Kingston (New York)

Kingston is a city in New York's Hudson Valley, 91 miles north of New York City and 50 miles south of Albany. It is the county seat of Ulster County and was the first capital of New York state. It was ransacked and burned by the British during the American Revolution.

View of boats in Rondout Creek and a few of the buildings in the Rondout-West Strand Historic District — one of three historic districts in the city

Get in

By plane

• Stewart International Airport, 1180 First St, New Windsor (~40 miles south), [phone]. The closest major airport, but at present offers few direct flights to major destinations.
• Albany International Airport 737 Albany-Shaker Rd, Albany (~65 miles north), [phone] (information center). Offers flights to most eastern US cities.
• Westchester County Airport, 240 Airport Road, White Plains, [phone] (airlines). Several counties away, but an alternative to the congestion of the 3 major international airports around New York City. Rental cars available.
• Newark Liberty International Airport, Newark, New Jersey, John F. Kennedy International Airport, and LaGuardia Airport: Livery cars offer service to and from 3 major international airports. Amtrak offer rail links from Rhinebeck.

By car

Frank A. Palen House

N.Y.S. thruway exit 19.

By train

• Amtrak serves Rhinecliff station from New York City's Penn Station and other points. Rhinecliff is across the Hudson River, via the Kingston-Rhinecliff bridge, and a little bit to the south.

Get around

There are buses and taxis, or you can drive your own car.

Kingston is a good city to walk in, but the distances are too great for it to be feasible for most people to walk between the Waterfront (Downtown) and Stockade (Uptown) Historic Districts.

See

Boice House

Historic districts

There are three historic districts and many gorgeous historic buildings in this city:

• Chestnut Street Historic District. This is a smaller area of town than the other two historic districts, along a few blocks of West and East Chestnut Street. (updated Aug 2016)
• Rondout-West Strand Historic Waterfront District. Featuring the waterfront onto the Roundout Creek and extending some ways uphill from there, this district comprises the historic downtown area of the city. It's full of 19th-century low-rise brick buildings that were related to industry and river shipping, as well as ornately decorated private houses and numerous churches. Quite a few of the churches and private houses have beautiful multi-colored tiled roofs. You could easily walk through this district for an hour or more, to see all the buildings and the waterfront. (updated Aug 2016)
• Stockade Historic District. Called "Uptown" by locals, this district, though smaller as an official historic district than Downtown, is in practice by far the most extensive neighborhood and contains a larger quantity of ornate private houses than the historic downtown, plus the town green, which features grand, larger-than-life statues of important personages for the European settlement and development of New York (explorer Henry Hudson; Governor of New York DeWitt Clinton; and Director-General of New Netherlands, Peter Stuyvesant). This is also the neighborhood that contains the 17th-century Old Dutch Church, the 18th-century Senate House, which functioned as New York State's first capitol, and the early 19th-century Federal-style Ulster County Courthouse. Seeing all of the historic houses and other buildings in this neighborhood in a single day by foot is probably not possible, but walking down several streets is itself rewarding. (updated Aug 2016)

Museums

• See exhibits on the maritime history of the Hudson River and the regional industries—such as agriculture, brick, and, before the advent of refrigeration, ice—that depended on the river for transportation. Hudson River Maritime Museum, 50 Rondout Landing, [phone], . May–October, F–M 11AM–4:00PM. Also has collections of paintings and boats.
• Trolley Museum of New York, 89 East Strand (Rondout waterfront), ☎ [phone]. Memorial Day Weekend–Columbus Day, Sa, Su & holidays, noon–5PM. Trolley rides Sa & Su, May-October, from the museum to Kingston Point Park. 

Do

• Take a cruise on the river aboard the Rip Van Winkle, [phone], or the Teal, [phone], .

Buy

Hudson Valley Mall

Eat

George J. Smith House

• Just For You, 375 Broadway, ☎ [phone]. Sun-Thu: 11:00 am - 10:00 pm; Fri 11:00 am - 4:00 pm; Sat Closed. This is a Oaxacan restaurant. They serve unusually savory food with multifaceted flavors and good ingredients and have specials every day. It's a small restaurant that also does takeout and delivery, the atmosphere is informal, and they have obvious pride in their work and sincere happiness in appreciation from customers. At the same time that their home-style food is deliciously authentic to their origins, they are health-conscious in a way that you may find atypical of taquerias. For example, their juices do not have added sugar and their chorizos are made from turkey. But don't be fooled into thinking this is some kind of bland spa cuisine: Their salsa packs a punch. Regular-menu tacos are no more than $8.50 for an order of 3; large plates go up to $12.50. (updated Aug 2016)
• Rosita's, 86 Rondout Landing, ☎ [phone]. Mexican/American cuisine. Waterfront dining, with outdoor patio. 

Drink

Sleep

• Courtyard Kingston, 500 Frank Sottile Blvd, ☎ [phone], fax: [phone]. 
• Holiday Inn, 503 Washington Ave, ☎ [phone]. 
• Hampton Inn (Hampton Inn), Ulster Ave.. 
• Super Lodge, 129 New York 28, ☎ [phone]. Check-in: 1pm, check-out: 11am. 

Go next

• The lovely, much smaller town of Rhinebeck, with its own selection of historic houses, is across the river and slightly to the south and east.

Routes through Kingston

Albany ← Saugerties ←	N  S	→ New Paltz → New York City
Albany ← Saugerties ←	N  S	→ Milton → Fort Lee
Herkimer ← Oneonta ←	W  E	→ END