KINGSTON, N.Y. — Two years ago, a 19th century Rondout brick building once owned by a steamboat captain was about to collapse. Today, it has recovered thanks in large part to Kingston native Coryn Carey Darling, owner of Sustainable Structures. The 17-19 Abeel St. building, vacant for decades after last housing apartment dwellers, has undergone a full-on gut revitalization and is now known as the Strand House, a four-unit short-term rental facility. “It was daunting,” Darling said of the task at hand after purchasing the three-story brick building, interior sight unseen, in June 2017. For one, she said, the place was about to collapse, given the gaping hole in the roof and floorboards rotted away by weather. “The building was going to fall down,” said Darling, who is a 2004 graduate of Kingston High School and now lives in Jersey City. “It was that bad.” So for just over a year, workers — including eight members of her own family such as her father, historic preservation contractor Bob Carey — toiled to bring the once boarded-up, window-broken building back to life. Emergency repairs were started in March 2018, with the entire 3,300 square-foot structure being rebuilt, Darling said. “As the developer and the builder, I had to keep reminding myself which hat I was wearing that day,” Darling said in a description of that work. “Obtaining project financing, historical tax credits, furniture budgets, and finalizing interior design was all new to me and I learned a lot along the way.”
The Stand House, at the corner of Post and Abeel streets, now boasts four units, two light-splashed studios, renting for $150 a day and two-bedrooms for $200. All new oak floors, refurbished walls, sparkling appliances, bathrooms, kitchens, countertops, and colorful furniture adorn the Strand House interior. A heating/cooling system was installed, the brick faced repainted, and original brick walls are exposed in the staircases.
“It took a lot of ingenuity and patience to save and restore the historical building and many challenges were presented along the way,”
Darling is particularly fond of something found during construction inside what is known as the Forst Suite, named after the former famed Forst Meatpacking Plant which had operated nearby. The theory goes, Darling said, that behind an interior wall, someone designed a now clouded mural depicting the Mexican-American war. In it, Darling says people have theorized there is an image of former President Zachary Taylor doing battle on horseback. Darling was so impressed by the mural that it was saved and covered over with see-through Plexiglas-framed protection, with a light inside. “It is just a theory but it was the best one I heard and I’m going with that,” Darling said.
Darling says she needs to do more research on the Stand House. But, so far, she has discovered that it was once owned by Captain Nathan Anderson.“According to a newspaper article from The Daily Freeman dated September 11, 1959, Captain Nathan Anderson had been engaged in sloop transportation and arrived in the 1830s,” according to Darling’s descprtion. “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. "Anderson’s son went on to become the Captain of the Mary Powell, the famous riverboat of the Hudson River," Darling's historic account say. Anderson then sold the Abeel Street building to George C. Woolsey, a lawyer, on April 11, 1857.
Darling's account reads: “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."
Two of the Strand House units are named the Anderson and Woolsey suites. Darling named Unit 4 the Joyce Suit, after her mother, Joyce Carey, who died three years ago. “My mother was encouraging me to buy this building back in 2014 and we had great design plans,” Darling said. “Unit 4 I decorated in a style that she would have loved. “ “Very light, pretty, and floral,” Darling said.
