Rosendale, NY

Rosendale is an Ulster County hamlet whose name became a building material. Natural-cement limestone was discovered here in 1825, and the quarries expanded beside the Delaware and Hudson Canal and Rondout Creek. Rosendale cement went into the Brooklyn Bridge, the Statue of Liberty’s pedestal, the Washington Monument, and other major works. The Wallkill Valley Railroad reached the village in 1871, and its depot was the line’s largest station. Joppenbergh Mountain, 495 feet high, rises beside the old trestle and Route 213. An 1895 fire destroyed half the village, but the local shorthand still holds: cement, canal, railroad, and the mountain.