Sunday, July 3, 2016

New Paltz, NY 7/3/2016


We traveled one afternoon to the city of New Paltz, NY to stroll down Huguenot Street.  The Huguenots were French Protestants from the 16th and 17th centuries. The French Huguenots were all exiles, largely Calvinists, leaving France to escape the persecution from the French Catholic majority. The Huguenots of New Paltz, NY first fled to Germany where they remained for almost a decade. When things started to heat up for them in Germany too, they fled to the New World.  All of them spoke English, preferred to speak French and many of them also spoke Dutch.  They were educated and comfortable in having finer things  They are believed to have taken their possessions with them and to have eventually arrived in America around 1660-1677.  

The original heads of families to New Paltz , NY were known as Pantenees and there were 12 of them. They created a government known as the Duzine (derived from the French word for dozen), and elected an individual from each of the original Pantenee families to represent them.

In 1677, the group, united by religious beliefs, purchased a large tract of land from the Esopus Indian tribe.  (purchased, like that is new?)  We saw the purchase agreement that contained land  to the Huguenots in exchange for many goods to the Indians (kettles, axes, shirts, stockings,lead, knives, wine, oars, blankets, tobacco and more) and also stipulated was that the Indians would retain hunting and fishing rights on the land. 

Originally the Huguenots built log homes, but by 1692 they began replacing these homes with stone homes, as large stones were abundant in the area.  Most of the homes today are not that different than they were in the 1600's-1700's.  Only one of the homes had huge upgrades and renovations, that was the Deyo home.

The Deyo family lived beyond their means.  A bit of a common story  in our travels. That said their house was fascinating  and highly recommended to tour for those that travel.

Personal inside pictures of the houses are not allowed.  But we took the time to see if inside pics are available on the net and at this posting,we found a few posted. Enjoy and vist if you are close!
http://media.dailyfreeman.com/2013/07/26/photos-historic-huguenot-street-in-new-paltz/#35
http://media.dailyfreeman.com/2013/07/26/photos-historic-huguenot-street-in-new-paltz/#36
http://media.dailyfreeman.com/2013/07/26/photos-historic-huguenot-street-in-new-paltz/#42
http://media.dailyfreeman.com/2013/07/26/photos-historic-huguenot-street-in-new-paltz/#44
http://media.dailyfreeman.com/2013/07/26/photos-historic-huguenot-street-in-new-paltz/#45
http://media.dailyfreeman.com/2013/07/26/photos-historic-huguenot-street-in-new-paltz/#47 http://media.dailyfreeman.com/2013/07/26/photos-historic-huguenot-street-in-new-paltz/#33
http://media.dailyfreeman.com/2013/07/26/photos-historic-huguenot-street-in-new-paltz/#12

Headed home (our fifth wheel) we spotted a couple of more unexpected sites.  The first was Mohonk Gatehouse.  Built in 1907, it served as the main eastern entrance to Mohonk Mountain House. While we did not actually go there, the place looks impressive and we snapped a great picture along the roadway.of the gatehouse.  Driving home we also saw the beautiful surrounding mountains as well as the Hudson Valley.

Bevier House
Built in 1698 by Louis Bevier, one of the
New Paltz Patentees
The one room home was expanded by his son in both
1730 and also 1735
Hasbrock House
Built in 1721
This house had a long center hallway
Considered so extravagant and a waste of
construction costs in the day.
 The reconstructed church
Inside it wa interesting that the people faced each other and
the speaker walked around speaking to everyone.
While an upgraded stone, it just shows the history here.
The Deyo Estate
Quite incredible and  so wish we could have taken pictures.
some insights, however, we think  are shown in the links above..
Surrounding Mountains
Gatehouse
The Hudson Valley


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