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1

Jan

1850

Kingston Recognized as First State Capital in Historical Record

Kingston, NY· year date

The Story

By the mid-19th century, historians and preservationists recognized Kingston's role as New York's first state capital. The Senate House was preserved and eventually became a state historic site, cementing Kingston's identity as the birthplace of New York State government and anchoring the town's historical memory around the 1777 constitutional moment.

Sources for Kingston

Brigadier General John Vaughan's Dispatch on the Burning of Kingston, October 1777
UK National Archives, War Office Papers
Kingston, New York: National Historic Landmark District Documentation
National Park Service
Ulster County Court of General Sessions Records, 1775-1783
New York State Archives
A People in Revolution: The American Revolution and Political Society in New York, 1760-1790
Johns Hopkins University Press (Edward Countryman)
History of Kingston, New York
Burr Printing House (Marius Schoonmaker)
New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation