Filed under:
Mansion Square was part of the speculative development in the City of Poughkeepsie during the 1830s and 40s by Matthew Vassar and a number of other entrepreneurs and businessmen “boosters” who were all joined in the Improvement Party. In this area, they offered building lots for sale for elite mansions.
Across from Mansion Square, on the corner of Mansion Street and North Hamilton Street, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church was constructed. Generally, where an Episcopal Church was built would also be located large houses for the city’s elite. However, it never really turned out that way, and so most of these buildings have been broken up into apartments at this point. But the park itself certainly is a community park for the area, particularly for the people at St. Paul’s and for their neighbors. And there are a number of things that go on here, including the fact that this park was named in 1995 after Earline Patrice, an important African American woman and a model community activist in the City of Poughkeepsie here on the North Side.
St. Paul’s is a North Side community church on the west side of Mansion Square. It is a relatively small parish that serves the local neighborhood. The Lunchbox was initially established in the basement. The Lunchbox feeds upwards of 200 people free lunches. The City of Poughkeepsie is only 30,000 in population, so to feed 200 free lunches on any given day is really quite remarkable. The Lunchbox is now at the Family Partnership Center, which is only a few blocks away on North Hamilton Street.
Across from St. Paul’s Church on the south side of Mansion Street is the Catherine Street Community Center. The Catherine Street Community Center is one of the oldest community centers in the city and is very important for young people of the North Side. There are lots of programs and a wonderful place for community activities.
Just west, down Mansion Street from St. Paul’s is Beulah Baptist Church. There are a number of African American churches located among the North Side neighborhoods. Next to the church, just south along Mansion Street, is Malcolm X Park. The park was given the name after a grass roots campaign of African-American youth, led by Ed Pittman, who has been an Associate Dean of Vassar College for a number of years.
To the west of Malcolm X Park, across the Fall Kill, is Morse School. Morse School is a neighborhood school. There are five elementary neighborhood schools, some of which are magnet schools. There is one middle school and one high school for the city district.
Most students walk to school, although some from the western and northern neighborhoods ride the public busses. The schools are quite well integrated along lines of race, ethnicity and economic class, although Krieger School, a neighborhood elementary school on the South Side along Hooker Avenue, also has some students bussed from the North Side.
