June 18, 1972

A HISTORY OF TIVOLI FROM INCORPORATION IN 1872 TO ITS CENTENIAL, JUNE 18, 1972

by Barbara Navins, Village Historian

Tivoli was the county's first planned development. Built on the ruins of a Frenchman Peter de Labigarre, who built a large house for himself, calling it "Le Chateau de Tivoli", and laid out plans for a surrounding village.

The original Tivoli, known as Upper Red Hook Landing until the mid-19th century, was a river settlement of the rich, within eye-range of the ever-changing shapes and hues of the Kaatskill (Catskill) Mountains. Inland was another hamlet called Myersville, Mechanicsville, finally referred to as Madalin, apparently named after Magdalen Island, which lies slightly south of the village in the Hudson River.

The voters of Madalin decided by a margin of 117-52 on June 18, 1872, to have both places fully incorporated. At that time, the population boasted 1,081, 629 of whom lived in Madalin and the balance along the river in Tivoli. According to the 1970 Federal census, there was a total of 787 residents.

During the latter half of the 18th Century the Village of Tivoli grew with the arrival of the Irish immigrants who helped complete the Hudson River Railroad's two tracks as far as Tivoli. In the 1890's Polish immigrants came to the prosperous village and bought farms on its outskirts.

At the height of the steam locomotives importance, Tivoli became a principal wood and water station, and when Watson D. Otis became the Divisional Superintendent of the railroad, he arranged for his own convenience to have all the work trains leave from there. Jobs were provided for over a hundred men. Passenger and freight service ended in 1963 when both the freight house and the station were sold and town down.

No longer is it possible to imagine the two abandoned river docks which were established in 1838 by Capt. John L. Collier and Lewis Beckwith at the lower dock, and by Peter Outwater at "Feroe's", or the upper dock, as being stacked three barrels high with apples, pears and other produce, some destined to be reloaded onto other ships for export to Europe. Local farmers and their wagons would wait in line from the top of the hill to the river front, for their turn to unload their products.

A ferry service running between Saugerties and Tivoli was begun in 1859. The first ferry, the "Air Line", built in Philadelphia in 1857, had a wooden hull, was 73 feet long, and had a giant walking beam 20 feet. Because of her single bow, the boat had to be completely turned after each crossing. For this reason, a fare of 25 cents was charged — the highest fare on any ferry on the Hudson at this time. The crossing took between 20 and 25 minutes, depending on the tide. Another ferry the "Menantic" succeeded the "Air Line" and ran until the 1940's when the service ended due to lack of business.

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The townspeople eargerly awaited the news in the winter months that the river was frozen over and closed to boat traffic. Skaters were the first to appear, followed by horse drawn sleighs and iceboats careening with incredible speed up and down the Hudson's shores. In winter, ice harvesting on the White Clay Kill and the Hudson River was a necessity as refrigeration had not come into being. In April, the warm weather brought shad and herring fisherman out with their boats and nets to haul in more than 10,000 fish in a sigle drift.

In the 1800's, due to a lack of suitable and available land along the river, much of the industrial development in the area centered in Madalin. There were a woolen mill, a porcelin factory, a hat factory, grist mill and a shirt waist factory. Later A. H. Coon had a brewery there. Some of his bottles still exist for the enthusiastic bottle collector. Presently, a women's underwear industry is conducted on Broadway.

Other commercial establishments in the latter part of the nineteenth century included: a drug store, a department store, two meat markets, three groceries, two barber shops, two blacksmiths, a cabinet maker, a shoe repair shop, a fish and vegetable market, a bakery, two confectionary stores, a shoe store, two coal and feed stores, a hardware store, a lumber yard, a livery stable, and a stage line. Two hotels in Madalin and two located in Tivoli, each with a active saloon, welcomed newcomers and transients.

Class distinctions were such that a separate Episcopal churches were built to house the congregations of Tivoli and Madalin. At the same time there were also Baptist, Methodist and Roman Catholic Churches.

Three private schools existed in the 1900's, including St. Sylvia's parochial, which survived until 1962. In 1965, the Tivoli school centralized with Red Hook's and for three years the Tivoli Free Union School was used as a third grade annex.

Through the generosity of General John Watts de Peyster, a great philanthropist of the village whose home, "Rose Hill", was once used as an underground railroad station for slaves escaping to Canada, the property was transferred for the consideration of $1.00 to the Leake and Watts Orphan House of Yonkers to be used as a home for boys. A few years earlier, he had established a home in the village on the North Road known as the "Industrial Home for Orphaned Girls".

The Tivoli Times, a weekly eight-page newspaper, listed advertisements from Hudson to Poughkeepsie. On July 20, 1917 the Tivoli Times and the Red Hook Journal merged; and early sign of decline in the village.

When the depression hit, Tivoli skidded into hard times along with the rest of the nation. A bright spot in the period following is attributed to President Franklin D. Roosevelt who, because of his wife Eleanor's interest in her childhood vicinity of Tivoli and the "Works Progress Administration", constructed a concrete state highway through the village and also a water and sewage treatment system, one of the first for a small village in this state.

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As recently as 1949, there still existed two post offices in the village. A total of 90 per cent of the residents signed a petition in 1947 asking that the Madalin post office on Broadway be discontinued. The Tivoli post office on Friendship Street was also closed and a new one built further west of the old Madalin one.

North of the village on Route 9G, on what was the C. J. Rockefeller farm prior to 1870, was located on a portion of this farm what was known as the Madalin Horse Race Course. Many of the local "beauties" lived up their reputation by beating their competitors there.

Forty acres of land on the Woods Road north of the village was acquired in the fall of 1925 for the formation of the Edgewood Country Club, by prominent residents of northern Dutchess and southern Columbia counties, many of whom became the Club's directors.

The Free and Accepted Masons Lodge No. 374 began meeting in Tivoli on September 7, 1864. The Eastern Star, Portia Chapter, was organized on January 9, 1902.

The Harris-Smith Post of the American Legion was granted its charter on October 17, 1919. Assisting the Legion is an Ladies Auxiliary formed in 1922.

An independent Senior Citizens group was formed about three years ago. Dues are paid and many trips of interest are taken.

Presently, a program of Scouts has been activated again for both boys and girls of the community. Also, an eight week summer recreation program is provided for school age children of the village, with swimming three mornings a week in the Red Hook recreation pool.

The Tivoli Free Library started on June 5, 1894, is, as far as anyone can remember, in the same location.

Before automation there were three active fire companies; F. S. Ormsbee Steamer Co., J. Watts de Peyster Hook and Ladder Co., and the F. L. de Peyster Hose Company. All of these were volunteer companies as is the present fire department which is housed in a large stone building erected in 1898 by General John Watts de Peyster.

In 1866, a group of local citizens formed a Soldiers Monument Association, for the purpose of erecting a monument in honor of the 29 men who had lost their lives in the Slaveholders Rebellion.

On the front of the Firehouse Building is located a plaque remembering the 74 men who fought in the Great War, 1917-1919.

Dedication of another memorial was held September 30, 1945, for the 121 men who fought in World War II. This was a community project of the then newly formed Chamber of Commerce.

Korea and Vietnam have hardly been forgotten, but neither has yet been similarly memorialized.

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