Legacies on the Land is the history of the land, people, and architecture of one of the earliest regions to be colonized by Europeans in what is now New York State. The book follows the early settlement of southern Ulster County by the Dutch, Huguenots, Walloons, English, Palatines, and enslaved Africans on the homelands of the Munsee Lenape as settlement spread outward from New Paltz to neighboring townships. The nineteenth-century influx of Germans, Irish, Italians, and others added to the rich cultural mix and to the visible legacy that has been passed down generationally for 350 years. Researched and written by a cadre of talented volunteers including historians and noted authors, the book explores the region’s townships and provides in-depth essays on over 150 architectural gems in every style from early Dutch fieldstone houses to 21st-century modernism. Wineries and grass-fed meat farms have replaced the original 17th-century subsistence farms, and hamlets have become villages, but this historic land retains its rural character and a diverse beauty that remains a beacon today.
A Publication of Historic Huguenot Street, Edited By Vals Osborne