The Roeliff Jansen Historical Society 

On Sunday August 13th, join the RJHS for a presentation by Chis Atkins of the Hillsdale

Historians, who will describe how they took on the challenge of identifying the

location of the  long-lost Middle Gate toll house, and illustrate the

fascinating story what they discovered. 

 

Getting from east to west across what would become Columbia County in the late 18th Century meant traversing a tree-stump ridden, cart path that was icy in the winter and muddy in the spring. In 1799 the New York State legislature passed a bill authorizing the establishment of a corporation whose mission was to build and maintain a road from the Massachusetts state line to the Hudson River. The corporation was funded with $25,000 ($475,000 in 2018 dollars) in investment capital for construction; ongoing maintenance and investor dividends would be funded through toll collection.

 

The legislature authorized the construction of three toll houses along the 20 mile length of what became known as the Columbia Turnpike. These included the East Gate Toll House in Hillsdale, one mile west of the Massachusetts line, and the West Gate Toll House, 1.5 miles east of the Hudson River in the city of Hudson (the area is now Greenport). Both of these structures still exist. A third toll house, known as the Middle Gate, was built somewhere between the East Gate and the West Gate, but it vanished long ago.

 

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