RETIRING AT AGE 101
Ed Ford, ‘a walking, talking encyclopedia,’ stepping down as historian after 35 years
Many people retire at age 65. Ed Ford waited a little longer.
Ford, the city of Kingston historian, is stepping down this summer at the age of 101.
“Well, you know, I just thought it was time anyway, when I feel good,” Ford said by telephone. “Why not?”
Ford, a widely admired historic preservationist and avid promoter of the city’s past, has lived in Kingston since 1928. He was appointed city historian in 1984 by then-Mayor Peter Mancuso. He’ll be succeeded by Taylor Bruck, an archivist for the Ulster County Records Bureau.
Ford, who formerly ran a printing business, said the most enjoyable part of being city historian has been relating Kingston’s history to anyone who wanted to hear it.
“I have been meeting so many people and so many of them wanted to know about our local history,” he said. “I enjoyed that because we always had a story to tell.”
Ford certainly wasn’t in it for the money. The city historian receives no pay and is given just $750 per year to cover expenses.
Kingston Mayor Steven Noble said Ford’s retirement is “bittersweet.”
“It has been my great pleasure to work with Ed,” Noble said in
a prepared statement. “... Ed will be missed, but he will remain one of our most important and beloved Kingstonians.
“I would like to offer my heartfelt gratitude for Mr. Ford’s many years of service to the Kingston community,” Noble added.
A farewell ceremony and reception for Ford is scheduled for 11 a.m. Aug. 13 at City Hall, 420 Broadway.
Jane Kellar, executive director of the group Friends of Historic Kingston, said the organization, which Ford used to lead, “salutes and treasures our Ed Ford. He has been the light of local history for the city of Kingston for 35 years and for FHK for over 50 years.”
For helped form Friends of Historic Kingston in 1965 and stepped down as its president in 2003.
“Ed has been a leader, doer and visionary of the Friends of Historic Kingston, guiding the organization through many projects, always with the goal to bring the stories of the past to our present,” Kellar said. “Through the years, as questions and problems arose, the words echo: ‘Just ask Ed.’”
Ulster County Historian Geoffrey Miller also lauded Ford’s work.
“With his rare blend of curiosity, intellect, sense of justice and generosity, Ed Ford has been a leading force at the center of Kingston’s preservationist and historical communities for far longer than the 35 years he has served as the ... city historian,” Miller said in an email. “I will cherish the time I have spent with Ed sharing projects, benefiting from his deep knowledge, sifting through his extensive collections, and just chatting about future projects with regard to Kingston’s history.”
Former Friends of Historic Kingston President Lowell Thing, who has written a book about the history of Kingston’s West Chestnut Street, said Ford is an icon.
“Ed Ford ... has been the very spirit of historic preservation in Kingston,” Thing said, also in an email. “In his deceptively quiet and goodhumored way, he has been the instigator of more acts of historic preservation, saved more buildings, recruited more volunteers than everyone else I know combined.
“I know he would think this kind of over the top, but he was really a kind Superman that came to Kingston’s rescue whenever its architectural or archival history was threatened,” Thing added.
One of Ford’s crowning achievements was keeping City Hall on Broadway in Midtown Kingston from being demolished. Ford’s insistence contributed to the building’s national landmark status and its eventual reuse as the seat of city government.
In May 2000, some 28 years after being abandoned, City Hall reopened upon the completion of a $7 million restoration, allowing Kingston’s government offices to return from a building on Garraghan Drive in the city’s Rondout district.
Ford also orchestrated an effort to remove several lunettes — half-moonshaped plaster relief scenes portraying local historical places and events — from the walls of the Common Council chamber in City Hall when it was still abandoned. When the building was restored, the scenes depicted in 20 of the 23 original lunettes were returned to their places along the walls.
Former Seventh Ward Alderman Bill Reynolds, who first suggested in the late 1990s that the abandoned City Hall be restored, said Ford is the embodiment of city history.
“He is a walking, talking encyclopedia about everything to do with Kingston’s history,” Reynolds said. “And on the rare occasion he didn’t have the answer, he wasted no time getting it. Ed will be a very tough act to follow.”
Among Ford’s other efforts, he oversaw the restoration of historic homes in the city, led efforts to create a mini-park on Frog Alley and a replica of Kingston’s original Stockade fence on North Front Street, oversaw the rehabilitation of the Sharp Burying Ground on Albany Avenue, and raised money to clear Company Hill Path in the Rondout district.
Ford also was instrumental in the creation of the Fred J. Johnston Museum in Uptown Kingston and supported the effort to save the former Kirkland Hotel at Clinton Avenue and Main Street.
In 2004, Ford wrote a photo book called “Images of America: Kingston” that featured more than 100 black-and-white photographs of the city in the 19th and early 20th centuries. He later wrote “Street Whys: Anecdotes and Lore,” about the origins of Kingston’s street names.
Historic preservation specialist Marissa Marvellil, a former member of the Kingston Historic Landmarks Preservation Commission, said Ford is the epitome of a historian.
“Kingston will forever be indebted to Ed Ford,” Marvelli said in an email. “He’s not only our institutional memory, he’s our community conscience when it comes to documenting and protecting the city’s historic fabric. Be it City Hall or the Pine Street African burial ground, he spoke up when few else would or could. He’s an example for all of us to follow.”