Last week, I met the members of the downtown business owners association. Representing the many enterprises that are operating inside the walls of old Newburgh buildings, they better define the economic potential of this city than any consultant’s study ever could. They have made change happen by taking chances and gradually weaving streets back together as customers find their doors and notice how much other activity there is inside other doorways. Food and drink, furniture and fashion call customers down east end streets where they discover personalized services in every direction.

Barbers, framers, florists, brewers and custom sign and design services offer unique products in relaxed atmospheres. That is precisely the dynamic that made Newburgh grow in past generations. Spaces were utilized over and over for new purposes, which is a customer draw in itself even beyond the products on the shelves.

The photo here is one I keep on my office wall. It shows the Brokaw Building in the early 1930’s. It is not quickly recognized by most. It was built by a Water Street clothing merchant as a shirt factory in the 1880’s when he decided to take a financial leap and produce what he had been selling his customers. The big new clothing factory was centrally located downtown in walking distance of the scores of workers who entered its doors each morning to cut and sew flannel for shirts and bathrobes. When its CEO, William Brokaw, who lived on nearby Montgomery Street, retired, the shirt company continued under new management as Hudson Shirt Waist Company. Then the massive brick corner building was purchased by the Newburgh Journal newspaper that had been operating a block away in crowded upstairs offices. Soon printing presses were humming inside, as reporters typed up stories and newsboys picked up stacks of papers to distribute.

The Newburgh Journal folded, and manufacturing returned to the floors of the big building with its purchase by the International Belt Company, giving it the new name, The International Building. But, in the ground floor, a popular restaurant opened that was enjoyed by the neighborhood and by shoppers from surrounding streets. On the opposite corner, beside the shiny automobiles, was a busy grocery owned by Frank Queen. It was later the Ebony Billiard Parlor, its last enterprise.

If readers haven’t figured out the location of this mystery corner, that may be because its buildings and its streets are long buried. The Brokaw Building was located at 48-50 Smith Street on the southeast corner of Third Street. Beside the Brokaw Building along Smith Street is the façade of the “Law Building” where Orange County Supreme Court and Family Court sessions were held and where many lawyers maintained their offices. Downhill on Third Street behind the Brokaw are additional law offices and merchants’ shops reaching the big stores of Water Street on the next corner.

What if the energy and imagination of today’s downtown merchants association had surfaced in 1960 Newburgh to save this neighborhood? As big local manufacturing began to fail and housing was plainly needed, what if the concept of adaptive reuse had kicked in back then? Two generations of children could have grown up in apartments that looked out not only at the river but at busy sidewalks and many services just steps away from their kitchen tables. Oh, and there were courtyards in the center of those old downtown blocks and a former YMCA designed by Stanford White right across Third Street all available to be renovated for recreation.

To see some of the new enterprises that have moved into vacant downtown spaces, check out: shopnbny.com.