COURTHOUSE WAS SETTING FOR CENTURIES OF HISTORY
Series of events scheduled to celebrate 200th anniversary of the structure’s rebuilding
KINGSTON, N.Y. » For more than 200 years, Ulster County’s courthouse has been at the center of some of the most significant events in our nation’s history.
It is where a group of 18th century patriots, on the run from the approaching British army, gathered in 1777 to write, and ultimately adopt, what would become the Constitution establishing the state of New York.
It was where George Clinton was sworn in as the state’s first governor and where John Jay, the state’s first chief justice, swore in the first grand jury in the state and held state Supreme Court, then the highest court in the state.
And, it is where Sojourner Truth made history by successfully fighting for the return of her enslaved son. The case was argued and decided in the courthouse.
Ulster County Clerk Nina Postupak and Commissioner of Jurors Paul O’Neill have planned a series of events later this year to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the 1818 rebuilding of the Ulster County Courthouse and its place in history.
“To think that on these grounds, even if not in the exact building, New York state is born,” O’Neill said. “I don’t think you can find any community in New York state that has the history we have here.”
The first courthouse to stand at 285 Wall St. was constructed in 1683 and upgraded between 1732 and 1737.
It was on the steps of that building on April 22, 1777, that the newly adopted state constitution was read for the first
time, and it was that building that the British burned six months later, in October 1777, during their invasion of Kingston.
“But the stone structure is still there,” said O’Neill, and a second courthouse was erected from the ashes of the first.
That second courthouse stood until 1816, when it was torn down to the foundation and rebuilt in 1818.
Since then, the courthouse has seen a number of renovations, including in 1834 and 1899. In 1972, the county jail was moved from the courthouse to Golden Hill, and, in 1997, the county completed a major renovation of the courthouse, O’Neill said.
In August, Postupak will unveil an exhibit chronicling the courthouse from its founding in 1661 (where it stood until 1683, when the courthouse was moved to its current location).
The exhibit, which will run through the end of the year, will feature court records, jurors lists and Board of Supervisors’ meeting minutes, as well as illustrations from Schoonmaker’s History of Kingston and the 1875 Beers Atlas.
Among the documents to be displayed, Postupak said, will be a 1683 document creating the original 12 counties of the state, documents establishing a tax to build the courthouse on Wall Street
and records filed in connection with the creation of the Ashokan Reservoir, including first-person testimony of residents of the towns consumed by the reservoir, and of course, the court records related to Sojourner Truth’s fight in 1827 and 1828 for the return of her son Peter. It was that victory, O’Neill said, that propelled the woman known then only as Isabella, onto the national stage.
“These court papers tell us a lot about what life was like back then,” Postupak said. “You can study the courthouse and you can see how we shaped the U.S. Constitution, how we built ourselves back up after the British burned this community down.
The New York State Archives will bring down the original state constitution, written in the Ulster County Courthouse for viewing, and, on Nov. 15, the Court of Appeals, the highest court in the state, will hold court.
Postupak and O’Neill said they are planning other events surrounding the bicentennial, including a number of events involving school children.