OLD HURLEY’S MAIN STREET
Throughout its history, Hurley has commercially grown and then shrunk. The American Revolution era was the heyday for this area. There were mills, bountiful agriculture, a large demand for goods for the Continental Army, a brewery, and several hotels. It also became a temporary outpost and state capital. Now this mostly residential community enjoys the sanctity of its quiet streets. The original 1662 village was located on Main Street. [Excerpts and photos taken from the book Images of America: Hurley by Deana Decker, Arcadia Publishing, 2007.]
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Main Street in the late 1800s looks different than it does today. Two houses on the left, the DuMond and Polly Crispell houses, still exist, but the Van Sickle Inn and Tavern on the right was destroyed by fire in 1909 and is now the site of the Hurley Library. (Courtesy of Hurley Museum.)
In 1801, after years of having to travel to Kingston for services, a petition was approved to create a Dutch Reformed Church in Hurley. Soon after, residents constructed a single-room, two-story stone building halfway down Main Street next to the current museum. A persistently growing crack in the wall caused the church consistory to purchase the Crispell farm at the end of Main Street. The barn on the property was moved, and the minister moved into the Crispell house. In 1854, a new wood frame church was built on the barn's vacant foundation. Having become unsafe, the old stone church was taken down, and its stones were used to reinforce the new foundation and to build the retaining wall for the new Hurley cemetery on Zandhoek Road. The church has operated in the building ever since. (Courtesy of Hurley Museum.)