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New York - Poughkeepsie - Points of Interest The DUTCHESS COUNTY COURTHOUSE, SW. corner of Market and Main Sts., a three-story-and-attic structure of red brick with gray sandstone trim, built in 1902, stands on the site of four former courthouses. In the third of these, on July 26, 1788, the State convention, after warm and prolonged debate, ratified the Constitution of the United States by a vote of 30 to 27. The U.S.POST OFFICE, Mansion St. facing New Market St., was opened in 1939. The architect, Eric Kebbon of Washington, D.C., followed the design of the third Dutchess County courthouse, erected in 1785, in which New York ratified the U.S. Constitution. The style is therefore early Federal. The walls are of local stone, with white trim. The main block has a cupola, which holds the first bell to be installed in a post office. President Franklin D. Roosevelt took a personal interest in the plans for the building and laid the cornerstone. The NELSON HOUSE, 28 Market St., a five-story red brick structure, stands on a site where, under various names and owners, an inn has been uninterruptedly maintained since 1777. Before the Revolution the Van den Bogaerdt farmhouse, which stood here, was used as an inn from 1725 to 1742. The central structure of the present hotel was built in 1875. The VASSAR BROTHERS INSTITUTE,12 Vassar St., houses a museum of natural history, a natural science and historical library, and an auditorium. Fossils, Indian artifacts, and mounted specimens of fauna are exhibited. The red brick building, erected in 1881, is designed in the Victorian style characteristic of the several local institutional structures donated by the Vassar family, Poughkeepsie brewers. The SOLDIERS' FOUNTAIN, South Ave. and Montgomery St., an ornately figured fountain unveiled in 1870 to the memory of the soldiers of the Civil War, is an example of 'folk art' in cast iron. The square in which it stands, at the entrance to Eastman Park, preserves more mid-Victorian civic atmosphere than probably any other civic square in the State. CHRIST CHURCH (Episcopal), Montgomery and Academy Sts., is a striking red sandstone structure erected in 1888 and designed by William Appleton Potter in the English Gothic style. The tower was added in 1889. The Tudor rectory was built in 1903. The church body was organized in 1766. ST. PETER'S CHURCH, foot of Mill St., a brick structure erected in 1853, with later additions, is an interesting example of 'folk Renaissance' architecture. This was the first Roman Catholic church in Dutchess County. From it is a fine view of the bridges across the Hudson. The SMITH BROTHERS PLANT, 134 N.Hamilton St., built in 194, is a two-story brick building painted white, in which the nationally advertised Smith Brothers cough drops are made. The business was established before 1850 by William Wallace Smith and Andrew Smith, the famous bearded 'Trade'and 'Mark.' The two well-known faces were reproductions from actual photographs. The cough drops were first made in a basement by hand; now hand labor is eliminated and they are manufactured by the ton in this modern factory. The CLEAR EVERITT HOUSE, NW. corner of White and Main Sts., is a historic house museum under the direction of the D.A.R. Although dating from 1783, it is designed in the style of the early Dutch Colonial period. The attic section is built of wood; the foundations, two feet thick, are of rough field stone crudely laid; the walls are of the same material and workmanship. In the rooms are exhibited household implements and dishes of Colonial days, a number of original State documents, Revolutionary relics and weapons, and eighteenth- and nineteenth-century furniture. The GLEBE HOUSE, 635 Main St., built in 1767 as the rectory of the Episcopal Church, is a story-and-a-half structure of red brick laid in Flemish bond. The interior is planned with spacious rooms common to the houses of the period. The building was purchased for the city in 1929 by popular subscription, and the gathering of a historical collection is under way. VASSAR COLLEGE, Raymond Ave., Arlington, occupies a 950-acre campus landscaped with impressive trees and broad lawns crisscrossed by paths. The buildings are not arranged according to any regular plan, though the dormitory group, designed in the Tudor style with gables, bays, and battlemented turrets, form a quadrangle just north of the main entrance. The. other buildings are of varied architectural styles. On the campus are an arboretum, a Shakespeare garden in which are grown the flowers mentioned in Shakespeare's plays, greenhouses, and an outdoor theater. Adjacent to the campus proper are faculty dwellings, two small lakes, an athletic field, and a nine-hole golf course. To the south lies the 700-acre Vassar farm, which supplies vegetables for the college dining halls. The college was founded by Matthew Vassar ( 1792-1868), Poughkeepsie brewer, in 1861, but the Civil War delayed the formal opening until 1865. From the time of Harriet Stanton Blatch, '78, through that of Inez Millholland Boissevain, '09, until suffrage was an accomplished fact, members of the college played an active part in the campaign for the enfranchisement of women. Other noted alumnae include Katherine Bement Davis, penologist; Edna St.Vincent Millay and Adelaide Crapsey, poets; Elizabeth Howe, well-known fashion designer and author of Fashion Is Spinach; Jean Webster, author of Daddy Long Legs; Constance Rourke, critic; Margaret Culkin Banning, novelist; and three college presidents: Katharine Blunt, Constance Warren, and Mildred McAfee. Taylor Hall, at the main entrance, constructed of seam-faced granite with limestone trim, is designed in the English Gothic style, with a heavy, square, battlemented tower over the entrance driveway, leaded-glass windows, buttresses, and oriel bays. The architects were Allen and Collens of Boston. The building houses the art department and the art collection, which includes several Rembrandt prints, watercolors by Turner from the collection of John Ruskin, a number of the paintings of the Hudson River School, and three bronzes by Jo Davidson. The Fredrick Ferris Thompson Memorial Library, N. of Taylor Hall, like the latter, is designed in the English Gothic style with a large, square, buttressed and pinnacled tower. The roof is set behind a battlemented parapet. The main entrance, with small octagonal turrets, is typically medieval in design. The architects were Allen and Collens. The library contains 200,000 volumes, including the Justice collection of material relating to the periodic press and the Village Press collection printed by Frederic W. Goudy, of Marlboro, New York. The Chapel, S. of the main entrance, dedicated in 1904, is constructed of yellow Weymouth granite trimmed with limestone. The exterior is designed like an English parish church in the Norman style, with massive round arches, square corner tower, and 'cart-wheel' window. The interior has hammer-beam trusses. The architects were Shepley, Rutan, and Coolidge of Boston. The stained glass windows are from the Tiffany studios, three of them designed by La Farge. The Main Building, facing the main entrance, was completed before the opening of the college in 1865. Designed by James Renwick, Jr., in the style of the French Second Empire, the five-story brick building is topped with a steep mansard roof. Until 1893 virtually all of the students and most of the faculty lived in this building. To it, especially in the eyes of the older alumnae, clings much of the tradition of Vassar. It houses the administrative offices, reception rooms, and accommodations for about 350 students and college officers. The quadrangle enclosed by the dormitories north of the main entrance is said to have been the field in which the daisies were picked for the first daisy chain carried by sophomores on Class Day. Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York Art Print Buy at AllPosters.com Public Library, Poughkeepsie, New York Art Print Buy at AllPosters.com Eastman Park, Poughkeepsie, New York Art Print Buy at AllPosters.com