Historic Huguenot Street

06/04/2026

Join the at Historic Huguenot Street, for the 6th Annual Juneteenth Jubilee!

The celebration starts at 3 pm at the Ann Oliver House (5 Broadhead Ave). Then, journey together to Historic Huguenot Street (81 Huguenot Street) for music, dance, readings, and community beginning at 3:30 pm.

Featuring Sister in Spirit of the Hudson Valley, callie mackenzie, the NPHS Jazz Band, Greenway Compost, Energy Dance Company, local elected officials, and special guest, incoming MWLC Board President, Mawulekumi Tokponwey (Mow Lay Ku Me Tok Pon Way).

This event is free. Registration is highly encouraged:

mwlcenter.org/events-1/juneteenth-jubilee-2026

At 5:00 pm, Historic Huguenot Street will be unveiling four new Witness Stones as a part of the multi-year collaborative project with MWLC and the Ulster County Historian to commemorate the first individuals on record to have been enslaved at each of the historic properties at HHS. This year’s markers will commemorate Gerritt, James, Molly, and Hendrick, the first individuals on record to have been enslaved by Jean and Jacob Hasbrouck. These markers will be permanently installed in front of the Jacob (Jean) Hasbrouck House, along with a coinciding interpretive panel

More information will be made available as the event date approaches!

06/03/2026

What's that big hole in the wall at the Bevier-Elting House?

For this week’s we highlight the important work happening on the middle section of the south wall, which was bowed and badly comprised. Structural engineers required that it be reconstructed. The house was shored on the interior and masons removed stones one by one and numbered them so that they can be returned to their original positions in the wall (which was carefully documented in photographs). The crew then hand-excavated the soil at the base of the wall, so that the foundations can be similarly rebuilt. Thanks to the incredibly hardworking team! Because of the sensitive nature of archaeology at HHS the excavation was monitored by Beverwyck Archaeology, who found a piece of glass from the 1600s and ceramics sherds from the 1800s. Soon footings and reconstruction of the wall can begin!

06/03/2026

Please Note: There will be no 10:30 AM or 12 PM tours today, June 3rd, tomorrow, June 4th, or Friday, June 5th. We apologize for any inconvenience.

06/02/2026

Join HHS for "Anthony and Grietje: New York’s First Couple,” an IN-PERSON presentation with Dr. Alan Mikhail, Thursday, June 11, from 7pm to 8:00pm (EDT)

A man thought to be a Muslim from Morocco and a German barmaid fleeing poverty are hardly the images we have of New York’s founders. This presentation will introduce the seventeenth-century immigrant couple Anthony and Grietje in all their complexity as both outsiders and colonizers. Married in Amsterdam, they crossed the Atlantic to the newly colonized Lenapehoking. Dutch authorities in New Netherland attacked Anthony for being the Muslim he was not, while crude harbor denizens branded Grietje a w***e. The rebellious couple was eventually banished to the “frontier,” to what is now Gravesend Brooklyn, where they and their four daughters farmed and seized land from Native Americans while fighting English colonists from the north. Though now mostly forgotten, the rowdy couple’s descendants include some of the most distinguished names in American social and political history, among them the Vanderbilts and President Warren G. Harding. Tracing the lives of Anthony and Grietje tells a new history of the American family and of immigration, and helps us to conceive of the history of early America beyond the dominant categories of Native, Black, and European.

This presentation will take place IN-PERSON at the Crispell Memorial French Church located at 60 Huguenot Street.

"Newcomers: The Story of Anthony and Grietje and the Founding of New York" is available for purchase on HHS’s online Museum Shop. In addition, our brick and mortar DuBois Fort Visitor Center and Gift Shop, located at 81 Huguenot Street, will be open for browsing from 6:30 - 8:30 pm on the night of the talk.

Alan Mikhail is the Chace Family Professor of History at Yale University. He is the author of six books, most recently Newcomers: The Story of Anthony and Grietje and the Founding of New York. In addition to numerous scholarly articles, he has written for the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and Los Angeles Times. His work has been translated into over a dozen languages.

$8 General Admission

$5 Discounted Admission (for HHS members, seniors, students, active military personnel and their families, and veterans)

For more information and to register visit: huguenotstreet.org/calendar-of-events/2026/6/11/anthony-and-grietje

This program is sponsored by RBT CPAs LLP.

Historic Huguenot Street’s programs are supported by the New York State Council on the Arts, with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.

06/02/2026

As we commemorate the nation’s 250th anniversary, we honor Revolutionary War soldier John J. Freer of New Paltz. According to pension records (https://bit.ly/49wOtSp) digitized by the Ulster County Clerk’s Office, John enlisted in the Continental Army on April 1, 1776, at about age 18, serving under Cornelius Hardenbergh. He was discharged and reenlisted a number of times, serving in the regiments of Colonels Pawling and Snyder, and was at the surrender of General Burgoyne in October 1777.

After the war, John married Margaret Bennet and had nine children. Based on the 1798 Tax Assessment, John rented and likely farmed 40 acres of land in the Bonticou area, but pension records indicate he later had a tavern and made shoes.

By an act passed in Congress in 1818, veterans of the Revolutionary War became eligible for pensions. Applicants were required to submit lists of real and personal property as a demonstration of financial need. At the time of John’s first application in 1822, he stated that his personal property consisted of one cow and a horse owned jointly with his son. A later list included two pigs and various household items, including pots, jugs, pewter spoons, and a pine table.

By his third application in 1825, John was almost 68 and life had taken a turn for the worse. The horse he had reported previously had “died more than a year ago in consequence of a fall from a bridge.” He sold his cart and harness to the local tailor James K. Webb, and his landlord took the saddle towards rent. John’s statement continued:

“My occupation was formerly that of a shoemaker, but owing to repeated violent attacks of rheumatism, I have been unable to follow it for several years past: I have also had four strokes of the palsy, the last on the evening of the 25th of May last; it laid me helpless and speechless for four hours, and it was not until daylight the next morning that, by bleeding and blistering, a physician restored me to myself.”

John’s wife Margaret was 59 years old at the time and in good health. She was the family’s chief support. Margaret prepared and sold cake and beer.

After receiving his pension for about three years, John died in 1828.

06/01/2026

We were so pleased to speak with the Daily Freeman last week!

Historic Huguenot Street is ramping up for a busy summer calendar featuring recurring special tours and the return of popular events like the New Netherlands Marketplace and the Juneteenth Jubilee.

05/29/2026

In just TWO WEEKS, the 5th annual "New Netherland Marketplace: Living History Event" will come to Historic Huguenot Street! The event will take place Saturday June 13th, 2026 10:00 am to 5:00 pm & Sunday June 14th, 2026 10:00 am to 4:00 pm (EDT).

Throughout this event, which features nearly 60 presenters, visitors will discover Lenape Delaware, Black, and European presenters sharing their craftsmanship and culture, and portraying life in mid-17th century New Netherland.

Members of the federally recognized Lenape Delaware communities, which currently reside in Wisconsin, Oklahoma, and Ontario, will be returning to their sacred homelands to portray the life of their ancestors and their economic relationship with the European settlers. Their camp will have ongoing open fire cooking, cordage making, bow shooting, flintknapping, arrow making, and hide tanning demonstrations throughout the weekend. Each day, representatives will offer a cultural stomp dance demonstration, in which visitor participation is encouraged. North American Dingos, also known as the Carolina dog, will be present and used to discuss Eastern Woodland hunting traditions and more.

Living historians portraying European merchants, performers, and craftspeople will offer demonstrations on woodworking, hearth cooking, tailoring, wampum making, spinning wool, and more. This year’s marketplace will include displays of camp gear and furs, clothing, wooden bowls, children’s toys, and other items for sale. Musicians will regularly perform to crowds and, just like years past, children and adults alike will line up to enjoy a classic Dutch folktale via a raree show, an exhibition of pictures and objects viewed through a small hole in a box. Scheduled programming will include demonstrations on 17th century martial arts and cutlass fighting, a quack show, and a portrayal of Adriaen van der Donck.

Members from the group "Inalienable Rights," the Living History arm of The Slave Dwelling Project, will present the lives and histories of some of the colony’s first enslaved people. Brick making demonstrations, open fire cooking, and dynamic presentations will provide evidence of the incredible contributions, skill, and traditions that the enslaved community brought to the early colony amidst the brutal conditions they faced daily.

And, New for 2026 will be serving lunch options made from locally sourced ingredients, hand-crafted to satisfy the whole family!

As in previous years, this event is free and open to the public.

For more information on this event, including more detailed descriptions of the event offerings, visit huguenotstreet.org/new-netherland-marketplace-2026.

“New Netherland Marketplace: Living History Event” has been developed in partnership with Caesar's Ford Theatre, Inc. and Wild Hudson Valley.

Historic Huguenot Street’s programs are supported by the New York State Council on the Arts, with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.

05/28/2026

Your input is needed!

Beyond Green Travel is inviting Ulster County residents, business owners, community groups, and visitors to share their perspectives through this short survey. Your input will directly inform the development of Ulster County’s new Sustainable Tourism Strategic Plan – the first step in shaping a long-term framework to guide how tourism is planned and managed across the County.

This initial strategy will help ensure that tourism supports local communities and the economy while preserving what makes Ulster County a special place to live and visit for years to come.

There are two ways to participate:

Take the Community Survey which remains open through June 7:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSet0IRbqVTTij1S3f8thBdeQDzgJVz_MAl3c65X72O7FO0WNg/viewform

Take part in the:

Public Input Session at the Catskills Visitor Center, Rt. 28, Mt Tremper on Monday, June 1st from 6:30-8:30 PM.

https://participate.ulstercountyny.gov/sustainable-tourism

Please share! The hope is to hear from a broad cross-section of residents, visitors, and business owners/representatives whose input will make the plan that much stronger.

05/28/2026

Join HHS TONIGHT! Thursday, May 28 from 7pm to 8:30pm (EDT), for "Gerritt, James, Molly, and Hendrick: Reconstructing Enslaved Lives in Early New Paltz,” a virtual presentation with Ulster County Historian Eddie Moran.

This informative and interesting presentation explores the lives of Gerritt, James, Molly, and Hendrick—the earliest recorded individuals to have been enslaved by Jean and Jacob Hasbrouck—tracing the fragmentary records that document their presence in colonial New Paltz. Through close reading of these sources alongside carefully grounded historical context, the program reconstructs aspects of their lived experiences and considers the roles they played in shaping the community. In doing so, it invites a deeper reckoning with the human stories embedded within one of New Paltz’s most iconic historic sites.

This presentation will be presented entirely online via a link sent after registration.

Eddie Moran currently serves as the appointed Historian for Ulster County, NY. Eddie graduated with a B.A. in history from SUNY New Paltz in the Spring of 2020, and began work as a tour guide at Historic Huguenot Street in New Paltz while still a student in 2017. He managed historical interpretation full-time at Historic Huguenot Street beginning in 2022, and was appointed Ulster County Historian in September 2024. He is a lifelong resident of the Wallkill River Valley.

$8 General Access

$5 Discounted Access (For seniors students, active military personnel and their families, and veterans)

Free Access for HHS members

This program will be recorded, access to which will be shared with all registrants the following day.

For more information and to register visit: huguenotstreet.org/calendar-of-events/5/28/26/gerritt-james-molly-and-hendrick

Gerritt, James, Molly, and Hendrick are the focus of the 2026 Witness Stone Project collaboration between Historic Huguenot Street, the Dr. Margaret Wade-Lewis Center, and the Ulster County Historian. This year, the project welcomes students from Kingston High School as they engage with this research through field trips and in-classroom work. Their culminating art project will bridge connections between the history of slavery, an analysis of archival documents, and their own experiences as local youth.

Commemorative memorial markers honoring Gerritt, James, Molly, and Hendrick will be installed in front of the Jacob (Jean) Hasbrouck House and unveiled at the Juneteenth Jubilee hosted by the Dr. Margaret Wade-Lewis Center at Historic Huguenot Street on Friday, June 19th.

Historic Huguenot Street’s programs are supported by the New York State Council on the Arts, with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.

05/27/2026

Join us for the FINAL CONCERT in the three-part series, "Revolution on the Hudson," performed by Linda Russell & Companie in the Crispell Memorial French Church THIS SUNDAY, May 31st from 4pm to 5pm (EDT)!

The Hudson River played a pivotal role in the Revolutionary War. Through 18th century music and songs, this program brings that history of spies, forts, and battles along the river to life; including the story of General Rochambeau and his French troops uniting with Washington's forces to form the ‘grand march’ that led to Yorktown … and victory!

$15 General Admission

$10 Discounted Admission (for HHS members, seniors, students, active military personnel and their families, veterans, and children under 18)

$7 Youth Admission (for youth 13-17 years of age)

Free Admission (for children under the age of 13)

Meet the Musicians:

Linda Russell explores history through music. Having served for many years as a balladeer for the National Park Service at Federal Hall on Wall Street, the site of Washington’s inauguration, Ms. Russell now takes her music to historic sites, schools, and festivals throughout the country. New York appearances have included Lincoln Center and the Carnegie Hall Folk Festival.

Christa Patton, historical harpist and early wind specialist, has performed throughout the Americas, Europe, and Japan with many of today’s premier early music ensembles, including Piffaro the Renaissance Band, Early Music New York, Boston Camerata, The King’s Noyse, Folger Consort, Newberry Consort, Apollo’s Fire, and Parthenia.

For more information and to register visit: huguenotstreet.org/calendar-of-events/2026/5/31/revolution-on-the-hudson

This program is supported by the Ulster County Clerk’s Office and made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.