Summer Excursions

Natural Cement Industry Makes Rosendale a Tourist Destination

A hundred years ago, during the height of railroad passenger service in America, railroad companies actively engaged in the tourism business and aggressively competed for passengers. In 1892 passenger service to Rosendale was provided by the Wallkill Valley Railroad, which at that time was leased and operated by the West Shore Railroad. The New York, Ontario and Western rail road would not serve Rosendale until the completion of the Ellenville to Kingston route in 1902.

That Rosendale and its environs were an important part of the railroads campaign for tourist dollars can be attested to by the fact that Rosendale is prominently featured in a wonderful piece of promotional literature produced by the West Shore Railroad in 1892 called Summer Excursions, Lake, River, Mountain & Seaside Resorts. The publication is full of interesting information about tourist accommodations and tourist destinations along the routes of the West Shore, Wallkill Valley, Ulster & Delaware and Catskill mountain railroads.

The resorts in the Rosendale area were small in comparison to the three Smiley hotels at Minnewaska and Mohonk which together could accommodate about 1,200 guests. The various Rosendale resorts could take anywhere from 2 guests at the residence of J. Hasbrouck to up to 50 guests at Z.C. Coutant's Sylvan Glen House. The average number of guests most Rosendale resorts could accommodate in 1892 were 20. At that time accommodations could be had in Whiteport, Creek Locks, High Falls, Le Fevre Falls, Rosendale, and Springtown.

The West Shore Railroad offered an interesting package deal in 1892. The offer was round trip fare New York to Kingston via railroad one way and by the Steamer Mary Powell the other. [see ill. 1] The fare was $2.00 round trip! The upgrade for the Wagner Palace car drawing room was an additional 75 cents.

A summer visitor from Brooklyn, having decided to travel north via train and return via boat, could cross over the East River on the Brooklyn Bridge to Manhattan and then catch the West Shore Railroad Ferry to cross the Hudson River to bringing him to the West Shore Railroad terminal at Weehawken, New Jersey. The railroad trip north on the west shore of the Hudson would begin here.

Once in New York the West Shore route follows the shore of the Hudson River. After crossing under the Poughkeepsie bridge (see ill. 3 & 4) the train climbs up to the level of Kingston crossing the Rondout at Wilbur. The guide describes the Wilbur bridge as follows: A mile south of Kingston the railway crosses Rondout Creek , and the traveler is unexpectedly greeted with one of the most extensive and beautiful views along the entire line. The crossing of the creek is made over an iron bridge a quarter of a mile long, of which the upper chords are 195 feet above the water. [see ill. 2 below] The view down the creek to the right is of Rondout, with its mass of busy boats, and the Hudson beyond. To the left, or up the creek, the distant view is of mountains, and the nearer one that of the scenes of marine bustle, arrival and departure, incident to the terminus of a great and important water-way, for this is the eastern end of the Delaware & Hudson Canal.

After crossing the bridge the train goes through a 400 foot tunnel and soon reaches the Union depot were the West Shore, Ulster & Delaware and Wallkill Valley all meet. It is here that the passengers for the Catskill mountain resorts part company with those headed for the Shawangunk Mountains or the resorts along Wallkill River and Rondout Creek valleys. [see ill. 5] At this point it is best to let the railroad’s booklet describe the Wallkill Valley Railroad’s route from Kingston to Campbell Hall.

To the initiated, the name Wallkill Valley is at once suggestive of milk, cream, butter, and general richness. It is one of the most fertile valleys in the State, and was early discovered and occupied by the Huguenot refugees from France, who were among the first settlers of Kingston. In addition to its fertility and pastoral beauties, the Wallkill Valley has claims upon the kind consideration of the tourist, as affording a highway and means of access to some of the grandest scenery and most charming summer resorts in the country. Lakes Mohonk and Minnewaska, Paltz Point, the Shawangunk Mountains, and New Paltz and Rosendale, are all reached by means of the Wallkill Valley Railroad, which is thirty-eight miles long, and forms a connecting link between the New York, Ontario & Western Railway at Campbell Hall, and the West Shore Railroad at Kingston. At Kingston, eighty-eight miles from New York, the trains of the West Shore Railroad make direct connection with trains on the Wallkill Valley Railroad for Lakes Mohonk, Minnewaska and Mountain Rest, and the many summer boarding houses in the vicinity of Rosendale and Binnewater.

The booklet goes on to describe the three hotels operated by the Smiley brothers at Lakes Minnewaska and Mohonk. The booklet then returns us to a description of the Rosendale area.

Seven miles from New Paltz, towards Kingston, on the Wallkill Valley Railroad, is Rosendale, famous throughout the length and breadth of the land for its cement. The cement mines honeycomb the hills for miles in every direction, and will afford the tourist, who is interested in subterranean delvings, days of adventurous and profitable exploration. As the train leaves the Rosendale station it crosses Wallkill Creek and the Delaware & Hudson Canal by a bridge 900 feet long and 150 feet above the level of the water, from which another view, or rather several magnificent views, may be obtained. [see ill. 6] From here, for several miles on both sides of the track, is a series of tram roads, over which trains of cars laden with cement or cement rock, and drawn by horses, are constantly passing to and fro between the mines and the kilns in which the rock is burned. At night, the scene illumined by the fires of these kilns is fascinatingly weird, and one long to be remembered.

In 1892 Springtown, four miles south of the Rosendale station did not have a station. Guests would either get off at Rosendale and take a carriage south to Springtown or get off at New Paltz and head north to Springtown. A few years later Springtown would become a stop on the Wallkill Valley Railroad but without a station. It was here that our visitor from Brooklyn was headed in 1892. The rail guide listed seven resorts located in Springtown. The largest, 30 guests, and most expensive at $8 per week was James E. Deyo’s.

There were other places that a visitor could stay during a sojourn in Rosendale. Cornelius Buckley operated a boarding house, on Hasbrouck Avenue, near the Rosendale depot. Opposite the Rosendale train station (which was on the south side of the railroad bridge) William M. Barton was the proprietor of the Depot Hotel. Going up the hill via Sand Hill Road you could stay at Silas A Durham’s Sand Hill Hotel. Farther up the hill on Hasbrouck Avenue, Mrs. Louisa Roosa took in summer boarders on her farm. Morris Freer did the same on his farm in Tillson. Up in Tillson, called in those days, “The Plains”, David DuBois was the proprietor of the Plains Hotel, formerly owned by James J. Dubois. Next to this hotel was the famous Tillson Trotting Course or race track, also owned by James Dubois. Also in Tillson, near present Springtown Road and River Road, in the area that used to be called Mudhook, Frederick Craig owned and operated the Mudhook Hotel.

In Lawrenceville, George L. Strauck owned the Lawrenceville House and Peter J. Winn ran the Union Hotel, and the widow, Catherine Moore, maintained a boarding house. Up on Campbell Street there was a boarding house run by Austin Greene which was the home of quite a few workers employed by the nearby cement companies.

In Binnewater, John W. Stoll was running his hotel. [See Grand View Hotel on page 10.] At the same time Jacob F. Stoll ran a hotel at Lefever Falls. Whiteport, being in those days quite a busy place, had several Hotels. There was Bailey’s Whiteport Hotel started by Francis H Bailey prior to 1872 and still operated by the Bailey family in 1895 under the management of Mrs. Crecencia Bailey, Francis Bailey’s widow. Mrs. Henry Fagher ran a hotel and saloon near the Whiteport train station. Also on what was then called the Main Road, now known as Hickory Bush - Whiteport Road, Edward McMunn’s Hotel and boarding house and Richard Schrowang’s Hotel.

In the village of Rosendale there were several hotels. Each Hotel, as did the many saloons, catered to the political factions and cultural divisions of the times. The Central House, owned by Conrad Schinnen, was located on Main Street in the village. [see ill. 10] There was also Thomas McEvoy’s Hotel on Main Street. The Sammons House, owned by Abram Sammons was located on Main Street near the present Post Office. The Sammons House had in earlier times (1871) been called the American Hotel. In the 1880’s, and until it was destroyed in the ‘Great Fire of Rosendale’. It was managed by that great distiller of apple brandy, Warren Sammons [see ill. 11 & 13] [visit the Society museum where you will find a 2 gallon apple brandy jug on display]. Warren Sammons was one of the founders of the Rosendale Water Works Company and an advocate for town fire hydrants.

To keep all those summer guests, boarders and cement workers occupied, Rosendale was also famed for its many drinking establishments. At times the opposing factions would leave their favorite haunts and march down the street to attack their rivals. It was among the smoldering ruins of the Sammons House after the Great Fire that a forgotten cache of New York State Militia rifles were found.

Rosendale still attracts visitors, in many instances for the same reasons now as then. The visitors come for the lakes, rivers and streams. They come for the mountain air and to marvel at the remains of the once vibrant industry. Rosendale’s two largest resorts owe their existence to the cement companies. Anita Peck operates Williams Lake Hotel on cement company lands that her grandfather purchased in 1929. Mickey Duncan’s Hidden Valley Lake Campground was once cement company lands. Hidden Valley Lake, originally called Whiteport Lake was man. More about the Rosendale resort industry and Williams Lake Hotel which celebrates its 70th anniversary this year in a next issue of Natural News. [dew]

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