Historic Environments

The West Point Foundry Preserve was a functioning iron factory through the 19th century and served as an important site of artillery production during the Civil War. In 1911, the site was abandoned and lay in waste for almost a century, used as a dump site for Cold Spring residents and a battery factory that was located on site.

Touring the site now, you would not believe that the place had once been a grimy, hot, factory, let alone a cadmium polluted-dump. Once Scenic Hudson took over in 1996, they made quick work to dispose of the polluted soil (by moving it elsewhere), construct paths, and restore the remaining office building (bel0w), spending millions of dollars on restoration.

Now the site is a pristine, well-maintained park. The forest is pretty typical of a new-growth stand with some invasive underbrush, but the trails are well marked, and there are a series of elaborate interpretive signs and sculptures along the trails. Our guide, Reed Sparling, called the park a sort of “outdoor museum” which becomes obvious when you reach the exhibits on the Parrot rifle and water wheel (pictured below). Both have large re-creations of the structures as well as detailed interpretive signs explaining their historical significance.

The surrounding town of Cold Spring, which used to be primarily a working-class factory town, has now seen a rapid increase in property values, likely in conjunction with the construction of the West Point Foundry Preserve, the Foundry Dock Park and other green space initiatives nearby. While Scenic Hudson has done a great job with preserving this particular piece of history, military history is already well-funded when it comes to preservation. I wonder what groups like Scenic Hudson could do if they dedicated their funding toward lesser-known histories, such as those explored at the Dutchess and Ulster County Poorhouses. While the park is beautiful, and is a model in terms of ecological restoration, I wonder if it is worth the gratuitous funding and doubtless maintenance that goes into this park rather than community-building and social initiatives to help folks like those who would have actually worked at the foundry in its day—many of whom were immigrants working wage labor.