Planned subdivision of Hasbrouck Farm. Only two of the proposed surrounding street names were ultimately adopted for this neighborhood.
By Mary McTamaney
I spent part of this past weekend greeting visitors to the old 1750 Hasbrouck House on Liberty Street, built by Jonathan and Trintje Hasbrouck and once occupied by America’s first Commander-In-Chief. This was President’s Weekend, and, with no slight intended to Abraham Lincoln, “Newburgh’s President” would be George Washington, since he lived among us for the two final years of the War for Independence, 1782 and 1783. Other presidents have visited us, both in and out of office, but Washington lived with us.
The places other presidents have been in Newburgh have often been destroyed like Mayor George Clark’s house on Liberty Street where President Ulysses Grant dined, or the Newburgh Shipyards where both Theodore and later Franklin Roosevelt came to address the workers, but the temporary home of General George Washington still stands and has been preserved as it was in his time for our descendants to experience through the generations.
No matter why and when you enter Washington’s Headquarters, it is a grand time machine and that always strikes me as I stand in the hallway to welcome people. A heavy “Dutch” door opens and you step onto wide, worn wooden floor planks. The walls are also huge planks, laid in horizontal panels and painted in the colors that could be made from local dyes in the mid-18th century. Small rooms and small-scale furniture remind you that there was little lounging for citizens of the 1780’s. A stiff chair or stool was the only seating a home offered, even this one, the grandest home in the community. (Mr. Hasbrouck had been President of our 18th century settlement.) One look at the massive fireplace in the old Hasbrouck House explains a bit of the life of the Hasbroucks and others who lived in colonial Newburgh. Preparing meals was an ordeal of open fires and heavy pots and many transfers of food, all done in long, heavy clothing.
From my greeting point in the front hall of the Hasbrouck House, I could look through the formal parlor and up Grand Street. I realized how close America came to losing the sacred site I was standing in when, in the early 19th century, developers planned to buy the remaining farm and house from the last Hasbrouck family member who had lived there and push Grand Street south through the property, dividing the land into 25-foot lots all around. Gone would have been the chance to stand on the vast lawn and realize that George Washington himself came out that east door to tell his troops peace had been secured and our War for Independence won at last. Gone, also, would probably have been thousands of artifacts that Newburghers and residents of surrounding communities brought to the doors of the old Headquarters in the later 19th century. Once Newburgh saved the Hasbrouck farm by citizen activism and loyalty to their heritage, residents near and far started bringing the treasures their parents and grandparents had saved that represented the success of the local struggle for freedom. Guns and uniforms and furnishings from the time of the war were carried in and offered so that the story of the era could be interpreted. In 1910, again with much local lobbying, New York State built a museum on the grounds of the Hasbrouck farm to house the artifacts and documentary heritage of the birth of the republic.
George Washington’s name has often been spoken and used in Newburgh through the centuries. Amazingly, it has not been over marketed or used in vain. Only a few enterprises adopted it, and George’s image, as their brand. Washington Iron Works, long gone from our city, was once our most successful foundry. Washington Baking Powder Company flourished here in the late 19th century with a packing plant on Front Street. Washington Heights was the neighborhood name that local real estate developers chose to unify the eastern portion of the old Robinson farm in south Newburgh beyond the Hasbrouck lands when they purchased it for building lots in the 1880’s. The Hotel Washington opened on the corner of Grand and First Street just before the Great Depression and was a popular local gathering place and first-class hotel for travelers.
From the north window of the Hasbrouck House last weekend, I could look up Grand Street and see the roofline of the old Hotel Washington, now the Hudson Point Apartments. To the east, I looked at the roofline of the Newburgh Brewing Company, built as the pattern shop of the Washington Iron Works owned by William Wright. To the west, I saw Saint George’s Cemetery cresting the hillside that was a small orchard planted on this once-upon-a-time farm by Jonathan Hasbrouck and enjoyed by George and Martha and their military staff in 1782 and 1783.
The best doorway to the story of Washington’s Newburgh headquarters is the film “Mansion on the Hill” by historian Joe Santacroce. It can be found, along with many rich history sources, on the NewburghHistoryBlog.com. Enjoy the period musical soundtrack performed by NFA’s Madrigal Singers as the camera takes you back in time.