Friends of the Fishkill Supply Depot

FISHKILL HISTORIC SITE SHOULD BE PRESERVED

By Nate Binzen

 

Pretty soon, you can expect all the wooded land between the historic Van Wyck House and the Maya Café on Route 9 in Fishkill to be covered in a brand new shopping center, despite the facts that the entire property is within the Fishkill Supply Depot site listed on the National Register of Historic Places and the Dutchess Mall lies nearly vacant across the street.

A shopping center is proposed despite the current Town of Fishkill Comprehensive Plan, 1989, that designates the land in the SE quadrant at the intersection of I84 and US9 for low and conservation density residential use; proposes abandonment of the strip commercial aspect of zoning along Route 9; recommends shopping limited to the SW and NW quadrants of the intersection; and proposes a park site surrounding the Van Wyck Home, a historic farm house also listed on the National Register that once was the headquarters for the Depot....

The 11 acres in question are one of the few remaining undisturbed parcels of land that once housed troops and craftsmen for military and quartermaster support to the Continental Army for the entire duration of the American Revolution. There the Fishkill Supply Depot stood, a key strategic asset providing essential logistical support for the war effort and sustaining literally thousands of American troops....

A few plaques on a wall aren’t going to cut it. Not compared to the open fields of Valley Forge, or the National Purple Heart Hall of Honor at the nearby New Windsor Cantonment, or the lovingly preserved battlements and beautiful new visitor’s center at Fort Montgomery....

Literally hundreds of people agree with our argument, yet the people with the power to do something about it seem to undermine the case. State officials, land trusts, and revolutionary war experts all tell Fishkill Historical Focus that if the town cared about this site, they could help the case for preservation. But they are not going to get involved in a lost cause....

 

Excerpts from letter to the editor, Southern Dutchess News, November 14, 2007

[ Webmaster note: Fishkill Historical Focus is now the Friends of the Fishkill Supply Depot ]

 

FOFSD ~ 2012