Joke Of The Day

A tourist in Kingston, NY asked a local, "Is this city really as historic as they say?" The local shrugged and said, "We were New York's first capital." The tourist said, "Wow, so what happened?"

The local said, "Albany showed up and we've been telling that story at every dinner party ever since."

Interesting Facts

Kingston, New York has a few quirks that even longtime Hudson Valley residents might not know:

• First capital, briefly: Kingston served as New York State's first capital in 1777, but the honor lasted only a matter of weeks — British forces under General John Vaughan burned the city to the ground in October of that year, forcing the government to relocate.
  
  
• A trolley graveyard beneath the streets: Kingston once operated an extensive electric streetcar system, and when it was dismantled in the early 20th century, many of the old wooden trolley cars were repurposed as diners, storage sheds, and even summer cottages scattered across the region.
  
  
• Cement capital of the world: In the mid-1800s, the Hudson Valley around Kingston produced the majority of the natural cement used in the United States, including cement used in the construction of the base of the Statue of Liberty and the foundation of the Brooklyn Bridge.
  
  
• Two downtowns, one city: Kingston is unusual among small American cities in that it has two distinct historic commercial centers — the Stockade District uptown and the Rondout waterfront district — which were separate villages with their own identities before formally merging into one city in 1872.
  
  
• Senate House still standing: The building where New York's first state senate met in 1777 is still standing on Crown Street and is one of the oldest government buildings in continuous preservation in the United States, predating the U.S. Constitution itself.