Times Union
George Washington slept here. No, really.
The first U.S. president enjoyed a stiff drink and a good night’s sleep, just like us. Here are a few of his notable Hudson Valley haunts.
By Michelle Falkenstein
Feb. 16, 2022
“He’s almost like an action figure,” says Sue Gardner, deputy historian for the Town of Warwick and author of the independently published “Pure Necessity: Revolution at Warwick,” of George Washington.
But our first commander-in-chief is more than a larger-than-life character in American history. “He stopped every 12 miles to have grog” — watered-down rum with a squeeze of lemon or lime — “or stretch his legs,” says Gardner. Doesn’t he seem more human already?
As we remember our nation’s first president at his birthday, we get to know him through five spots in the Hudson Valley where he spent a significant amount of time during the Revolutionary War. That’s because New York City was a British stronghold, says historian Alexis Coe, and White Plains was of utmost strategic importance. A solid presence in the Hudson Valley was also key to blocking British ships on the Hudson, and Washington’s command of the region, Coe says, “is one of the reasons he won the war.”
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Wynkoop House – Ulster County
Gary Tinterow, former chair of the Department of Nineteenth-Century, Modern and Contemporary Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, lost his Catskill house in a fire in 1992. Later that year he found a museum-worthy replacement in Wynkoop House, a Georgian-style gray limestone structure with a gambrel roof built in 1767 by Cornelius Evert Wynkoop. Wynkoop was a Major of the Minutemen of Ulster County and a commissioner of the Committee to Detect and Defeat Conspiracies, along with Aaron Burr and Dewitt Clinton.
Washington was a guest of Wynkoop’s on the night of Nov. 15, 1782, and he is said to have slept in a bedroom on the second floor where Tinterow now sleeps. The next day, Washington addressed members of the Dutch Reformed Church in Kingston and attended a reception at the house of Cornelius’s brother Dirck. A hand-written letter Washington sent to the church following his visit hangs there to this day.
Tinterow says when he bought Wynkoop House, “it had one electrical outlet, one heated room and one indoor toilet. The last major changes had been made in the 1830s.”
During renovations, Tinterow installed electricity and plumbing without making any holes in the house. “I’m very proud of my restraint,” he says. Wynkoop House isn’t open to visitors but can be rented for events and photo shoots. Wynkoop House, 3721 Main St. (Route 209), Stone Ridge
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Image: Washington was a guest of Colonel Wynkoop in 1782, and was said to have slept in a bedroom on the second floor, where current owner Gary Tinterow now sleeps.