Dutchess County Historical Society Yearbook Vol 063 1978

THE OTHER HOUSE AT THE UPPER LANDING

By Melodye Andros and Radford Curdy The Indians referred to it as Pondanakiren, or crooked place. To the Dutch it was the mouth of the Val-kill, and to subsequent traders, Poughkeepsie's Upper Landing. Here the community's founders are said to have stepped ashore,' and here too is the location of a house of some significance in the development of the city; a building still standing, which has gone unnoticed and almost unrecorded for well over a century.

Throughout every period of the development of the Upper Landing its success has been largely determined by a unique geological combination; a fast moving creek, emptying into the Hudson in a well protected cove, coupled with the potential for waterpower afforded by a natural waterfall adjacent to the river's shore. There was the further advantage of being located on the south side of a high eminence known to the Dutch as "slangen klip" or snake cliff. Today, it is referred to as Reynolds Hill and is the eastern terminus of the Poughkeepsie Railroad Bridge.

The Upper Landing's first historical mention was in 1686 with the granting of the Harmense and Sanders Patent in which Pondanakiren is mentioned as a geographical feature included in the land transfer. The patent was the first land grant to cover property within the original confines of Poughkeepsie. There is reason to believe that as early as 1699 Myndert Harmense had a sawmill at the mouth of the Val-ki11.2 In 1710 Leonard Lewis, a New York City merchant, purchased a tract of land from Harmense which included the landing property, the waterfall, and the privilege of erecting a mill or mills on the creek. Apparently Lewis proceeded to take advantage of that privilege for in 1738 a house and mill appear on a map executed by Henry Livingston Sr. The property was leased in 1740 to Anthony Yelverton, a Poughkeepsie carpenter, by Elizabeth Lewis, widow of Colonel Lewis.

Yelverton eventually purchased the property from the heirs of Mrs. Lewis.

Colonel Martin Hoffman, a Rhinebeck trader, became the owner of the parcel in 1755, and proceeded to erect a new mill on the creek which served the area until it was destroyed by fire in 1849. The newspaper account of the fire also contains a description of the 1755 landing area.3 Hoffman owned the property for only four years, selling in 1759 to Clear Everitt, who five years later conveyed the parcel to Queens county merchant Nathanial Seaman. Within two years Seaman sold the property to fellow Long Islanders George Sands, and Samuel and Maurice Smith. In an involved business arrangement, the property eventually passed to Henry Sands in 1768, and immediately he was joined in ownership by George and Richard Sands, his brothers.

In 1772 John Schenck Jr., a Somerset County New Jersey merchant became owner of the landing and mill. Prominent among the patriots of Poughkeepsie at the onset of the Revolution, Schenck served as chairman of the Committee of Safety and was Captain of the Poughkeepsie Militia Company.

About 1774 he apparently was joined in operation of the landing by his kinsman Paul Schenck, who became part owner of the property'in 1777.

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