & Albany Railroad. He’ll follow the rails from Hudson to Claverack to Ghent, but also go off the rails to talk about the social and economic life that blossomed and thrived along one of North America’s first rail lines. From hay, grain, and milk processing to mail delivery and dances, it all took place along the B&A in Ghent. It’s a story of triumph and tragedy, a story about people and places.
Screenshot 2025-01-28 064451.jpgLatest News from the Hudson Area Library- History Room
Hudson: A History of Whaling & Maritime Commerce
Three-site exhibition open March 6 at Hudson Area Library
-New film on Hudson’s whaling history to debut
-Whaling book reprinted and new whaling tea available
HUDSON, NY - February 12, 2025 - The opening reception of a year-long series of exhibitions Hudson: A History of Whaling & Maritime Commerce will be Thursday, March 6, 6pm at the Hudson Area Library.
This event is the launch of a three-site exhibition developed collaboratively by the Hudson Area Library, the Hendrick Hudson Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, and the Columbia County Historical Society. It focuses on Hudson’s beginnings and its era of whaling and maritime trade.
Everyone who drives through the city of Hudson sees signs with the whale logo paying homage to Hudson’s beginnings as a whaling and maritime port. This legacy of whaling left a lasting imprint on Hudson's cultural and economic landscape. Locals and visitors, fascinated by this early history, now can learn about it and view documents and objects from repositories from all over the northeast that the three organizations have obtained in actual and facsimile form.
In 1784 Hudson was founded by a group of whalers and merchants, largely from Nantucket, who purchased Claverack Landing from Dutch settlers. The established river port soon became a busy port with whaling and transatlantic voyages. Between 1784-1845, there were 47 whaling voyages out of Hudson, some successful and some financially devastating. Industries turning out products such as shipbuilding, rope, sail, soap and candle making rose along the wharves, and in 1795 Hudson became a U.S. Port of Entry. These exhibitions examine this time in Hudson’s history. For further information on all of the exhibitions in this series, please click here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mkNScjZ2qULrgNxgjQFBOcQzVi8VxsbG/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=109094109161510849605&rtpof=true&sd=true
Whaling Exhibition.jpgLHSS 2025 talks.pngIf This Old House Could Talk with Fergus Bordewich and Ed Klingler
On Sunday, March 9, 2-4pm in-person at the library, the African American Archives of Columbia County and the Hudson Area Library will host a presentation on Claverack’s Jan Van Hoesen house, now thought to have been the home of Quaker Abolitionist Charles Marriott and a“station” on the Underground Railroad. As both a site of enslavement and a site of freedom, thehouse is arguably one of the most significant historic sites in Columbia County. To register forthis program visit https://shorturl.at/YTDL3
If you have driven by this distinctive Dutch colonial style house on Route 66 near the Dutch Village Mobile Home Park and wondered about it, now is your chance to learn about its history and significance. The Van Hoesen House is listed on the National Register of Historic Places by the United States Department of the Interior. Ruth Piwonka, author and historian, wrote in the nomination of the Van Hoesen House for the National Historic Register: “The Jan Van Hoesen house is one of approximately seven brick dwellings that survive from the first half of the eighteenth century and that represent a colonial architectural style unique to the Dutch community of old Albany County during that period.” This program examines specifically its ties to the Underground Railroad movement.
Fergus Bordewich books include Bound for Canaan: The Epic Story of the Underground Railroad, America's First Civil Rights Movement. Bordewich was awarded The 2024 Prize for the Advancement of Knowledge for Bound for Canaan, and "for his lifelong attention to racial justice. Bordewich’s recent work is, Klan War: Ulysses S. Grant and the Battle to Save Reconstruction.
Ed Klingler, is a co-founder of the Van Hoesen House Historical Foundation and has been a builder specializing in accurate historic restorations for over forty years - an interest cultivated in him by the Van Hoesen house as a child growing up in Columbia County in the 1960's.
The African American Archive of Columbia County – a descendent-focused organization – researches, documents, preserves and shares the deep history of Black people in Columbia County from their arrival in 1626 onwards.
The Hudson Area Library History Room houses a collection that pertains to the history of the City of Hudson, Greenport and Stockport; as well as Columbia County and New York State. The History Room also hosts the Local History Speaker Series at the library, offering free monthlytalks on diverse topics related to local history.
Latest News from the Roeliff Jansen Historical Society
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Roeliff Jansen Historical Society