BOUTIQUE HOTEL SITES STEEPED IN HISTORY
KINGSTON, N.Y. » Hotel lodging in Uptown long ago passed by.
Facilities with names such as the Kingstonian, Governor Clinton, Stuyvesant, and Kirkland have come and gone.
But today, a hotel-construction resurgence is blossoming at Uptown buildings ripe with city history.
Four of them are being eyed by New York City Developer Charles Blaichman, the principal of Hudson Valley Development LLC, to become what he has described as “boutique hotels.”
Kingston Architect Scott Dutton, who is designing plans for each of the hotel locations, said that boutique hotel offers something unique.
“The boutique hotel industry is focused eponymously on being smaller with a more personal level of care and attention and very importantly being unique,” Dutton said in an
“The customers who are drawn to historic sites are curious and want to engage with and learn about and have an appreciation for the buildings and places that they visit.” — Kingston Architect Scott Dutton
email. “Historic buildings are a natural fit for the branding of a ‘boutique hotel’ where design of the hotel embraces and celebrates what is unique about the place to create a one off or bespoke experience for guests.”
Dutton added that there is a customer market for such lodging.
“Customers who want more than a place to sleep when they spend their money on travel and leisure seek out unique locations and quality services,” Dutton said. “A historic site hotel by virtue of the fact that they are venerable locations that have been cared for and restored check off those boxes for those types of customers.
“The customers who are drawn to historic sites are curious and want to engage with and learn about and have an appreciation for the buildings and places that they visit,” Dutton added.
41 Pearl St.
Perhaps the most compelling historical account of all four locations is wrapped up in the now
Blaichman-owned property at 41 Pearl St. All four Blaichman buildings are part of one hotel, which has yet to have a name.
At 41 Pearl St., the developer plans construction of 14 rooms inside the former Dutch homestead built in the 17th century.
The three-story brick-façade building, at the corner of Fair Street, contains 8,194 square feet.
The building, built in the 1680s, had been the 19th century home of Mary Isabella Forsyth, a member of a prominent Kingston family. The land where Forsyth Park sits, off Lucas Avenue, was donated to the city by the family of James C. Forsyth, who served as an Ulster County Court judge in the mid-19th century.
The judge was the father of Mary Isabella Forsyth, who was one of the deed’s signers.
“Rather than relying on her lineage as a member of one of Kingston’s oldest and most prominent families, she was a woman who dedicated her life to the betterment of less fortunate citizens,” according to an historical account from the Friends of Historic Kingston.
The account says her most noted achievement was initiating the founding of the Industrial Home in 1876, “to care for neglected or destitute children and the aged. Its motto, “Seek and Save,” was emblazoned on its official seal.
In 1946, the East Chester Street building was renamed the Children’s Home of Kingston. The Children’s Home, which is dedicated to serving troubled youth, later relocated to the former St. Ursula’s School on Grove Street; the original Industrial Home building now houses the Good Shepherd Christian School.
In 1893, Forsyth founded the local chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution and served as its first regent.
An author and poet, she wrote a local history, “The Beginnings of New York: Kingston the First State Capital,” published in 1909, the account says. Forsyth died in 1914. According to hotel project historic researcher Jim Monahan, the 41 Pearl St. structure was re-built in the 1790s. Further renovations were completed in 1878.
301 Wall St.
And it was in April that a building permit was granted for a boutique hotel at 301 Wall St., at John Street, inside the Stockade Historic District.
The Wall Street hotel, which gained approval from the Kingston Planning Board in January, is to have nine guest rooms on the second and third floors of the building and a restaurant on the first floor.
The brick building dates back to 1864. It has a limestone façade and was, most recently, headquarters for the Tonner Doll Co., which moved to 1094 Morton Blvd. in the town of Ulster.
24 John St.
The third hotel location, 24 John St., features a building ravaged by the British burning of Kingston in 1777. Eight rooms are planned.
“This building ... predates the Revolutionary War,” Monahan said in an email. “The building was mostly burnt in 1777 and identified as being owned at the time by an individual name David Cox.”
Monahan said an 1820 building survey describes it as follows:
“Except the corner houses and blacksmith shop already mentioned, was the only old stone house still standing, but altered with a brick front, nearly opposite the Eaman house,” the survey says. “It was the homestead of Henry J. Sleght, and at the date above mentioned was owned and occupied by Henry Chipp.”
Since its rebuilding after the fire, the building has experienced numerous expansions and remodeling to the original construction, Monahan said.
“But if you walk down John Street, the main building eastern façade still shows evidence of rebuilding converting from stone to brick veneer as you eye travels to the peak,” Monahan said.
According to the Friends of Historic Kingston, the Kingston directory for 1940 lists the property as the home belonging to Albert N. Cook, president of Decker Fowler Inc., an insurance company located at 44 Main Street.
“A comment in People’s History of Kingston by William C. Dewitt, 1944 notes, “This is now the residence of Mr. and Mrs. Albert Cook, a handsome revolutionary homestead,” the Friends group said in an email.
270 Fair St.
The history of 270 Fair St. dates back to 1870s, according to Monahan. There, Blaichman plans 12 rooms.
“The current existing structure was originally built in the 1870s by either Frank Nestell the original occupant (a Plumber) or Bernard Loughran listed as a Steam and Gas pipe fitter,” Monahan said in an email. “The upper two floors were built and used as residence in these early years; the first floor used for fabrication of and sales related products.”
Monahan said that the use changed in the 1940s.
“From 1940s through the late 1960s, the first floor retail and commercial space was utilized as a Singer sewing Machine retail franchise store and repair shop,” Monahan said. “In more recent years, the building has been occupied by Tom Reynolds and Pennington Photo studios along with ... various legal firms.”
Monahan pointed out that the front three story portion of the current building was built on the remnants of an earlier and smaller stone foundation, which “suggests an earlier building who’s history” is unknown to him.
“If only those old stones could talk,” he said.