West Point Foundry Preserve

This peaceful park was once the site of a famous landmark of American industrial technology.

West Point Foundry Preserve is an important archaeological site and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

SPECIAL EXHIBIT: "The West Point Foundry: Unearthing the Past, Forging a Future" is on display at the Putnam County Historical Society and Foundry School Museum through December 2008. See this page for details.

Cold Spring, Putnam County — From 1818 to 1911, the West Point Foundry was a technological powerhouse, manufacturing Parrott guns -- the rifled cannon credited with winning the Civil War -- and the steam engines, water wheels and mill equipment that sparked America’s burgeoning industrial economy.

Today, the 87-acre preserve is a peaceful park that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. We have assembled a design team led by Mathews Nielsen Landscape Architects and are in the process of transforming the site into a world-class industrial heritage destination. The preparation of a Public Access and Interpretation Plan for the West Point Foundry Preserve is supported in part by a Preserve America grant administered by the National Park Service, Department of the Interior. Putnam County is the recipient of the grant. The study and stabilization of masonry ruins at the preserve is funded by the Environmental Protection Fund managed by NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation.

For the past several years, Scenic Hudson has been sponsoring research by Michigan Technological University's Industrial Archaeology Program to explore the site's rich archaeological history. Each summer, members of the public are invited to attend our "Day at the Foundry" archaeological tours to see the current excavations and view some of the historic artifacts. Check our events calendar to see if any tours are currently scheduled.

Features

Plans for park improvements are in progress. In the meantime, the property is open to the public with nearly a mile of footpaths that wind near ruins and along both banks of a stream. The adjacent Foundry Cove, once a U.S. EPA Superfund cleanup site, now boasts tidal wetlands that provide habitat for Hudson River bird and fish species.

IMPORTANT NOTE

Scenic Hudson's West Point Foundry Preserve is a sensitive archaeological site. Please stay on marked trails and do not move, remove or destroy any historical archaeological elements. Please keep dogs on a leash and pick up after them. Bikes are not permitted.

Directions and Map

In Cold Spring, go west on Main St., then left on Rock St. and right on Kemble Ave. Park entrance is at the end of Kemble Ave.