Casperkill Watershed Oral History Project

In 1940 John Van De Water leased the land that was once occupied by the Poughkeepsie Brick Corporation to the Town of Poughkeepsie (see The Rise and Fall of “Brickyard Hill”).  At that time the 120-acre property was really just an enormous hole in the ground, left from a century and a half of clay […]

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Panoramic view of Vassar Lake from 1912, with Raymond Avenue on the right On September 5, 1933, a Poughkeepsie Eagle News article came out under the headline “Dam At Vassar Lake Goes Out.” Heavy rains had put considerable strain on the rotting, wooden structure, causing the gate to give way and the lake to drain […]

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