page_title: Kingston Stockade District
section_title: 21st century: Preservation and redevelopment
hierarchical_section_title: Kingston Stockade District / History / 21st century: Preservation and redevelopment
caption_attribution_description: English: Kirkland Hotel, Kingston, NY, USA
context_page_description: The Kingston Stockade District is an eight-block area in the western section of Kingston, New York, United States, commonly referred to as Uptown Kingston. It is the original site of the mid-17th century Dutch settlement of Wiltwyck, which was later renamed Kingston when it passed to English control.
  It is the only one of three original Dutch settlements in New York surrounded by stockades where the outline of the stockade is still evident due to the raised ground. Within the area are many historic buildings from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, including the original Ulster County courthouse, the Senate House where the state of New York was established in 1777, and the Old Dutch Church designed by Minard Lafever, a National Historic Landmark. Some survived the burning of Kingston by British forces during the Revolutionary War. The intersection of Crown and John streets has Colonial-era Dutch stone houses on all four corners, the only intersection in the country where this is so.
  In 1970 the area in the vicinity of the Senate House was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the Clinton Avenue Historic District.
context_section_description: In the early 21st century, the county sponsored an archaeological dig at the site of the Persen House, one of the four at the Crown-John intersection, as part of efforts to restore it and make it a museum. It yielded a number of artifacts, including some misshapen apparent cannonballs. Eight years later, in 2008, after having spent $2 million on the project the county was still unsure what to do with the building. It was hoping to use federal stimulus money to finish the work.
  During the 2000s, preservationists and the city clashed over some projects slated for areas near or on the fringes of the district. A New Jersey developer's proposal for a 12-story condominium on the site of a closed parking garage the city planned to demolish on North Front Street drew objections for its height, as it would become the city's tallest building, dwarfing nearby historic buildings, and requiring a variance as Kingston's zoning code prohibits any new buildings in the Stockade District from being taller than the base of the Old Dutch Church's steeple, 62 feet (19 m) above street level. The city's attorney later decided that it would not need one since the parts of the proposed building that exceeded the height limit were outside the district boundary.
  The state's Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation warned the city that such a towering building would have a negative impact on the Stockade District, and the state's Historic Preservation League put the Stockade on its "Seven to Save" list for 2007 because of the proposal. The city's mayor and proponents among the Stockade business community felt that the economic benefit the condo proposal would bring to the Stockade outweighed any effect it would have on the district's historic character. Eventually the developer began to reconsider the project due to the opposition,
  With the project stalled, the city decided to survey residents about what should be built at the site. The results indicated strong opposition to affordable housing or any kind of rental units being built on the site. The parking garage was finally demolished amid allegations of bid rigging. A temporary parking lot has opened on the site.
  At the time the condominium project was failing, in 2008, CVS Pharmacy proposed a 12,900-square-foot (1,200 m²) store on Washington Avenue and Schwenk Drive.  KingstonCitizens.org and preservationists collected 600 signatures on petitions opposing the development, saying a third chain drugstore in the uptown area would only drive an independent local drugstore on North Front Street out of business and make the city's main western gateway into a commercial strip indistinguishable from others in the country. One city alderman tried to stop the project with a building moratorium along Washington, which received the support of the Stockade's business association. It was eventually passed, excluding the CVS proposal. The city's Planning Board eventually approved the project, and construction crews began clearing the site in September 2009.
  The city and preservationists were able to work together on one project, the restoration of the 1899 Kirkland Hotel at Clinton Avenue and Main Street in the southeast corner of the district. A rare example of a wood-frame urban hotel, it had been vacant since the 1970s. Several owners since then had tried to at least reopen a restaurant in the hotel's basement, but had made no progress beyond repainting the exterior.
  In 2003 the Rural Ulster Preservation Company (RUPCO), a local nonprofit organization devoted to housing, bought the hotel with the intention of completing the restoration. It spent $4.7 million over several years to restore the original porch and put in a geothermal heating system. The project won a 2007 Excellence in Preservation Award from the Historic Preservation League, and RUPCO has leased out space for commercial and residential use. It is hoping that someone will be able to reopen the restaurant.
  The streets and sidewalks were also in need of repair. In 2008 Rep. Maurice Hinchey helped the city secure $1.3 million in fede
caption: The Kirkland Hotel
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