History
The Strand House is fraught with local significance. Through researching deeds at the county clerk's office, Darling was able to track that the building was once owned by a Captain Nathan Anderson. According to a newspaper article from The Daily Freeman dated September 11th, 1959 "Captain Nathan Anderson, who had been engaged in sloop transportation and who arrived in the 1830's. One of his sons, Absolom L. Anderson was active with him in business interests in Rondout and for some years the two were steamboat agents." Captain Anderson’s son went on to become the Captain of the Mary Powell, the famous riverboat of the Hudson River.
Captain Anderson then sold the building to George C. Woolsey on April 11th, 1857. Woolsey was an important figure in the merging of Kingston and Rondout. In February 1871 committees representing the villages of Kingston and of Rondout appeared before the committees of the House to present their case in the Old Deleven House in Albany. George C. Woolsey represented the Village of Rondout and stated that Kingston was "...settled by the Dutch, sleepy fellows who never displayed any enterprise and who saved money only to salt it down, or put it out to interest. More than 100 years later the live men of the age come to our town and the settled Rondout and in 40 years made it a place of 11,000 inhabitants. When our people had made Rondout a good business place then, and only then, did a few Kingston men venture down to run the risks of trade." Woolsey was a lawyer in Ulster County and was part of a commission to inventory the real and personal property of the village of Kingston and the Village of Rondout when the two merged in 1872. Woolsey owned several pieces of property in Kingston including what was known as Woolsey Commons.
During construction, some of the paint on the plaster at the second floor started to fall off revealing a painting underneath. The mural depicts a war scene which looks to be from the Mexican-American War which lasted from April 1846 – February 1848. One theory is that the mural pays homage to President Zachary Taylor who was a war hero during the Mexican-American War and became President of the United States shortly thereafter. Below is a close-up of the painting depicting a man on a white horse which is reminiscent of how President Zachary Taylor was frequently painted on his white horse, named Whitey.
