Kingston offers a visual essay of two unique communities that put aside rivalry and distrust to unite under one banner. Less than two miles apart but light-years away in appearance and personality, uptown Kingston and downtown Rondout Landing joined to form the city of Kingston in 1872. Founded as a stockaded settlement in 1658, uptown was where New York State's constitution was written in 1777. In the nineteenth century, the port downtown swelled with the influx of immigrants who gradually transformed the waterfront into a thriving maritime village. The work of immigrants' hands is still evident in the Rondout National Historic District, and the Revolutionary War–era limestone houses still stately stand in the Stockade National Historic District uptown.
The photographs in Kingston were drawn from several private collections and the archives of the Friends of Historic Kingston, which maintains two museums. The author, Edwin Millard Ford, has lived in Kingston since 1928 and has served as city historian since 1984. He is a board member and past president of the Friends of Historic Kingston.