Town Of Hurley: History revisited: History revisited [Digital Towpath]

Hurley's Houghtaling House on Zandhoek Road may have been visited by General George Washington, depending on who you ask.

by Cheryl A. Rice

In mid-November 1782, General George Washington passed through Hurley. That much remains undisputed.

According to a detailed description in Historic Houses of the Hudson Valley by Harold Donaldson Eberlein and Cortlandt Van Dyke Hubbard, the general stopped by what is now known as the Houghtaling House in Hurley and suffered through a lengthy oration presented by Chief Burgess Matthew Ten Eyck titled, "The Humble Address of the Trustees of the Freeholders and Inhabitants of the Town of Hurley to His Excellency George Washington, General and Commander-in-Chief of the American Army."

With the trustees safely sheltered under the inn's covered porch, Washington was, at least according to Eberlein and Hubbard, "on his horse listening, hat in hand with his usual savoir faire, the raindrops trickled down his face, outwardly serene, but doubtless inwardly swearing, for Washington could swear on occasion and did."

The general was a year away from tendering his formal resignation and seven years from being elected president of the newly united colonies. The war was over, but the pomp and circumstance had just begun.

According to Robert Sweeney of the Society for the Preservation of Hudson Valley Vernacular Architecture (HVVA), the house "is the stuff legends are made of." He said the house once had a coating of stucco and whitewash, or perhaps just whitewash, as many Colonial homes built of fieldstone did. It was apparently constructed in three main phases, according to Sweeney, with the first dating to around 1708, a date that matches county records held by Gloria Thompson, who inherited the property from her father Clarence Kuhlmann who died in June. The cost to build the original structure is also a matter of public record - five pounds, six shillings. Originally owned by the Ostrander family, the house had been purchased by the Houghtaling family by the time General Washington visited the area.

A twisted tale

The Zandhoek Road building was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1968. An historic marker at the site states: "General Washington was given a public reception here on his journey from West Point to Kingston, Nov. 16, 1782."

But, according to the Hurley Heritage Society (www.hurleyheritagesociety.org) website, the Houghtaling House was constructed sometime in the late 1790s, which would mean it didn't exist when Washington came through town.

Thompson doesn't buy it.

"I think my dad was annoyed that they had these facts wrong" she said.

Sweeney stood by his story. The original structure, he said, had its front door facing out onto Zandhoek Road, a main thoroughfare in those days. "In the eighteenth century we loved traffic and you didn't want to miss a thing," he said. Over time, when an entrance hall became the style, the front door was moved to Hurley Avenue, and now that side of the house has a window where the original main entrance was.

One of the windows facing onto what was originally the front porch dates to the early 1700s, as well, according to Sweeney. The window is an example of what is called a "bolkozyn," or double casement window, and could have been scavenged from an older home, he said, a common practice in Colonial times.

In fact, there is strong evidence, said Sweeney, that the beams utilized in what looks to be part of the second phase of construction, dating from around 1720, were taken from an earlier wood frame structure. The mortices, or peg holes in the beams, are his proof.

Just the facts

Both Sweeney and Town of Hurley historian David Baker agree that travel in the 1700s was an arduous undertaking and that the many frequent stops required to rest both horses and humans explain why many sites are designated as inns.

Whether Washington actually visited the Houghtaling House on Zandhoek Road is where the two begin to differ. "There are two kinds of history," said Baker. "Folklore and the real thing."

As an historian, Baker needs to prove the facts and has had a very hard time attempting to prove that Washington ever stopped at the Houghtaling House, much less attended a reception there.

According to Baker, after the Revolutionary War ended, but before the Paris Treaty was signed to make it official, Washington felt he was a target and feared for his life. As a Mason, he had taken a vow to protect other Masons, and used this brotherhood in an attempt to insure his own safety. To this end, Washington, according to Baker, made it a habit to patronize only inns operated by fellow Masons. Baker said there is no solid evidence that, in 1782, the inn at 1 Zandhoek Road in Hurley had any association with the fraternal group.

But, Baker said, there is another Houghtaling house that was once considered the main family homestead and is on Marbletown Road, or Old Route 209, in Hurley. The Marbletown Road house is documented as an inn and an official meeting hall for Masons. Although the Masons maintain a massive amount of information about their history, the records for this particular lodge are missing. Baker has spent the last several years trying to locate them himself, and has even contacted the group's headquarters in New York City, to no avail.

Baker illuminated the confusion by suggesting that if one's great grandfather had related the story of George Washington's visit when he had been a boy, and if the storyteller in the late 1800s was only familiar with the Houghtaling House on Zandhoek, that house would have been the one he would probably have connected to the incident. In this way, Baker said, misinformation may have been passed along instead of facts. "Folklore trumps," he said.

Still, although the exact location remains in dispute, it is known that Washington passed through these parts in 1782, 225 years ago this week - give or take a day or two.++

George Washington was here - maybe