McENTEE WINE CAVE HISTORY

Hundreds of Kingston residents pass the famous Wine Cave on McEntee St every day. Very few know any of the history that surrounds this iconic location. So I made a point of looking for the history.

I found a few sites online that told the detailed story of the pre-prohibition breweries in the area. It seems our little town of Kingston was littered with them. This one had it's own story.

William Bertsche and his partner, Martin Uhle had a bakery at the hillside location [pictured right] where as a result of a contract between them and Dressel & Hauck Brewery in 1864, proceded to dig a huge cave in the back of the building to store beer. Uhle went on to open his own pub on Broadway and the brewery took over the location on McEntee. [formerly Holmes St]

According to Thierry Croizer's brewery website: They were soon producing 5,000 barrels of beer a year. Hauck and Dressel ran the brewery until Dressel died in 1884. That same year that the main brick brewery building was built near the corners of Wurts St and McEntee St. Today, there is a freshly paved parking lot at this location. [pictured below]

Hauck then ran the brewery alone until 1890, the year the brewery was incorporated as the George Hauck Brewing Co.

George's sons, Adam and John, became company officers.

Hauck's "Rock Cellar Brew" was named after the cave that the held the earlier bottling plant. By 1912, the brewery was turning out approximately 35,000 barrels of beer a year.

Shortly after George Hauck died and prohibition set in, the brewery was remodeled for the manufacture of peanut oil production. It was marketed as "Salanut", "Refined Virgin Peanut Oil". The brewery was now known as the Hauck Food Products Corporation. On December 9th 1920, John Hauck, 62 years of age, died at his home after a long illness. In early 1922, the Hauck Food Products Corporation was sold to Bankers Underwriters Syndicate of New York.

We drive through these neighborhoods not knowing the history that formed our great city. The top picture shows you what the cave looks like today and empty parking lots are all thats left of historic manufacturing facilities. Why were these buildings torn down? Will we ever build up our city streetscape again? Probably not until we alter our dual property tax structure.

GREEN YOUR WAY BACK to where you came from!

Common Fire Foundation is looking in the wrong neighborhood. Let me add to that, they’re looking in the wrong county.

If this “Group Home” style of Not-for-Profit housing works in Tivoli, buy another home in Tivoli. Have you compared the taxes in Tivoli to Kingston? Its like Woodstock and New Paltz. They need all the commune living they can get to provide affordable housing over there.

If you’re looking for towns to drain Property Taxes from, look somewhere else. Kingston has provided enough. This community has already demonstrated the financial fortitude of helping the most needy, but enough is enough.

Stuyvesant Street is not a co-op street. This historic district has had attacks in the past, successfully beat them back and continues to thrive, regardless of the city Reval catastrophe. Now this?

I don’t care how GREEN they want to be, Jeff Golden and company should be looking somewhere else.

Quoted in the Freeman: Golden said “This type of housing is beneficial for communities because it allows professional people who are not highly paid to keep their expenses low while performing social services, environmental work and community-based projects.” Horsefeathers!

I have an idea, The condos on Barman Ave have suffered financial setbacks. What a prime location for Common Fire to develop their green co-op living experiment.

Just keep it on the tax rolls.

All four buildings could be modified to suit their shared expenses.

Alderman Robert Senor is correct when he points out the Not-for-profit status of the organization. This GREEN theme is a nice twist to the proposal, but it isn’t working.

The Council would have to approve a zoning change for this to happen at this location.

You can Count me out.

THE CARNEGIE RENAISSANCE

The Carnegie Library is getting plenty of renewed attention these days. It seems to come in cycles. It was only four years ago that Assemblyman Cahill acquired funding to refurbish the former library into a tech/learning facility. Which went nowhere since there was little cooperation between the City and the school board...But not this time.

I am excited to think this may be the culmination of monies, people and the will to do something special in midtown. A renaissance if you will. The building couldn’t survive another winter without serious attention.

The library was constructed in 1904 to replace the original community library in City Hall across the street. It was among 1,600 public libraries built all over the US around the turn of the century, with money donated by Andrew Carnegie.

School Board member Jim Shaughnessy is the driving force behind the proposed renovation. He suggests tapping into school district CDBG funds to accomplish the task, but grant acceptance requires a learning component...Enter Evry Mann.

Evry Mann is the director of the Center for Creative Education in Stone Ridge and the large studio space on Thomas Street right here in Kingston where his organization's after-school programs serve more than 100 youths on a daily basis.

As noted in the Freeman: The center runs three arts education programs in Kingston, including the Percussion Orchestra of Kingston (POOK); the Energy Hip-Hop Dance Company; and after-school arts programs at Washington and Kennedy. The plan is to continue using the Thomas St studio for younger students and utilizing the renovated Carnegie Building for High School students.

The City of Kingston has included a $50K allotment from the annual CDBG funding toward the renovation of the building. There was plenty of support for the funding at the Public Hearing this past Wednesday when the funds distribution was announced.

Al Teetsel and I showed up during closing comments to witness a pleased crowd. Lowell Thing was one of the civilians from my district in attendance; from the smile on his face, he must have liked the proposal. Almost all of us Aldermen attended the numerous community development meetings this winter to hash out the final proposal. Thanks to Mike Murphy for guiding the group.

Between the state and federal sources, most of the funding will be secured, if not, there are other sources. Even with a zero tax impact, the renovation has to pass a public referendum in the fall.

I am definitely a YES vote.

KIRKLAND: THE SECOND CENTURY

What a great day to break out an over sized scissor and mince some ribbon.

Friday’s ceremony at the Kirkland Hotel opening signified the culmination of years of effort and creative public financing. RUPCO, in partnership with The City of Kingston has achieved a major renovation of a landmark that many Kingstonians hold dear in our memories.

What seems like a lifetime ago, the Council and the late Mayor Gallo set in motion the plan to save the neglected structure on Clinton Avenue, in hopes to spark the economic renaissance that Kingston so desperately needs. As an economic tool, historic landmarks alone don’t cut it, but this is no ordinary landmark.

Under the custodial duties of Mayor Sottile, we have a renewed cornerstone of accomplishment in the uptown district. The renovated Kirkland contains a mix of office space, residential apartment units - both government-subsidized and market-rate - and a spot for a restaurant.

The Kirkland, erected in 1899, provided lodging, a restaurant, and meeting place for notables for almost a century. It’s a rare surviving example of the wood-frame hotels of the late 19th century, is on the National Register of Historic Places but has stood vacant since the early ‘80s.

Although the final bill to the taxpayer surpassed $4 million, the effort to save and restore this glorious piece of history was worth it. I took the tour and I am thrilled with the result. Where walls have been moved, evidence was left in the ceiling to serve as a reminder. The platform at the top of the stairs offers a stunning view of the Catskills as well as Clinton Avenue.


At the request of the city, RUPCO first proposed renovating the Kirkland in 2001, following a number of would-be developers over the prior decade whose plans fell through.


Stuckey Construction out of New Jersey was the last private firm, to approach the Council to tackle this project. With the success of the Academy Lofts on West Chestnut St, they may have done a good renovation, but not a restoration in this detail. William Stuckey estimated it would have taken his firm "about seven months". Martino and I did ask for an additional review of the Jersey firm because it would have taken public funding out of the equation, but were turned down. We quickly joined the cheering crowd of supporters and have helped with additional funding.


The event attracted dozens of familiar faces: Congressman Hinchey, Senator Larkin, Judge Gilpatric, KHS Super Gretzinger, UC Chair Donaldson, Susan Zimet, Lou Kirschner, Brian Cahill, Glenn Nunan, Ward Todd, Shelly Zimbler, Jon Sennett and most of the Common Council.


A touching moment during the speaches was when Mayor Sottile reflected on the years that his father worked at the Ratskellar and the memories of he and his mom & dad shared his dinner hour break. The years of hard work his dad put in to support the family and the chance to bring him back to the renovated structure again. Dad was in the audience.


Kevin O'Connor indicates that only one of seven apartments has been leased so far. Jonathan Sennett Esq. has taken one of the offices and no restaurant has finalized any contracts as of yet.