Longtime local business man and historian Jonah Sherman donated his personal collection of materials and artifacts that documented the business and commercial history of Poughkeepsie to Marist College. Jonah was dedicated to Marist College and served as a trustee for more the 25 years. He also served several terms as an officer of the board. In 1993, Jonah and his wife Joan were instrumental in establishing the Marist College Center for Lifetime Study (CSL), an educational program for senior citizens that has been duplicated by other colleges and universities regionally and nationally. Both Jonah and his wife were community leaders in human services and arts organizations. They became international volunteers working with International Executive Service Corps, American Jewish World Service, and the United Way of America to assist people and organizations in Africa, Eastern Europe and Asia. Jonah passed away April 23, 2008.

Founded in 1687 on the mouth of the Fall Kill by the Dutch immigrant Van Kleeck family, Poughkeepsie has gone through many stages of development over the last three centuries. There is a running theme throughout the Jonah Sherman Collection of the vast economic potential of Poughkeepsie given its location and available resources. Repeatedly, it seems, the city fails to live up to that billing as major attempts to improve Poughkeepsie’s transportation and infrastructure only seemed to have created new problems for the area. Despite this, there always seems to be another attempt to promote Poughkeepsie as the future hub of the Hudson.

Poughkeepsie, located on the east bank of the Hudson River approximately midway between New York City and the state capitol at Albany, was first incorporated in 1799 and charted as a city in 1854. Briefly the state capitol, Poughkeepsie was the setting for New York’s confirmation of the Constitution and routinely hosted statesmen such as Alexander Hamilton, John Jay and George Clinton. The early nineteenth century saw the growth of the whaling industry as Poughkeepsie competed with Nantucket and New Bedford for the whale oil out of the Atlantic. Sloops floated up and down the river between New York and Albany as the Hudson became one of America’s early major highways for trade, particularly after the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825. In line with the growth of manufacturing and industry in the Northeast, Poughkeepsie became the sight of banks, breweries and paper mills. The period from around 1850 – 1890 witnessed major growth that saw the city emerge from a small whaling village to a center of industry that dominated the east bank of the Hudson. This is evident from the numerous Poughkeepsie institutions that were founded during this period.

In 1852 the Smith Brothers started manufacturing cough drops in Poughkeepsie; formulating what would become a national brand. 1863 witnessed the start of the Hudson River Day Line, with steamboats linking New York and Albany through Poughkeepsie which created a small tourism industry. By the end of that decade, city oligarch Edmund Platt had bought a small retailer called Luckey’s and began building it into the region’s largest shopping center. By 1882 the store had an elevator and, after a series of additions, opened its last location on the corner of Main and Academy Streets in the 1920s. Also, the historic Bardavon opened in 1869 on Market Street as the Collingwood Opera house and continues to host performances to this day.

With the expansion of business and industry came the establishment of educational institutions and development of transportation infrastructure. In 1859 Harvey G. Eastman established the Eastman Business College, a practical school for the early American industrialists that became one of the largest of its kind in the United States. The College was also an example of northern racial segregation as it denied the attendance of black students into the twentieth century. In 1861 Matthew Vassar, who made his fortune as a local brewer in the 1830s, established Vassar College. The school became one of the leading institutions for women’s higher education before going co-ed in 1969.

It was also during this era that Poughkeepsie’s potential as a regional hub of transportation and industry was first promoted. Lying between Pennsylvania’s coal producing regions and the manufacturing centers of New England, many envisioned a rail line spanning the Hudson at Poughkeepsie and plans were promoted for this as early as the 1840s. After years of delays the Poughkeepsie Railroad Bridge was completed in 1889. This engineering marvel was labeled “Poughkeepsie’s Great Hope” and was expected to be a financial gold mine and cause the city’s population to explode. Despite the city’s many advantages and large industrial base Poughkeepsie differed from most other small Northeastern and Midwestern cities during this period in that it never experienced a huge population boom. The bridge never became the valuable draw it was touted as and, after a fire in 1974, was threatened with demolition until it was turned into a pedestrian walkway in 2009.

The Mid-Hudson vehicular bridge was completed in 1930 and opened with a ceremony attended by President and local resident Franklin D. Roosevelt. It was during this period that the President’s New Deal programs built a number of public projects such as the Poughkeepsie Post Office. The Postwar boom solidified Poughkeepsie’s place as the region’s shopping center as people from all over the Mid-Hudson Valley packed Main Street night after night.

By the 1960s the city was beginning to experience serious decline, as urban sprawl, the rise of suburbs and the establishment of IBM on South Road moved business outside the city. In an effort to curb this movement the city began an expansive campaign of urban renewal that is the foundation of the City of Poughkeepsie today. It was during this process that the Civic Center, the East-West Arterial and the Main Mall were built. Unfortunately, many of these measures have been admitted failures and may have exasperated the decline of the inner city and the movement of wealth beyond the city limits. Eight years after the Main Mall was created in 1973, Luckey, Platt and Co. closed its doors after 137 years of business. Main Street was reopened in 2001 and the recent policies implemented on the riverfront and Lower Main Street in the 2000s, it could be argued, are evidence of the City’s effort to erase many of these earlier projects.