An important media event will take place Saturday, March 26th, in the Council Chamber of Kingston City Hall. “A Day of Information About the Nathaniel Booth House,” is scheduled to begin at 1:00 pm. Written in Stone, Ulster County’s Historic Legacy, an on-line group, has invited Professor Stuart M. Blumin, Cornell University, to speak about Nathaniel Booth, the historic structure and Kingston’s remarkable history.
Blumin is author of “The Emergence of the Middle Class,” a major work on American History, which draws its inspiration from Blumin’s earlier work, “The Urban Threshold: Growth and Change in a Nineteenth Century American Community (Kingston NY)” The primary source of research for this latter work are the Nathaniel Booth diaries, which span the decade from 1845 to 1855 and are held by the Senate House Museum.
Booth was an Englishman who came to New York, held many different jobs and also traveled in the American West. He was a
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Booth House Courtesy of Written in Stone:Ulster County's Historic Legacy
dealer in Wilbur and built his house from bluestone trimmings, obtained at low cost, from the final cutting of the stone blocks at Wilbur before they were shipped out. In his diaries, Booth recalls observing hundreds of loads of bluestone passing his house, on their way from the quarries to the Wilbur Docks.
Professor Blumin will relate the history of Booth and his house to the broader historical context of Kingston’s nineteenth century industrialization, establishing significant links between the historic structure, Delaware & Hudson Canal and Kingston’s role as a major producer and shipper of building materials (brick, cement and bluestone), fueling New York City’s economic expansion and unprecedented nineteenth century building boom.
The Nathaniel Booth house, a mid-nineteenth century bluestone structure located on Wilbur Avenue in Kingston, has been deteriorating for decades. It narrowly avoided the wrecking ball when Kingston Mayor Noble recently ordered a month-long moratorium on the demolition, in response to a massive outcry from historic preservationists.
Kingston Alderman Brad Will (3rd Ward) – a licensed architect – is the preservationists’ main ally in local government, and believes demolishing the building would be unacceptable in light of its historic value and architectural uniqueness. Will posted on line that the Booth house “defies categorization.” He further wrote:
“It is not a traditional stone nor wooden structure, it doesn’t belong to a particular architectural period, but it completely embodies and reflects a time and place known as mid-19th century Kingston. “It simply wouldn’t have been built elsewhere, or at a different time, from hand-hewn massive bluestone scrappings. It is our rough gem.”
The Alderman will speak about the current situation of the Booth House and future policies Kingston should initiate to protect and preserve the City’s legacy of fine historic buildings, especially identifying and repairing structures at risk.
Mr. Lowell Thing, local historian and author of the recently published, “The Street that Built a City,” about West Chestnut Street, Kingston, will speak in defense of rescuing the Booth house.
Several other local historians and preservationists have also been invited to speak and the complete program of the day’s events will be released when it has been finalized.
For local media information, please contact Kingston Alderman Brad Will bradwill.3rdward@gmail.com
