No Longer Standing: Buildings of Poughkeepsie – Gone But Not Forgotten: Eastman Business College and Mansion
by Shannon Butler This week in our Local History Blog we are continuing in a series of articles that will look at buildings that once stood in Poughkeepsie. Today we are going to take a look at two buildings that were located in separate parts of the city but were connected by name, the Eastman Business College and the Eastman Mansion. There are most likely very few people still living who would remember the former but the latter was still standing as late as the 1960s. Poughkeepsie was known for being the place to receive a fine education in the early 20th century. There were several schools in the area that focused on everything from liberal arts, to nursing, and in the case of the Eastman College, business. Harvey G. Eastman had been an educator all of his life. Beginning in his home county of Oneida, making his way out west in the years before the Civil War, and then coming back to New York in 1859 to begin a small business school here in Poughkeepsie. The story goes, that Eastman began with one student and rented a small room for 75 cents a week. A year later, he had more [...]