Historic marker honors Downing

Posted 4/26/22

Orange County Historian Johanna Porr-Yaun will host an unveiling and dedication of a Pomeroy Historic Marker for the site of the former lands of Andrew Jackson Downing on Friday, April 29 in …

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Historic marker honors Downing

Posted

Orange County Historian Johanna Porr-Yaun will host an unveiling and dedication of a Pomeroy Historic Marker for the site of the former lands of Andrew Jackson Downing on Friday, April 29 in Newburgh.

The event will be held from 1 to 3 p.m. at Downing Park, located at 181-141 Carpenter Avenue.

“This historic marker unveiling is a culmination of a long-term project to research and share Andrew Jackson Downing’s contributions to the history of public parks and domestic taste making,” Porr-Yaun said. “In addition to the marker funded by a grant from the William G. Pomeroy Foundation, we will also share a new brochure which guides the public to the historic architecture influenced by Downing in Newburgh and Beacon.”

Porr-Yaun said that the brochure was created with funding provided by a Hudson River Valley Greenway Grant through the Newburgh based Fullerton Center.
Alan Strauber will serve as the keynote speaker at the event. Strauber is the President and Principal Founder of Merestead, a historic home located at Mount Kisco, Westchester County. Strauber is also an adjunct professor in U.S. History at Marist College.

Andrew Jackson Downing, a native of Newburgh, was a noted landscape designer, horticulturist and writer who became influential in American architectural design. Downing’s career was cut short in 1852 at age 36 when he was killed along with 80 others in a boiler explosion and fire aboard the steamship Henry Clay on its way to New York City down the Hudson River.

His ideas influenced the creation of New York City’s Central Park, which was designed by his proteges Calvert Vaux and Frederick Law Olmsted. Downing is buried in Cedar Hill Cemetery in Newburgh.

For more information about the Pomeroy Historic Marker dedication, call 845-728-9201.