C O X S A C K I E COXSACKIE lies about six miles upriver from Athens. Like Athens, this old landing town is quiet now, but evidence of its colorful past remains in the form of great old buildings that line its attractive streets by the riverbank. Passing through town one afternoon in the Summer of 2002, I came across a forlorn set of fine old factory buildings situated between South Water Street and the river.
"Click on image to enlarge." THE BUILDINGS had housed one of several brass foundries that set up shop here as early as the 1850s to take advantage of the area's fine molding sand. Production had stopped sometime around 1990, but the factory itself seemed to be in fairly good condition. I was quite taken aback to find the plant reduced to an empty lot a year later, with just one old building still standing near the shore. The site's owner had plans for opening a marina on the site, but the land remained fallow as of my last visit. FROM THE WATERFRONT a ferry once linked Coxsackie with Newton Hook across the river. Near the old ferry slip lie the remains of the freight steamer Storm King, built in 1911 for the Catskill Evening Line. From here one can make out the ruins of the old R&W Scott icehouse across the river to the north, and above that, the village of Stuyvesant. © T.E. Rinaldi, 2006
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