ULSTER LANDING and EAST KINGSTON, NY

Part of the "Kingston Brick District," ULSTER LANDING is in the Town of Ulster and is along the western shore of the Hudson,
just south of "Porterville" and Glasco.
This 1891 Ulster Landing Map
(Map source: David Rumsey Collection: Portion of Ulster County. Portion of Dutchess County. Copyrighted, 1891, by Watson & Co.)
shows only 3 brickyards (Littlefield, Rose and Overbaugh).
This was to change very quickly in the late 1800s.

From remnants found along the shore, and George Hutton's book The Great Hudson River Brick Industry,
we surmise the location of the yards went something like this (going from north to south):

Dwyer Bros. Yard No. 2 (shamrock symbol)
KB&ICo (Kingston Brick & Ice Company, made by Dwyer)
HB&ICo (Hanrahan Brick & Ice Co, made by Dwyer)
MCABE, McCabe & Co, M in an oval (Frank J. McCabe & Co.)
NRBCo (North River Brick Company)
ULB (Ulster Landing Brick Co.)
L&LBCo (Lawatsch & Lotz Brick Co.)
GOLDRICK, (G) (Philip Goldrick) (Upper Yard at Goldrick's Landing (by Kingston-Rinecliff Bridge)
W. Littlefield
A. ROSE (Alonzo Rose, 1890s), A R & Co (Alonzo Rose & Co.), ROSE (Rose Brick Co.) (1900s), ROSE BROS
D.C. Overbaugh
LYNCH, LL (Lynch Bros.), (L. Lynch)
TOPPIN (Henry Toppin)
BROPHY, (Brophy Brick Co.), B BROS (Brophy Bros.), B & B (Brophy & Brother)
DINAN (Thomas Dinan)
HENDRICKS (Hendricks Brick Co.)
S & H (Streeter & Hendricks)

Steep Rocks (incl. today's Chas. Rider Park):
GOLDRICK (Lower Yard)
KING (King Brick Co.)
TERRY, 19TERRY24, TERRY BROS (Terry Brick Co.),(David, Albert & Edwin)

Town of Ulster (today's Rbt Post Park and South):
U. F. & J. T. W (U. F. & J. T. Washburn)
Daniel Weed, Weed & Sutton
John Shutero
Palmer Gerrit
Thomes Beekman


Interactive aerial view of bricks along the Hudson just south of Rbt. Post Park
(Click on "ROAD" to see street names, etc. There's a "BRIGHAM" St & a "TERRY" St.)

EAST KINGSTON, NY

Also located in the Town of Ulster, EAST KINGSTON was in earlier times referred to as Flatbush.
Originally named by the Esopus, the Dutch called it "Vlakke Basch."

From Gazetteer and Business Directory Of Ulster County, N. Y. For 1872-2
Source: https://history.rays-place.com/ny/uls-kingston-ny.htm

"East Kingston is a new and thriving village on the Hudson, about three miles above Rondout, and about the same distance from Kingston. It contains a store, the Hudson River Cement works, the ice-houses of the New York City Ice Co. and of the Washington Ice Co.

The Hudson River Cement Works, of E.M. Brigham, located at this place, turn out about 150,000 barrels annually. Their principal quarry is at Creek Locks, though they obtain some of their stone from the hill in rear of their works. The manufacture of cement was first commenced here in 1857 by the Rosendale & Kingston Cement Co. Mr. Brigham, the present proprietor, has enlarged the works and has been carrying on the business for several years."

Read More About Rosendale Cement



EAST KINGSTON MAP
Click map for a larger (and more northern) view.

1891 F.W. Beers map

showing (from North to South):

Newark & Rosendale Cement Co.,
J. Manchester Brickyard,
Newark Ice Co.,
Parkers Ice House,
BRIGHAM Bros. cement and brick works,
Washington Ice Co.
C. SHULTZ (Schultz) brickyards (just west of Whiskey Point)

To the North are the S. Decker and Kerr & Cortz brickyards.

(On a 1929 Sanborn map, the SHULTZ yard is called the EAST KINGSTON BRICK Co.)
(source: Hutton, George V., The Great Hudson River Brick Industry
map source: David Rumsey Collection, Cartography Associates)



Henry R. Brigham

BRIGHAM Letterhead
Brigham letterhead courtesy Century House Historical Society

Brigham Brick Co.

BRIGHAM

BRIGHAM
Henry R. Brigham
East Kingston, NY
(1922 - 1957)
(found in Riverdale, NY and at the brickyard site)



Brigham Brothers

B BROS
Henry R. and William H.
East Kingston, NY
(1888 - 1910) (9 machines in 1910)

At the claybank in the early days of the BRIGHAM brickyard

At the claybank in the early days of the BRIGHAM brickyard,
showing the typical two-wheel, horse-drawn carts used to haul the clay.

(Courtesy: Hudson River Maritime Museum)


The Times Herald-Record, March 3, 1998:

EAST KINGSTON -- A federal official yesterday confirmed there are no current plans to ship dredged mud from New York harbor to an old East Kingston brick yard.

But the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has not "100 percent excluded" the location, whose choice as a dredge mud burial spot spawned a vocal grassroots group. It also mobilized local politicians to oppose burying the contaminated mud in the old Brigham Brick Yard owned by Newburgh businessman David Plotkin.

"We're not investing any more money to develop it,'' said Len Houston, an Army Corps of Engineers environmental expert. He said the Corps is not listing the brick yard in a report to be released soon on possible dump sites. "It's a small site with a lot of opposition," said Houston.

However, Plotkin's engineer, John Dodson, calls it "about the best site in New York State." Plotkin is proposing to have mud delivered by barge to his Steel Style ship yard in Newburgh, where it would be transferred to rail cars and taken to old coal fields in Pennsylvania. Plans call for the mud to be used to seal old coal mines. The Newburgh mud transfer station remains a possibility, said Houston.
--WAYNE A. HALL





Shultz Brick Company

SHULTZ

C A S
Estate of C. A. Shultz
East Kingston, NY (1876-1940s) (6 machines in 1910)




Shultz Yard 1

The Charles A. Shultz Brickyard at East Kingston c. 1899.

From left to right: Puddling Sheds to either side of the flue, a drying yard, Kiln Shed, and a schooner in the slip. The flue remains today (see below). At its base was a 40HP steam engine that drove a "power-line" to run the pug mill to mix the clay and (later) the brick-making machines. The power-line can be seen continuing along the bottom of the picture and going to the next area (see next picture).

Shultz Yard 2

The Charles A. Shultz Brickyard at East Kingston.

Here we see the "power-line" entering the left-hand Puddling Shed. In front of the sheds is a drying yard and there's a Kiln Shed on the river. To the left is a second schooner. Remains of the slip in which the two schooners (the Hannah Brown and the Anne E. Webb) are docked exist today (see below). Both vessels carried bricks to Providence, R.I.

(Courtesy of Hudson River Brick by Brick Manufacturers Association of New York)

SHULTZ SANBORN MAP

1899 Sanborn Map (click for larger view)

(On a 1929 Sanborn map, the SHULTZ name has changed to EAST KINGSTON BRICK Co.)
(WEBMASTER NOTE: Thanks to Chester Hartwell for cleaning up this rough scan I made at the NY Public Library.)




From the final chapter, Chapter 7:

EPILOGUE FOR A DEPARTED INDUSTRY

The Great Hudson River Brick Industry

by George V. Hutton

COMMEMORATING THREE AND A HALF CENTURIES
OF BRICKMAKING

"The Hudson River brick industry went down before an array of overwhelming forces, including large demographic changes, competition by new technologies, and by brickmakers in distant locations that had achieved access to the New York market, as well as new environmental standards. During its lifetime, nothing can gainsay that industry's indispensable contribution to the very existence of New York City, where the record of that accomplishment is everywhere to be seen. With the exception of IBM, there is nothing comparable to that industry in the Hudson Valley today in terms of size and consequence of its production.

"Soon enough, virtually all vestiges of the physical presence of all that intensive manufacturing activity will have observably disappeared. The great majority of the substantial changes to the landscape, resulting from the excavation operations, will not be discernible due to overgrowth, a condition that is nearing completion at this writing. Development of brickmaking sites for other purposes will also obliterate all signs of past endeavors.

Shultz
Yard Flue 2006 - DSBiz Photo

Shultz Flue, July, 2006

"Perhaps one of the two graceful nineteenth-century brick boiler flues at East Kingston (the Shultz yard flue being a personal favorite), built to power the steam engines that drove the brick machines, will be treasured as the sole remaining industrial artifact of three and one half centuries of the existence of the great Hudson River brick industry."



Shultz Flue

Base of Shultz Flue, July, 2006

(The background montage for this page is from bricks at the base of this flue.)


Shultz Flue

Graffiti on Shultz Flue, July, 2006



Shultz Dock

Remains of Shultz Dock, July, 2006



Shultz Dock

Bricks at Shultz Dock, July, 2006

(C A S, SHULTZ and BRIGHAM bricks can be found here.)



Old Mule Barn

Shultz Mule Barn

Mules were used for pulling railroad cars of clay and brick, powering the Pug Mills and hauling equipment.



Mule Barn

Shultz Mule Barn, July, 2006

There are plans to turn this into a museum. An article on the Ulster County Citizen Park System website states:


"The historic mule barn would be preserved and become a museum and community center for the town of Ulster. Three miles of hiking trails with views of the Hudson would be created. And public access to the last mile of Kingston waterfront, which has been held privately and off limits to the public for several years, would be opened. A waterfront promenade, complete with a public boat launch and docking facilities, would provide access to the Hudson for Kingstonians and visitors alike."


----------------------

Rob Yasinsac's photos of the SHULTZ ruins


----------------------

maps livesearch

East Kingston Yard Today

Square stack at the bottom, loading docks upper left, mule barn upper right

For an interactive view, looking west from the River, Click Here

(SOURCE: © Live Search Maps)




Hudson Landing: 1,750 Residential Units to Be Built on the site of the Former East Kingston Brickyards.
Plans for a City Within a City:




From:

The Society for Historical Archaeology Newsletter, Winter, 2007:

Hudson Landings, City of Kingston and Town of Ulster, Ulster County (submitted by Hunter Research, Inc.):

An extensive program of supplemental Phase I and II cultural resources investigations was carried out by Hunter Research, Inc. between October 2005 and July 2006 for the proposed development known as Hudson Landings in the City of Kingston and the Town of Ulster in Ulster County, NY. The proposed development involves the construction of 1,750 residential units and 78,500 square feet of commercial space. The project site comprised approximately 524 contiguous acres of vacant land on the right (west) bank of the Hudson River between Kingston and East Kingston. The proposed development lies within view of the Hudson River National Historic Landmark District (established in 1990) and the Mid-Hudson Shorelands Scenic District. The Hudson River has also been designated an American Heritage River.

The project site saw limited occupation and land use during the prehistoric and early historic periods, although outcrops of local chert were likely attractive to Native Americans and the area served as common land for the residents of nearby Kingston in the late 17th and 18th centuries. During the 19th and early 20th centuries, however, brickyards and icehouses lined the property’s Hudson River frontage, while cement quarrying and mining operations, small farms, and homesteads occupied the inland and upland portions of the tract. Presently, the only standing buildings/structures on the site are the derelict infrastructure of the mid-20th-century cement and quarrying operation, and a former mule barn and chimney of the Shultz brickworks.

A single prehistoric archaeological resource, four industrial archaeological complexes with multiple elements, two farmstead sites, an icehouse site, an abandoned natural cement mine, a segment of historic roadway, and various features along the waterfront were identified during the course of the Phase I and II survey work. Five archaeological resources—the Hudson Landings Prehistoric Site, the Terry Brickyard and Icehouse Complex, the Shultz Brickyard Complex (including an extant mule barn and brick chimney), the William Terry Icehouse Site (which has an 18th-century domestic component), and the Lost Lake Mine (an abandoned 19th-century natural cement mine)—have been judged eligible for inclusion in the New York and National Registers of Historic Places. No expanses of landscape or individual landscape features in the project area are considered National Register eligible.

Two of the five National Register-eligible resources, the Terry Brickyard and Icehouse Complex and the Shultz Brickyard Complex, will be affected by the proposed development project. Recommendations have been made for limited archaeological data recovery at these properties in mitigation of the project’s effects. Alternative methods of mitigation, including public outreach measures and the incorporation of historic themes into the project’s architectural and landscape design, were also suggested as appropriate mitigation of project impacts on these two industrial complexes. The proposed project, as currently planned, will avoid impacting the Hudson Landings Prehistoric Site, the William Terry Icehouse Site, and the historic character of the Lost Lake Mine.




1551 Broadway
SHULTZ brick in the ruins of 1551 Broadway, NYC,
former home of Times Square's last Howard Johnson's
(SOURCE: vanishingnewyork.blogspot.com)


The Great Hudson River Brick Industry
by George V. Hutton
Now Available at a Special Discount for Visitors of Brickcollecting.com!

Click Here to Purchase


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