LaMar Turpin: A Profile of Service World War II ushered in many changes for women of all backgrounds. As you might have heard, women had the chance to do everything, from working in factories to playing on baseball teams. Women who wanted to do their part to serve their country in the military finally had their chance. Organizations like the WACS (Women Army Corps), WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service), and WASPS (Women's Airforce Service Pilots) were popping up in the early 1940s, which allowed women to join the military effort. African American women had fewer chances of being accepted into these branches, as the military only allowed 10% of black enlistments. For Poughkeepsie native LaMar Turpin, it was no doubt exciting to be accepted into the WACS officer training school. LaMar Turpin was born LaMar Yvonne Wood in 1914. She was the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Wood of Pershing Avenue. She attended Poughkeepsie schools and had a great interest in athletics and poetry. She excelled at tennis and joined the Poughkeepsie Net Club, where she won several trophies. Some of her poetry was published in the World’s Fair Anthology in 1938. In 1935 she married Raymond Turpin, who [...]

Vincent A. Walker: Black, White, or Passing? The term passing has made its way back into our modern vocabulary thanks in part to Netflix producing a film based on the 1929 novel of the same name. The act of passing has historically been described as a black, brown, or multiracial individual who can be accepted into a white racial group due to having light-skinned features. The practice of passing was a way to avoid racial segregation and the stereotypes that plagued society. In the 1930s, if one could pass as white, they would be more likely to get a good job, rent an apartment in a good part of town, or even receive a loan to buy a home. Vincent Walker was likely aware of these conditions when he immigrated from Jamaica to Canada, and then to Poughkeepsie in May of 1927. He referenced his race as “West Indian” rather than “Black” on his naturalization papers, which later translated to “White” on all of his documents. Vincent Alexander Walker was born in St. Ann’s in Jamaica on April 19, 1902. He and his mother (who wrote on her naturalization papers that she was “African black”) immigrated to Toronto, Canada in 1920, [...]

Murder in Poughkeepsie’s Little Italy Did you know that card games can be deadly? Of course you did. If you have ever seen a western film you know that the guns start flying out whenever someone drinks too much liquor and loses too much money. Well, this sort of thing doesn’t just happen in Hollywood folks, it happened right here in Poughkeepsie! Some games can get you so hot and bothered that friendships can end, or people can, well, die. Have you ever played the game of “Big Boss and Little Boss” also known as “Brisque?” Well that was the game that was played when tempers got too high and someone lost their life in 1935. Fifty-two year old Phillip Nuzzi lived on the second floor apartment at 91 North Bridge Street right in the center of the area known as Little Italy. He was the father of nine and had been the “Italian Boss” for Spoor and Lasher Company. Nuzzi’s friend and hot dog vendor, John Matera lived in the apartment on the first floor. On the evening of May 5, 1935, these men along with Andrew Digilio and Joseph DiCosmo were sitting together in Matera’s apartment, drinking wine and [...]

Herman’s Christmas Wonderland If you grew up in the Poughkeepsie area between the 1960s and the 1990s, it’s possible that you visited Herman’s Christmas Wonderland display as a child (that is, if you’re into the whole Christmas thing). There was something special about getting the family together in the minivan and driving down Route 44 to the Pleasant Valley nursery where you could stroll through the “Christmas tunnel.” There you would see handmade displays like, the North Pole, ski slopes, Eskimos, and of course, the Nativity scene. As we are all getting older and feeling a bit nostalgic, we thought this would be the perfect time to revisit an old holiday favorite that is now sadly a thing of the past. In 1960, William Herman opened a nursery and garden center in Pleasant Valley. The business was very successful with their slogan, “For every Bloomin’ thing” that attracted everyone from beginner gardeners to professional landscapers. In 1962, the store set up their first Nativity scene with live animals and “2 of Santa’s real live reindeer,” Dancer and Prancer. The following year the store planned an even bigger display and placed advertisements in the papers that proclaimed that Herman’s Christmas Land had [...]

Christmas Card Time! Are you a big fan of giving and receiving Christmas cards this time of year? Sometimes it feels like the only thing we get in the mail anymore is bills and random coupons we never asked for. However, this time of year, it is always a pleasure to receive a special card, hand-picked and signed with a warm greeting of the season. In our modern era, we can snap family photos with our smartphones and send the images off to be made into personalized cards or grab a giant box of various mass produced cards that we think look pretty. Or how about getting a local artist to make you some personalized cards? Plenty of locals in Poughkeepsie did this in the 1920s and 30s with our local artist, Thomas W. Barrett Jr. As we have mentioned in previous posts, Thomas W. Barrett Jr. was born in Poughkeepsie in 1902 and studied art in Boston at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts. He lived and worked for a short time in New York City in the mid 1920s, before coming home to Poughkeepsie and moving back in with his family in their home at 55 Noxon [...]

Time to Shop! It's the most wonderful time of the year folks! It's Black Friday and everyone is going to be starting their Christmas Shopping! Perhaps you are heading down to the Poughkeepsie Galleria, or you’re shopping small by hitting some local “Mom and Pop” establishments. Maybe you prefer to stay on the couch and surf the web for online deals. Either way, people have been searching for the best Christmas gifts for over a century. While the tradition of “Black Friday” shopping is fairly new, we’ve been doing it since at least the mid-20th century, and with less than a month to shop, this time of year has always been crunch-time for finding the right Christmas gift. In 1871, the Poughkeepsie Daily Eagle proclaimed that giving your family members a subscription to the paper was the best Christmas gift (well, obviously!), but there were several other organizations that also claimed they had the best gifts for your loved ones. Lucky, Platt, & Company, which was Poughkeepsie’s very own department store for over a century, made sure to attract their customers with large ads in the newspaper with slogans like “Our assortment of goods is large! Our prices are Way Down! [...]

General Custer was here! (well, parts of him) There are several battle names that everyone has heard of. Even if you don’t know when or why it was fought, or even who won it, you’ve heard the name. Names like the Battle of Gettysburg, or the Battle of Waterloo, or the Battle of Okinawa, and so on. One of the big names that is mentioned a lot is the Battle of Little Bighorn. Why? It was a major victory for the Plains Indians during the Great Sioux War of 1876, and it would be the location of the last stand and death of the famous General George Armstrong Custer. You may be wondering, how does this have anything to do with Poughkeepsie? When George Armstrong Custer went into battle on June 25, 1876, his goal was to round up all of the Plains Indians in the Black Hills and bring them to reservations. Anyone who didn’t come willingly was considered hostile and would be killed. Thousands of members of the Lakota, Dakota, and Cheyenne tribes had followed leaders like, Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, to lands around the Little Bighorn River; this is where Custer and about 700 members of the [...]

The Trial and Execution of Lucy Ann Hoag If you missed our Historic Murders in Dutchess County program, fear not, we will do it again in February. In the meantime, we thought we would share an interesting story that was uncovered in the midst of researching some of the characters who committed evil crimes. Did you know that the fourth woman to be executed in New York State’s history was put to death in Poughkeepsie? Did you also know that this method of justice being served took place inside the Dutchess County Courthouse just down the road from this very library? Lucy Ann Hoag was not able to recall much of her childhood when men came to interview her in her prison cell in 1852. She did not know her real parents and was adopted by the Fulton family in Red Hook, where she remembered being treated as if she were a servant and field worker. Nelson Hoag, a man from Dover, on the eastern edge of Dutchess County, came calling when his sister was marrying into the Fulton family. The 32 year old fell in love with the 18 year old Lucy and proposed marriage. The Fulton family must have [...]

Mark Twain at the Bardavon How many of you love a good stand-up comedian? Some of you might enjoy the jokes of Richard Pryor, George Carlin, or Jim Gaffigan. Perhaps you have seen a live performance by Jeff Dunham or Steve Martin. The fashion of a single person standing on a stage of a nightclub or a theater telling stories and jokes was made famous by people like Lenny Bruce and Joan Rivers in the 1950s, but people have been telling jokes on stage for a long time. Of course, the oldest stage here in the City of Poughkeepsie is the one at the Bardavon Theater, and the first real stand-up comedian to grace that stage was America’s great humorist, Mark Twain. On October 18, 1869, the Poughkeepsie Eagle News briefly mentioned that the newly famous Mark Twain would be one of the many speakers for the Lyceum Lectures. These lectures were held at the Collingwood Opera House–which we know as the Bardavon Theater today–and in 1869, both Twain and the Collingwood were fairly new creations. Twain, whose real name was Samuel Langhorne Clemens, had become famous thanks to his recently published work on his travels through Europe and the Holy [...]

The Sad Story of Carlotta Eastman They say that dogs are a man’s best friend. Well, as Abigail Adams once said, “remember the ladies,” because the same concept also applies to women and their K9 companions. A fine example of such affection is shown in the photographs to the right. Here we have Carlotta Eastman with her beloved pups as photographed by the Vail Brothers Photography studio here in Poughkeepsie. She had a lot of love for them as she would have had to spend a good amount of money (or at least her father’s money) on these precious prints. However, if you take a closer look at Lottie’s (her family nickname) later life, she might have been better off if she stuck with her dogs. Carlotta “Lottie” Eastman was born on July 7, 1867 to Harvey G. and Minerva Eastman, here in Poughkeepsie. Her father was the very successful creator of the Eastman Business College and eventually served as Mayor of Poughkeepsie. The family lived in a large mansion on the corner of South Avenue and Montgomery Streets (known as Eastman Park). She and her sister Cora would have had a very pampered childhood in such a place, which included [...]

Elizabeth Weeks Barrett and PHOIS Yearbook 1922 As you may have heard, in the fall, we will be covering the life and work of Poughkeepsie born artist, Thomas Weeks Barrett Jr.. His art was heavily inspired by his hometown's architecture and its politics. We will have Local History Discussion and a special art exhibit, both located here at Adriance Memorial Library. While digging through the Barrett art collection I came across an interesting bit of artwork hiding in plain sight within the Poughkeepsie High School Yearbook (PHOIS) of 1922. Much of the artwork and designs in that book were created by another Barrett, Thomas’s sister, Elizabeth Weeks Barrett. Better Barrett was born January 3, 1904 into an upper-middle class family at #55 Noxon Street. Her father Thomas Sr. was a successful banker and her mother, Katherine Stougtenburgh was from an old prominent family. She and her older brother Thomas would spend time between their home here and various family properties in the countryside, whether in Hyde Park or further south in what is now considered the Town of Poughkeepsie (it was all empty farm land before 1940). Thomas was already showing signs of interest in creating art at a young age, [...]

Take a Look Inside… Again! Last year, we shared some interior views of historic buildings here in Poughkeepsie from our collection. We're often asked if we have interior photos of historic structures, and for the most part, the answer is no. It is rare for an interior photo to be taken back then unless it was deemed worthy enough to be a postcard or placed in a family photo album. In last year’s blog post, we asked you to consider how many photos you have of the inside of your own home. We certainly take more pictures than 100 or even 50 years ago, but generally, the only time we try to get good interior views of our homes or buildings is when we are trying to sell them (i.e. Zillow, Trulia, and so forth). The few interior images we have in our collection are fun to see, not only because they are rare but because they show how things have changed over a century. Let’s take a look at some different ones. The Riverview Military Academy was a school for boys formed by Mr. Otis Bisbee in 1867. Bisbee had previously worked as an educator for the Poughkeepsie Collegiate School, [...]

The 176th Dutchess County Fair It's that time again! The Dutchess County Fair is back and it's time to head to Rhinebeck for some 4-H shakes and carnival rides. Did you know that this is one of the largest and oldest fairs in the nation? This 6-day fair that sits on over 160 acres of land and hosts about half a million people per year has certainly changed since its humble beginnings in the 1840s. We have previously discussed the fair’s history in one of our very first blog posts, but today we decided to look at the few times in the 176 year history that the fair was forced to cancel. I think we all remember the most recent occurrence (thank you very much COVID!), but what about the other cancellations? In 1916, the Dutchess County Agricultural Society looked over their numbers for the previous year’s fair and discovered that they had a $3713.22 deficit (that's over $100,000 today!). Members of the society were split on which direction the fair should take, as it struggled to keep up with the times at the turn of the 20th century. This led to low attendance, and therefore less cash coming in, and [...]

The Local Architecture of Frederick Clarke Withers We have so many lovely buildings in our city, and if you have been reading this blog long enough, you know that we have also lost a lot of buildings over the years. We have also mentioned how fortunate we are to have the works of some of the great architectural minds of the last century and a half (or more).There are at least two buildings still standing that are the work of Frederick Clarke Withers, while one building of his is gone with a modern creation in its place. Frederick Clarke Withers was born in Somerset, England, February 4, 1828. Withers worked as an apprentice under another British architect named Edward Monday before eventually accepting a chance to come to America and work with one of the leading architects of the Gothic revival Andrew Jackson Downing. In 1852, Withers made his way to Newburgh just long enough to meet Downing before his untimely death on the explosion of the Henry Clay steamboat in July of that year. The time he had with Downing was enough to inspire him to continue exploring Gothic styles in local architecture. After Downing’s death, Withers worked alongside Calvert Vaux, another [...]

The Lumb Brothers We mentioned before how Poughkeepsie was once famous for being an industrial city. There used to be several prominent factories along the waterfront that produced everything from lumber and building supplies to milk products and steam automobiles. The men who created these factories left their marks on the city landscape. Some of these marks are still standing, while others are long gone. Take for example, the Lumb brothers and their sash and blinds factory. These men added several buildings to the city for various purposes, though only a few remain. George and his little brother Levi Lumb were born in England in the 1830s. Their father Thomas brought the family to Poughkeepsie when they were very young in the hopes of making something of himself. Thomas began working at the Pelton Carpet Factory in 1839. Both of the boys were educated locally before entering work at the carpet factory with their father. The brothers served honorably during the Civil War, George with the Navy and Levi with the Dutchess County Regiment, the 150th N.Y. Volunteers. When they returned from the war, they both worked for William E. Beardsley’s Sash and Blinds Factory before starting their own businesses in [...]

A Vacation at Mohonk Mountain House Here we are at the beginning of August, and it is hot out there. Where do you go to get away from it all? Some people like to be by the shore, some enjoy a trip to an amusement park, while others would rather head deep into the woods for some hiking or camping. In the mid-19th century, two twin brothers came up with the idea that a vacation in the woods, with a shore, and some amusement (with a touch of luxury), was the perfect combination for the summer getaway. When Albert Smiley purchased a ten-room tavern on Lake Mohonk, he likely did not imagine that his vision would continue to prosper to this day, over a century later. Albert K. Smiley was a schoolteacher who, like many teachers in the summer months, wanted to find a place that would not only relax his body but also give some refreshment to his soul (he was a Quaker, after all). His brother Alfred had stumbled upon a small tavern by a lake in the Shawangunk Mountains and convinced him to come and see it for himself. Albert used all of his savings, some money from [...]

Pit Stop in Poughkeepsie: Glenn Curtiss and His “Hudson Flyer”            In today’s modern world, most of us have been in an airplane. Some people enjoy the thrill of a 747 taking off take-off down a runway and lifting steadily into the air, while others prefer to keep their feet squarely on the ground. The idea that something could weigh over 400,000 pounds and fly as high as 36,000 feet at a cruising speed of 500 mph would probably boggle the minds of early aviators. For Glenn Curtiss, the man who broke barriers and records in the new world of fast-moving machines, his flights may have been a little lower and a little slower, but they still boggled the minds of his contemporaries.  Glenn Curtiss was no stranger to speed. He raced bicycles in the 1890s, and after the turn of the century, he moved into the world of internal combustion engines. Curtiss set a land speed record in 1903 on his hand-built motorcycle, reaching a top speed of 64 miles per hour. He did it again in 1907 with a motorcycle that contained an eight-cylinder motor of his design; on smooth sand in Ormond Beach Florida, [...]

More Long Lost Buildings of Poughkeepsie: Cedarcliff More Long Lost Buildings of Poughkeepsie: Cedarcliff We have mentioned in previous blog posts how Poughkeepsie has lost a lot of interesting buildings and residences over the years. When it comes to this particular long lost building, which was part of a large estate, we don’t actually have a picture of it, but we know it was there. In fact, two structures are standing nearby today that represent different eras of the estate. The estate was known as Cedarcliff, and it is easy to locate it if you know the street names of Poughkeepsie. James Winslow was the brother of John Flack Winslow (who we talked about in a previous blog), and had ventured into the banking business with the Third National Bank of New York City. James and John were drawn to the beautiful scenery of the Poughkeepsie waterfront, and both brothers wanted to establish homes here. James was the first in 1857, when he built a home which he named “Cedarcliff” (about ten years before his brother built “Woodcliff”). The estate was bought and sold over the course of half a century and had several wealthy owners including Henry N. Curtis, the Taft Family, [...]

Local History Discussion: Germond Family Murders This is your friendly reminder that if you haven’t signed up for our upcoming Local History Discussion on the Germond Family Murders of 1930, what are you waiting for (we’re running out of seats!)? On Wednesday, July 6th at 6:30 pm, we will be listening to Dr. Vincent Cookingham discuss his new book The Germond Family Murders: A Forensic Conclusion to a Cold Case. This case has been on the minds of many Dutchess County residents for nearly 90 years, and yet no one seemed to have the answer to the question “who did it?” until now. On the night before Thanksgiving, in November of 1930, a silence fell over the Germond farm. On Thanksgiving Day, when James Germond did not show up for his milk delivery, folks thought it was odd as he wasn’t known for taking holidays off. Four bloodied bodies would be discovered the next day by a concerned fellow employee of Borden Milk Company. James, also known as Husted, his wife Mabel, and their two children, Bernice and Raymond, were all found stabbed multiple times. Within hours, the quiet farm was full of police cars, coroners, concerned neighbors, and the press. [...]

James Bowne: Mayor of Poughkeepsie The City of Poughkeepsie has had many different mayors over the years. Each one has left a mark on the landscape in some small way. In the early days of the city, mayors were elected to a one-year term until 1859, when it was changed to two years. That might not be a lot of time to get things done, but you’d be surprised. One of the earliest mayors of Poughkeepsie was James Bowne, who served his term during the early years of the Civil War. He was a man of principle and worked hard most of his life, so much so that his obituary is lengthy and speaks very highly of the man and his accomplishments. Bowne was born on Christmas Day, 1798, in Fishkill. His father died when he was very young, and he lived with his mother until he got the nerve to head North to Poughkeepsie in search of employment. With very little money, he found work in the hardware business. First with Albert Cox, and then by 1816, he started working with the firm of N. Conklin Jr.. Bowne stayed on for several years and eventually earned a partnership; by 1821, [...]

Grandpa, Is That You? - Learning Your Family’s History (with Stories and Some Research Tips) Have you ever taken the time to dig into your family history? Believe me, it takes time. Sometimes you find things that you didn’t want to know, for example, perhaps you find out that your grandfather did time in prison for stealing tires during World War II. Then there are moments when you find things to be proud of like your great-great-great-grandfather served in the Dutchess County Regiment during the Civil War. As a historian, I spend a good deal of time searching through other families histories in the hope of understanding historical events. Once in a while, I take the time to look at my family’s part in history (the good and the bad), and I’ve come to learn some pretty amazing (and absurd) things. When it comes to genealogy, you must start with your most recent relatives and build a tree backward in time. I began with my paternal (meaning father’s side) grandfather, Harry Butler. I discovered that when Harry was 19 years old, he was sent to Elmira Reformatory for stealing tires at Stanford. He wasn't alone; his brother Virgil would end up [...]