A Brief
History of the D & H Canal Museum Building
The D&H Canal Museum features an outstanding
example of a late 19th century gothic chapel, which was the first (and only)
Episcopal church built in the historic hamlet of High Falls. St. John's
parishioners included many employees of the D&H Canal, including local
lock tenders. The first floor of the parish house featured a social hall
with a stage where school plays and dances were held. As recorded in a 1946
history of the church, St. John's was "acclaimed to be architecturally and
ecclesiastically a gem." The parish house currently houses a museum which
interprets the unique history of the Delaware & Hudson Canal by collecting
and preserving documents, printed materials, art and artifacts relating to
the D&H Canal.
The property was originally owned by the Delaware
& Hudson Canal Company, which quarried Shawangunk Conglomerate from the
property for use in building the canal. Drill marks can still be seen in
the outcropping behind the parish house. In 1899, the deed for the sale of
the property was recorded, noting that D&H Canal Company sold it to the
Episcopal church for $200. Prior to the construction of the church, Episcopal
services had been held in the old Saddler's Hall. The cornerstone of St.
John's Church was placed in 1883. Over the next two years, the building was
constructed by local trades people. During its construction, services were
held under a tent on the property.
 In 1975, the building was purchased by the Delaware
& Hudson Canal Historical Society to be used for the D&H Canal Museum.
The museum, which is a major area tourist attraction, currently receives
5,000 visitors each year, and hosts numerous educational programs, including
Boy Scout programs and school group tours. The D&H Canal Museum is a
focal point of the local community and is actively supported by the High
Falls Civic Association and the Marbletown Business Association. The D&H
Canal Museum is a Registered Ulster County Historical Landmark (1969), and
received a Certificate of Congressional Recognition in 1997. It is part of
the High Falls Historic District, which is listed on the National Register
of Historic Places. |
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Museum
Collection
The Museum’s collection contains approximately
4,000 items.
Maps, 1826-1973, D & H Canal and
villages along its route.
The Wakefield Collection, 1846-1993,
Manville Wakefield’s research for his book, "Coal Boats to Tidewater",
including original scratch board illustrations, bills, blueprints, permits,
contracts, broadsides, postcards, notes, typescripts, published
articles.
Phillipsport Lock Collection, 1855-1911,
contracts, time records, school tax statements, boat permits, docking orders,
receipts, inventories, bills, agreements, letters, blueprints of canal activities
at Lock 48 in Phillipsport, NY.
Photograph Collection, 1878-1968, gelatin
silver prints of locks, boats, creeks, bridges and villages along the
canal.
Miscellaneous Document Collection, 1815-1982,
broadsides, agreements, reports, bills, blueprints, permits, charts, programs,
pamphlets, circulars, advertisements, legal papers, docking orders,
surveyor’s field books, inventories, leases, letters, logs, patents,
prints, receipts, stock certificates, timesheets pertaining to D & H
land, boats, roads, workers, and the related industries of cement and
lumber.
Research Collection, 1853-1973, clippings,
articles and reports pertaining to the history of the D & H Canal and
canals in general.
Artifacts Collection, hardware,
snubbing posts, bow lamps, boatman’s horn, cane, telegraph desk, field
lap desk, tools, bilge pumps and boat tillers.
Dioramas and Models, two boats passing,
mules & hoggee boy, gravity railroad, working lock 16, 20 ton "Flicker"
boat, 150 ton and 140 ton boats
Paintings and Prints. Watercolor
by noted Hudson River School artist William Rickarby Miller depicting the
Canal in High Falls in 1865, life-size oil painting of New York governor
DeWitt Clinton, print of E.L. Henry’s illustration, Days Before Rapid
Transit and three canal scenes by noted Cragsmoor artist LeGrand Botsford:
Where Man Hath Toiled, Mules on the Towpath and Sunken Boat. |
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Description
In the hamlet of High Falls in Ulster County, where a flight of five locks
compensated for a drop of 70 feet in elevation, a museum and remnants of
the old locks tell the story of the waterway, built largely by pick and shovel
wielded by immigrants. With maps, colorful dioramas, enlarged photographs,
artifacts, and working models, the Museum of the D&H Canal Historical
Society, housed in the former St. John's Episcopal Church, depicts life along
the canal and its related industries.
One related industry was the mining of natural cement in nearby Rosendale.
When the canal designers needed a cement that would hold together underwater,
they discovered that cement could be quarried from natural limestone caves
along the canal route near Rosendale. The strength and hydraulic properties
of the newly discovered cement led to a new industry that supplied 50 percent
of the nation's cement (including the foundation for the Brooklyn Bridge)
and employed over 4,000 workers.
Visitors can trace the canal on a wall map from its beginning in Honesdale,
967 feet in elevation, and along its course parallel to four bodies of water
- the Lackawaxen, the Delaware, the Neversink River, and the Rondout Creek
- to its terminus at Kingston at sea level. |
