Newburgh Heritage

Quaint – but also neighborly

By Mary McTamaney
Posted 5/8/19

Newburgh has raised many artists and provided an inspirational home for still more.

We know the names of some celebrated ones. Raphael Hoyle, an early landscape master, died too young in 1836 …

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Newburgh Heritage

Quaint – but also neighborly

Posted

Newburgh has raised many artists and provided an inspirational home for still more.

We know the names of some celebrated ones. Raphael Hoyle, an early landscape master, died too young in 1836 before he could make a round-the-world voyage to document with his drawings the wonders of the world on the first U.S. Exploring Expedition. Congress had appointed this Newburgher to be its official artist on a mission of scientific discovery. Despite his short life, he left us with an extraordinary painting of Liberty Street where people are walking and talking along that dirt street in colonial times.

Other great names in the history of the Hudson River School of Art had Newburgh roots. George Innes was born here where his parents ran a small Water Street grocery. George left home at 16 to apprentice to an engraver and went on to a celebrated career. Asher B. Durand lived on what today is Ledyard Avenue in New Windsor and painted a classic view of the Hudson and its highlands from his studio there. Other local artists captured the scenic vistas around Newburgh Bay.

Thomas Benjamin Pope was a later member of the Hudson River School and created many views of the river and the streams and mountains nearby. Many of his paintings are showcased on the walls of the Historical Society of Newburgh. As the 20th century turned, brothers Gifford and Reynolds Beal, members of the new impressionist movement, each painted many local scenes including the touching depiction of our local soldiers marching down Broadway on a sunny June day on their way to World War I.

Clarence Kerr Chatterton, an 1890 N.F.A. graduate, was their friend and colleague who also studied at The New York School of Art with fellow students Childe Hassam and Edward Hopper. Chatterton established a studio on the top floor of the Newburgh Journal building on Second Street from where he could capture everyday scenes of his fellow citizens moving along the hilly downtown streets. His are some of my favorite views of Newburgh.

I thought of Clarence Chatterton when I found an old flyer advertising the 1931 annual meeting of the New York State Historical Association. That organization of history enthusiasts, and especially local historical societies, was founded in 1899 to document and preserve state history. They held annual meetings to share and compare collections and ideas for promoting regional stories and took those meetings on the road to learn what was interesting and special about each part of New York. As the Great Depression began, the association scheduled their convention in Newburgh.

The flyer welcoming visitors that week featured the page shown here. No artist signed the sketch of what appears to be Third Street descending to the waterfront. It may have been Raphael Weed who was president of the Newburgh Historical Society at the time. He was a gifted sketch artist and often illustrated the society’s publications. Whoever drew the view captioned “Quaint Old Newburgh” was charmed by this location just as Mr. Chatterton had been. The sidebar proclaims: “Picturesque Newburgh where one looks down, not up, to see the rooftops.”

This was the landscape of Newburgh from its settlement until the 1960’s when the downtown streetscape was dismantled and destroyed. For two centuries, Newburghers had climbed the steep hills from the waterfront. They had paved their streets with stone and tucked their homes and businesses into the topography like a masterful jigsaw puzzle. It was tight but it was neighborly. Buildings on these hills were often surprisingly spacious inside and from the many windows people enjoyed watching the commerce of their city, including down over the rooftops where commerce included a steady parade of boats .

Most folks had a glimpse of the Hudson. They could witness neighbors tending little gardens and hanging out laundry in the constant breezes. “Quaint Old Newburgh” in 1931 was still designed to face and to greet the intersecting streets. Looking at the old drawing, I long to be able to walk down Third Street and say hello to the many faces that might have been looking back at passersby if we had only left it standing.