Kingston Point Park Merry-Go-Round

On Tuesdays the Hudson River Maritime Museum will share interesting images from its collection. We hope you enjoy these brief forays into the past!

The merry-go-round at Kingston Point Park, from a postcard circa 1906. A ferris wheel was the other amusement ride at the park. Mostly people strolled around, ate picnic lunches at tables scattered throughout the park, and listened to the band playing in their bandstand in the lagoon. Hudson River Maritime Museum Collection

Kingston Point Park was built as a steamboat landing, amusement park, and gardens in the 1890s. Featuring a trolley station and Ulster & Delaware Railroad Station nearby, Kingston Point Park served as a central hub for tourists and travelers to come to Kingston in the early 20th century. 

For decades the Hudson River Day Line had docked primarily at Rhinecliff, and visitors to Kingston had to use the ferry to cross the river. But Samuel Coykendall, president of the Thomas Cornell Steamboat Company, saw the potential of Kingston Point. Coykendall was also involved in the Ulster & Delaware Railroad, and many passengers were coming to Kingston to go to the Catksill Mountain Houses, so taking the railroad to their final destination was obvious. 

Opened in 1896, the landing was soon populated with a hotel, amusement park rides (like the above merry-go-round carousel), boat rentals, bandstand, and more. But by 1928, nothing was left. The short-lived landing has left hundreds of postcards and photographs evoking the romance of the heyday of steamboat tourism in the Hudson River Valley.

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