CEREMONY FOR VETS AT PARK
Saturday’s event will take place at sprucedup area around World War II monument
The spruced-up area around the World War II monument at Cornell Park will be the site of a Saturday ceremony honoring veterans.
The 10 a.m. Memorial Day weekend ceremony will take place at the Rondout park, which is wedged between Wurts, Hunter and Post streets, according to Alderman Steve Schabot, who headed the effort to spruce up the area around the World War II veterans stone monument.
Schabot, D-Ward 8, said much of the recent work, started about three years ago, has now been completed. Schabot represents the area where Cornell Park is located.
“It needed some sprucing up and we wanted to make it look good for the veterans,” Schabot said of the monument area.
The area now has a repaired bluestone sidewalk, shrubbery, a flagpole with solar-powered lighting for around-the-clock illumination of the flag and new brick pavers, according to Schabot, adding that a cast-iron urn adjacent to the walkway was refurbished as well.
Additionally, there are plans to install benches, hopefully by the time of the Memorial Day commemoration, Schabot said.
Schabot, along with other volunteers, such as Recreation Commissioner Ron Woods, helped with the effort. Woods made a $500 donation toward the project.
The effort is also expected to include the installation of a monument history kiosk. The
monument was placed at the park during World War II in the early 1940s.
Schabot, who has served as the chairman of the city’s Recreation Commission, said others made donations. They include Herzog’s Home Center, Denter Sand & Gravel Inc. in Kingston, Jim Donovan, the Kingston
Professional Firefighters Association, Local 461, and Rondout Savings Bank.
Cornell Park, which offers visitors panoramic views of Kingston’s landscape and the Hudson River, is named for one of Kingston’s wealthiest
and most prominent former residents, Thomas Cornell, who founded the Cornell Steamboat Co. in 1837.
Cornell died in 1890, but the Cornell Steamboat line dominated freight traffic on the Hudson River in the
early 20th century, largely by towing barges.
Cornell lived in a mansion at Wurts and Spring streets in Kingston. The house was demolished around 1942, leaving only the limestone walls and bluestone walks
that once graced the property.
The mansion stood adjacent to the park that now bears Cornell’s name. The land was deeded to the city by Cornell’s grandchildren in 1925.