This was Liberty Street where it passed the Hasbrouck house the 18th century.

Presidents’ Weekend is coming, the holiday when we combine the birthday commemorations of Abraham Lincoln and George Washington for the convenience of our having a Monday off. Abe Lincoln was actually born on February 12 and George Washington on the 18th. This year, our national holiday falls right on the birthday of our first President, the one Newburgh so admires and has a closer tie to than most other communities in America.

George Washington, as we were taught since childhood, lived among us in 1782 and 1783 as he negotiated the end of the War for Independence and kept his army drilled and ready for any final assault by British forces stationed in New York City.

The Hasbrouck farm in south Newburgh was the general’s headquarters during that time and citizens of this village saw and met and even conversed with the “father of our country.” They kept precious mementos of that time of rebellion, strife and liberation and handed them down to their children along with their stories about the birth of our republic. So, it was natural that when the last of the Hasbroucks left the old stone mansion on Liberty Street, that local residents would lobby for the preservation of the place where history happened. They succeeded and Washington’s old headquarters was saved from demolition and its farm lot saved from subdivision into smaller parcels. The Hasbrouck house became the first publicly-owned historic site in America – a fitting status for a place that witnessed so many firsts.

This coming weekend, we can walk or drive over to visit the site and experience something of the time of Washington.

The General himself (in the form of historic reenactor, John Koopman) will be welcoming guests to his office as he plans the next steps of the peace process. Music of his time will be playing and guides will explain the details of the old stone house that was so central to Newburgh in the 18th century. Each afternoon at 3, Newburgh Free Academy students will be performing their new musical composition, The Washington Project. If you like Hamilton, The Musical, you will love this take on our local story.

One way I prepare to experience 1780’s Newburgh is to visit the Newburgh Historical Society and stare into the beautiful painting on the wall of the front parlor there. It was created by a Newburgh artist, Raphael Hoyle, and it portrays Washington’s old headquarters.
The light and color in the painting are a lovely testament to the talent of this native painter, but the detail is what I enjoy. The first time I stared into the canvas years ago, I realized that I was looking at Liberty Street in its youngest days. A narrow road passes by the stone mansion and old trees with stout trunks, heavy with leaves, line the path. Big rocks are in the way along the shoulder and the ground naturally rises and falls as it twists around a little spring. This was Newburgh in 1780.

It was a sparsely-populated village of fewer than fifty residences when Washington came to set up a headquarters here. Just a handful of farms, a few riverside stores, docks and wharves and some rough cottages up the hill. The citizens of such a hamlet are the ones who saw the great general arrive and set up camp. They watched him mount his horse and ride by along fewer than a half-dozen dirt trails beginning with the one depicted in Raphael Hoyle’s old painting. Newburgh was close-knit indeed where everyone was known to each other.

This will be a good weekend to step back in time and imagine crossing paths with neighbors as our ancestors did in the 1780’s. Come over to the old Headquarters at Liberty and Washington Streets, wish the General a happy birthday and meet your neighbors as you reflect on how far we have come.