Jay Burgess
Director of Communications, Scenic Hudson, Inc.
Tel: (845) 473-4440 x222 Cell: (914) 489-0362 Fax: (845) 473-0740
jburgess@scenichudson.org
Exclusive tour features offer “inside look” at ironworks’ history
COLD SPRING (Putnam County, N.Y.)—Providing visitors to West Point Foundry Preserve with a unique glimpse into this historic and beautiful landscape, Scenic Hudson will resume free guided tours beginning in May.
The upcoming tours—on Saturday, May 6, July 1, Sept. 2 and Nov. 4—will focus on the history of West Point Foundry, a pacesetter in America’s Industrial Revolution. It manufactured cannons—known as Parrott guns—credited with helping to win the Civil War, as well as some of the nation’s first steam engines and pipes for New York City’s water system.
As an exclusive feature of the tours, Scenic Hudson provides access to West Point Foundry’s lone freestanding structure—its 1865 office building—which contains an exhibit of interesting artifacts uncovered during archaeological investigations of the property. Also on display throughout the preserve only during the tours are life-size images depicting the interiors of several other foundry buildings. These historic photographs provide visitors with a rare glimpse inside the foundry’s operations.
The free, 90-minute tours begin at 11 a.m. in the preserve’s parking lot at 68 Kemble Ave. A trail also connects the preserve to Cold Spring’s Metro-North station.
Tours showcase foundry’s history, preserve’s interpretive features
In addition to describing West Point Foundry’s manufacturing process and its largely immigrant workforce, the tours highlight the preserve’s award-winning design features that bring the foundry’s past to life while conserving the land’s natural beauty. Scenic Hudson acquired the 86-acre West Point Foundry Preserve property in 1996 to safeguard the foundry’s remains from development. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Online mobile tour also offers exciting way to experience preserve’s history
Scenic Hudson also created an online mobile tour—available at www.foundrytour.org—that allows visitors exploring the trails at West Point Foundry Preserve (or anyone browsing the Web) to experience the foundry’s sights and sounds. It features thrilling sound effects and videos, engaging narration, and historic photographs of the foundry and its workers. For optimal enjoyment, headphones are recommended.
About Scenic Hudson
Scenic Hudson preserves land and farms and creates parks that connect people with the inspirational power of the Hudson River, while fighting threats to the river and natural resources that are the foundation of the valley’s prosperity. A crusader for the valley since 1963, we are credited with saving fabled Storm King Mountain from a destructive industrial project and launching the modern grass-roots environmental movement. Today with more than 25,000 ardent supporters, we are the largest environmental group focused on the Hudson River Valley. Our team of experts combines land acquisition, support for agriculture, citizen-based advocacy and sophisticated planning tools to create environmentally healthy communities, champion smart economic growth, open up riverfronts to the public and preserve the valley’s inspiring beauty and natural resources. To date Scenic Hudson has created or enhanced more than 65 parks, preserves and historic sites up and down the Hudson River and conserved nearly 40,000 acres.
