By Bill By Bill Kleppel Marshall + Sterling is a diversified insurance company with 36 locations throughout the United States and The Virgin Islands. Did you know this agency has been part of our community for 160 years? Their headquarters is a large, yet unobtrusive brick building down at 110 Main Street. As a business entity, it doesn’t generate much notoriety or fanfare, and seems to be underneath the radar of social media exposure… It is an insurance company after all. Their longevity and success seem to depend on these qualities, and that’s very[...]

By Bill Kleppel William Dunwoody and his brother George both immigrated to the United States from Ireland in the 1820s. In 1866, William purchased a soap and candle factory that was run out of an old schoolhouse at 194 Main Street. Over the next 35 years, William, George, and William’s seven children, would expand the company from Poughkeepsie, beyond the Mississippi River, and into the western United States. Their story became known as one of the most successful business endeavors in the city’s history. Charles Cable and Jacob deGroff originally began the factory in[...]

By Bill Kleppel Life on Poughkeepsie’s Main Street during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries was frenetic and teeming with activity. The lifeblood of the city flowed through this arterial, transporting and distributing everything that was needed for Poughkeepsie to survive and thrive. It expanded exponentially during this period, developing its own culture that reverberated beyond its Hudson River banks to the rest of the World. It may seem hard to believe, but it really did. This era of Main Street has long since died. Yet, bits of its skeletal carcass remain. If you walk[...]