Mary McTamaney

Advertisements for last Sunday’s wonderful lecture and concert organized by the historical society and performed at Calvary Church, included the sheet music cover shown here. It is an original song by Newburgh’s own Ulysses J. Alsdorf and it is titled “Powelton Dove” and “dedicated to the ladies of the Powelton Club.”

In 1893, why did a Black man from Liberty Street write a song to the posh ladies of the country club in Balmville? Mr. Alsdorf’s business was music and he composed and sold sheet music that was distributed far and wide in America. As the audience learned at last Sunday’s presentation by music professor and scholar, Dr. Christopher Brellochs, sheet music played on home instruments and in small social groups was the predominant form of entertainment in America at the turn of the last century. “Powelton Dove” is a beautiful example of those long-forgotten piano melodies that once wafted from the open windows of Newburgh but what is the hook that would have had everyday people thinking and singing of the green lawns of a private club?

It turns out the Powelton property had deep roots before it was a country club. And, the country club, when it was formed, was more lawn tennis than golf and had a majority membership of women. The Powelton Club property earlier in the nineteenth century had been Powelton Farms and the location of today’s country club building was the Powelton Hotel, a resting stop for Hudson Valley travelers. Tracing it back further, the hotel had been a school – a girl’s school – the Newburgh Female Seminary. So, young women claimed that land far before men in golf spikes.

The Newburgh Female Seminary was founded by Thomas Powell, owner of a shipping company and owner of the Balmville farm that bore his name, who wished to see his daughter well-educated. He erected a “suite of buildings” about a mile north of the Village of Newburgh. The campus is described in the school’s catalog: “principal buildings are of brick, constructed in the most substantial manner and furnished in a style of peculiar neatness and elegance. …The institution commands one of the most delightful combinations of land and water prospect on the Hudson…known for the salubrity of atmosphere and water; the various social, literary and religious privileges of the place are rarely surpassed in a country village.” These selling points would be very important to parents of young women. The 1830’s was a time of some peril in the cities of America. Fresh air and fireproof buildings would appeal to people who frequently witnessed fires and fatal diseases sweep through their communities. The new Romantic era in literature and art was enlivening the Hudson Valley and Newburgh had more than its fair share of intellectuals leading various movements. An illustration of Newburgh in 1840 is captioned with a listing of all the churches, schools (including the Female Seminary) courts and lyceums as well as ferry, sloop and steamboat lines that make it a cultural and transportation center in the region. The population in 1840 was 11,000 residents.

Mr. Powell’s investment in his daughter Mary and her neighbors paid off. The Newburgh Female Seminary was full in 1836 with 120 young ladies in the ranks of boarding students. The roster of students shows that girls came from as far away as Grahamsville, South Carolina; St. Augustine, Florida; and Mobile, Alabama. Many New York State villages and cities were represented as well, including Staten Island, Brooklyn, Ithaca and Cazenovia. The Mid-Hudson was well-represented by girls from Newburgh, Fishkill, Haverstraw, New Windsor and Poughkeepsie.

What is most revealing is the curriculum. It was extensive and difficult, encompassing far more than the traditional “three R’s.” A few of the courses include: Moral and Natural Philosophy, Geometry, Ancient and Modern History, Geography (including physical, political and statistical), Botany and Zoology, Languages (including Latin, Greek and French), Grammar, Rhetoric, Arithmetic (mental and operative), Antiquities (Roman, Grecian and Jewish), Astronomy, Chemistry, Elements of Political Science, Book-keeping, Composition, Drawing and Painting – and Piano.

Every pupil was expected to use the spacious grounds for daily exercise or participate in indoor calisthenics in inclement weather. When Mr. Ulysses Alsdorf wrote his two-step dedicated to the ladies of the Powelton Club, he was far more aware than we of the history of young women learning and enjoying and likely dancing around those lawns.