Summer 2016
Anyone who was in New York City in the 1970s will feel a twinge of déjà vu in Newburgh—and be cognizant of the potential. Although Newburgh ranks as the state’s most crime-ridden city and a quarter of residents fall below the poverty line, the city’s spectacular architecture and intact urban fabric is luring a wave of newcomers. The Hudson Valley’s final frontier could well be on its way to becoming the next Brooklyn.
The city’s site is magnificent. Located opposite Beacon on a bluff overlooking the Hudson River, on the spot occupied by George Washington’s Continental Army in the final year of the Revolution, Newburgh flourished in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Linked to New York by steamship and train, it was a thriving industrial center, manufacturing everything from woolens, felt hats and carpets to baking soda to tools and machinery to ships and autos. Newburgh was the second city, after New York, to install electrified streetlights, and in 1939 it served as the test city for RCA’s first television sets. But in the early 1960s, the city fell into precipitous decline, and urban renewal wiped out the entire downtown commercial area.
Despite losing many buildings, the city of 27,000 remains an architectural gem, with blocks and blocks of Italianate, Gothic, Queen Anne, and Second Empire row houses, old brick industrial buildings, and charming, if dilapidated, churches. In the 1980s urban pioneers began fixing up the splendid Victorian brick mansions on Montgomery and Grand streets, now part of the East End National Historic District, one of the state’s largest. Long stalled, the revitalization is now gaining speed, with Brooklynites and artists buying up property. A ferry connects Newburgh to the train station at Beacon, enabling residents to commute to the city. But many newcomers are choosing to establish businesses here, including furniture maker Atlas Industries, Eco Shrimp (an urban shrimp farm), and Newburgh Brewery. A dynamic, progressive city manager, a community land bank that’s helping get Newburgh’s hundreds of vacant buildings back onto the tax rolls, and positive changes to the zoning code are finally enabling Newburgh to turn the corner. Half of the population is Hispanic, whose businesses are helping further stabilize the city.
The Scene
Restaurants clustered along the redeveloped waterfront mainly cater to tourists, but retailers on two blocks of Liberty Street are bringing Parisian-style living to the city. Opposite Washington’s Headquarters State Historic Site are several restaurants—with its tin ceiling and delicious bistro-style fare, Caffe Macchiato is particularly recommended—a computer repair store, locksmith, juice bar, barber shop, wine store, wellness center, tavern, and florist. Around the corner, on Grand Street, is Newburgh Art Supply, in a restored 1850s manse. Broadway, purportedly the widest street in the nation (it was once crowded with wagons waiting to unload their farm produce onto sloops) is also resuscitating. Up the street from the SUNY Orange community college campus, gift and framing store Newburgh Mercantile and 2 Alices Coffee Lounge have opened, and the historic Ritz Theater just got a new, brightly lit marquis. The theater belongs to the nonprofit Safe Harbors of the Hudson, which rents out 128 units to low-income, at-risk residents as well as artists in an adjacent building; Safe Harbors also rents out space to the Ann Street Gallery and is about to break ground on a new park at the corner of Broadway and Liberty.
Newburgh residents are committed to their community, both for work and play. Live music is held in the Ritz lobby once a month. Newburgh’s Last Saturdays features art openings, dance parties, and other events the last Saturday of the month. An artists’ studio tour takes place the last weekend of September, and the Newburgh Illuminated Festival, a music, food, performance and arts fest, will fill several blocks of Liberty and Broadway on June 18. Farmers’ markets set up at the Ritz Theatre and Downing Park, a gorgeous greensward designed by Vaux and Olmsted, of Central Park fame, in season. And Newburgh Vintage Emporium is signing up venders for its Farm, Vintage, and Makers Market, scheduled every Saturday starting in the spring.
The Market
Prices range from $30,000 or less for a distressed property to a drop-dead gorgeous, fully restored mansion overlooking the Hudson for $425,000—a relative bargain. A sprawling Queen Anne on the waterfront with fireplaces, stained glass, a beamed ceiling and carriage house is listed at $310,000. Two houses on “Quality Row,” a row of federal-style homes on First Street, are for sale for $159,000 and $200,000. Many buyers pay cash for historic properties in good condition, according to realtor and long-time resident Chris Hanson, and there’s not a lot of inventory. Brooklynites looking for a turnkey property—and most are– should be prepared to spend at least $200,000, he said. The East End Victorians are most in demand, but few and far between: more opportunities exist in the Heights and in the more stable western section of the city, which consists of four squares, bungalows and other craftsman-style houses. Buyers can apply for state and federal tax credits and get a break on their taxes, which makes sense in the city’s two historic districts, the East End and Colonial Terraces (townhouses built in 1917 for ship workers).
Zip code: 12550
Population: 28,480
Median Household Income: $34,966
Proximity to major city: 60 miles from New York City; 90 miles from Albany
Transportation: Newburgh is accessible by Interstate 84 and 87 (exit 17). A weekday commuter ferry connects the city to the MetroNorth and Amtrak station at Beacon, located across the Hudson River. Transit Orange bus service serves the city and county, and Ulster County Area Transit buses connects Newburgh to New Paltz. Adirondack Trailways connects Newburgh to New Paltz, Kingston, Saugerties, Catskill, and Albany. Newburgh also is home to Stewart International Airport.
Nearest hospital: St. Luke’s-Cornwall Hospital is located in the City of Newburgh.
Schools: Newburgh School District, including the community of New Windsor, consists of a pre-K center, nine elementary schools, two middle schools, and two high schools. There are also three Catholic schools, Bishop Dunn Memorial, San Miguel Academy, and Sacred Heart. The Storm King School is a private college prep school located in nearby Cornwall-on-Hudson. Newburgh is also the location of Mount Saint Mary College and a branch of SUNY-Orange community college.
Points of interest: Downing Film Center, Washington’s Headquarters State Historic Site, Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum, Newburgh Free Library, Ann Street Gallery, Historical Society of Newburgh Bay and the Highlands at the 1830 Captain David Crawford House, Motorcyclopedia motorcycle museum, Storm King Art Center, DIA: Beacon, Mount Beacon Park, South Beacon Mountain Firetower and Scofield Ridge, Howland Cultural Center, Beacon Institute for Rivers and Estuaries