Hyde Park, N.Y.
February 21, 1938.
My dear Mr. Hackett:
I have been disturbed and distressed by
the letter from Mr. S.F. Hamilton, the Right-of-Way
Supervisor of the New York Telephone Company, suggesting
that polesa and cable with the necessary guy wires and
anchors be run up the Post Road from Poughkeepsie to Hyde
Park.
Probably Mr. Hamilton is not aware of the
history of this suggestion in its relation to the general
attitude towards the Post Road, going back for nearly two
centuries.
As far back as 1750 the family of Mr. John
Crook, and soon after the family of Dr. John Bard,
conceived the idea of making the original road a very
beautiful, wide avenue. They, in conjunction with their
neighbors, such as Judge Johnson, Judge Pendleton, James
Roosevelt, Dr. Hosack, Mr. James Boorman, Mr. Stuyvesant
and Mr.Moses Beech, planted trees practically the whole way
from the Poughkeepsie city line to the village of
Staatsburg- a distance of about of eight miles. Some of the
original trees planted early as 1750 are still standing-
nearly 200 years old - and it has been a matter of pride on
the part of most of the owners on both sides of the road,
to replace trees which have died or been blown down.
The net result has been an avenue which
has no counter- part in the state of New York.
About 1890 an effort was made by
Mr.Hinkley and others who were interested in the
Poughkeepsie Trolley
Company, to extend a trolley line on the side of the Post
Road, from Poughkeepsie through Hyde Park and Statsburg to
Rhinebeck. There was much public indignition at the
prospect of ruining this historic road and a bill was
passed by the Legislatute prohibiting use of the road for
trolley or similar purposes.
Later, when the old Poughkeepsie Electric
Light Company- before the organization of the Central
Hudson Gas and Electric