Rediscover the Hudson Valley

Henry Hudson was probably the first day tripper in the Hudson River Valley but sadly in 1609, when the English explorer first made his way up the river, there was not much to see along the shoreline but trees.

Henry ended up with the river being named after him but, as a tourist, he must have been disappointed. There were no cozy bistros offering farm-to-table lunches on sun-drenched patios, no stores featuring handcrafted goods, no galleries exhibiting local art and, worst of all, there was no Northwest Passage to Asia. So Henry went home.

A modern-day explorer won’t find Henry’s much-desired Northwest Passage but will find much to engage, educate and entertain. Today the Columbia County city that bears his name is an independent shopper’s paradise.

The mile-long Warren Street in Hudson is lined with historic storefronts and independent shops that offer browsers a unique experience. The array of shops ranges from antiques stores to art galleries, interior design enterprises to flower shops, food stores to purveyors of fashion and so much more.

Surprisingly, Henry might even recognize some of the objects on sale. Red Chair On Warren for instance, offers antiques that range from the Henry’s 17th-century era right through to the 19th century, all drawn from France, Belgium and Sweden. Henry might well have sat on similar chairs or stored his personal belongings in a Courtrai Chest.

Indeed, Hudson is well-known as an antiques Mecca, with a long history as a premier destination for antique and art collectors. But that is not all that Hudson has to offer. Visitors will find streets dotted with businesses selling homewares, clothing, flowers, handcrafted pottery and textiles, trendy eateries and so much more.

The city of Hudson literally sets the scene for a dominant theme for any trip to the Hudson Valley: Art. In addition to the many art galleries in the village, visitors can also discover Olana, the 19th-century home designed and built by artist Frederic Church.

The building, first envisioned by Church after he and his family returned from an 18-month-long sojourn in Europe and the Middle East, sits impressively atop a long slope in the middle of 250 acres of meticulously designed landscape. There Church created a unique mixture of Victorian architectural elements and Middle Eastern decorative motifs fashioned from colored brick, wood, slate, ceramic tile and stenciling. Some windows are bordered with amber glass, giving the appearance of a frame around the view.

Church was a member of the Hudson River School of painters. The Hudson River Skywalk, a scenic six-mile round-trip pedestrian walkway, connects Olana and Cedar Grove, the homesite of Thomas Cole, an artist influenced by European painters but with a strong American sensibility, who was a founder the Hudson Valley School. The Thomas Cole National Historic Site is a National Historic Landmark that includes Cole’s home and the studio in Catskill.

Only a 30-minute drive north, in Kinderhook, is another historic home of note: Lindenwald, the home of Martin Van Buren, eighth president of the United States. Van Buren is little known to 21st-century Americans but left a lasting mark on the nation’s vocabulary. During his 1840 reelection campaign, his supporters nicknamed him “Old Kinderhook,” which they abbreviated to “O.K.” This is thought to be the origin of the word “okay.”

His 36-room mansion, now open to the public as a national historic site., was his home until his death in 1862. It is also where Washington Irving wrote most of his “A History of New York” and “Sketch Book.”

Today, Lindenwald reflects Van Buren’s occupancy, with Empire furniture and china as well as original French wallpaper dating from the 1840s. The house’s facade features a Palladian window and carved woodwork on its first floor. A Tuscan-style tower and front porch combine elements of Gothic and Romanesque design.

The site is located on New York State Route 9H about two miles south of Kinderhook.

As well as George Washington who ate and slept at the Beekman Arms in Rhinebeck during the Revolutionary War, several American presidents can boast of significant relationships with the Hudson Valley. Clearly, the most outstanding of these is Springwood the Hyde Park estate of Franklin D. Roosevelt. It is one of the region’s most popular tourist attractions and well worth a visit.

Roosevelt’s natal home remained his refuge from the pressures of the presidential office until his death in 1945. Today, the grounds and mansion are maintained much as he knew them. His presidential library, the only one used by a president while in office, has an impressive museum that traces the challenges he faced while in office.

The Roosevelts, with a history that stretched back to mid-17th-century Manhattan, were “old money,” with conservative traditions and expectations. They had no use for the gaucherie of the “nouveau riche” entrepreneurs who were pressing in on their boundaries of taste and decorum.

One of those “nouveau riche” set up house just two miles down the road from Springwood when Frederick W. Vanderbilt purchased property and built the kind of palace erected by extraordinarily wealthy families to emulate European nobility. Today, his lavish mansion is also a National Historic Landmark, owned and operated by the National Park Service.

Open to the public, it provides a glimpse of estate life, the social stratification of the period, and the world of the American millionaire during the era historians refer to as the Gilded Age.

Henry Hudson arrived early in this nation’s history and opened the floodgates for early settlement. One of the most intriguing vestiges of this distant past is Historic Huguenot Street in New Paltz, which presents a lifestyle that is a far cry from the opulence of the Gilded Age.

At the 10-acre National Historic Landmark District in New Paltz, visitors can experience more than 300 years of history in seven historic stone-house museums, a reconstructed 1717 French Church, the Huguenot community’s original burying ground and a replica of an Esopus Munsee wigwam. The Esopus tribe sold the land to the Huguenot immigrants.

Period rooms and exhibits reveal the history of the area’s Dutch settlers, Indigenous and enslaved African peoples.

Okay, enough history. There’s more—scads more—to explore in the Hudson River Valley and by now visitors may well yearn to return to the 21st century. All the regional town’s boast attractive options but Rhinebeck is a cultural Mecca with galleries, museums, performing arts, independent film and historic homes and architecture.

Tree-lined streets beckon with independent specialty shops offering apparel, home furnishings, books and gifts. The many fine and casual dining spots celebrate the Hudson Valley’s thriving locavore movement of boutique farms and orchards. Hotels, spas and B&Bs offer comfortable accommodations for rest and rejuvenation.

Across the river is Rhinebeck’s neighbor, Kingston, the original capital of New York state and today both a hip and historic destination. The town encapsulates everything unique about the Hudson Valley area—a thriving arts scene, great dining, and beautiful surroundings

Uptown Kingston, known as “The Stockade,” has architecturally distinctive buildings with colorfully painted historic facades along Main and North Front Streets and the blocks surrounding. The streets are full of art galleries, restaurants and eclectic shops.

In midtown, once an industrial neighborhood, artists have set up their studios in affordable old factory spaces, making midtown the creative center of Kingston. In October, the streets come alive with the annual O+ Festival, a three-day street celebration featuring more than 55 live music performances, visual and performance art, vendors and a variety of health and wellness workshops that are open to the public.

Downtown Kingston, also called the Rondout or waterfront, has its own charm, featuring eateries and shops along Broadway. A quick walk down to the Rondout Creek offers great waterfront views, boat rides and the Hudson River Maritime Museum.

One of the best vantage points to view New York State, is from the water itself, just as Henry Hudson did 412 years ago. A Hudson River sightseeing cruise provides this opportunity with a 90-minute guided tour. Hudson Valley Cruises sails from Dock 1 on East Strand St. in Kingston from May through October.

Not all travel to the region was by water however. The Trolley Museum of New York, located at 89 East Strand Street and open seasonally, was originally founded in 1955 in Brooklyn in an effort to save some of city’s last trolley cars. It struggled to find a permanent home before moving to Kingston in 1982. An interactive experience, the museum lets visitors climb through buses, trains and subway cars and offers short rides on a diesel-powered trolley along the waterfront.

Rainy day? Kingston still has something to offer. How about checking out the International Museum of Dinnerware Design, whose permanent collection features international dinnerware from ancient to futuristic times; created from ceramic, glass, plastic, metal, lacquer, fiber, paper, wood and more.

Clearly, the Hudson River Valley is a hive of activity, with far more opportunities to explore than can be listed here. Easily accessible within an hour’s drive from western Connecticut and Massachusetts, it beckons day trippers to embrace the spirit of Henry Hudson, to get into their cars and discover its wonders.