Poughkeepsie’s Collegiate School was built in 1835.
A portion of the western slope of what came to be known as College Hill was preserved as College Grove
ABOVE: The well known civil engineer, Henry Whinfield, depicts the construction of the Collegiate School and the preservation of College Grove in this 1835 lithograph. Dutchess County Historical Society Collections.
BELOW: What and where was “College Grove?” At a time before electrical amplification, large outside audiences could hear better if the speaker was located on the side of a hill, within a grove. That is what happened on August 2, 1858, when Frederick Douglass spoke to an estimated 4,000 people. When the Collegiate School building was completed in 1836, a forested area was left untouched in order to have such a gathering place. They called it College Grove. The civil engineer, Henry Whinfield, did an enormous amount of work at the direction of the 1830s Progressive Party that included Matthew Vassar. If you look at Whinfield’s 1835 depiction of the construction of the Collegiate School, you will see that the grove appears to be slightly to the north of a line that would run from the middle of the summit, perpendicular to North Clinton Street. This is also suggested in an undated, ca. 1870s photograph. There is a more linear, “due west” depiction of the grove in an 1852 engraving by Edwin Whitefield. But Whitefield was a landscape artist, so the engineer’s depiction may be more accurate. The large engraving at the bottom is from Letters about the Hudson River and its Vicinity 1835 to 1837. Published in 1837, like the Whinfield depiction and the Slee photo, it suggests the grove was slightly to the north of a direct perpendicular line from the middle of the summit to North Clinton Street.
Below you will find image overlays meant to show how big the stage might have been when Douglass spoke, and how big the area would have been to accommodate 4,000 persons. The total size of the audience at any one time no doubt varied. The wooden stage collapsed early in the program, and Douglass continued to speak while standing on a wagon that was wheeled in.
