Newburgh City Club
Photo courtesy of Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C. At 120 Grand Street in Newburgh, a skeleton made of sandstone stands guard near the south end of the public library. To the casual passerby, it looks like just another victim of time and neglect. But for those who know the history of the Hudson Valley, this shell of a building is a heartbreak. It is the ghost of the City Club, a structure that has survived wrecking balls and urban renewal projects only to be hollowed out by a suspicious fire and left to rot in the open air. The tragedy of this building is not just about old bricks. It is about pedigree. This home was commissioned around 1850 for Dr. William A.M. Culbert, a homeopathic doctor who had married into the wealthy Powell family. To design his residence, Culbert hired two of the most significant names in American design history: Andrew Jackson Downing and Calvert Vaux. This collaboration carries a heavy weight. Downing, a Newbur...