Revolutionary War-related programming is ramping up nationwide in advance of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 2026, and local historical societies and organizations here in Dutchess County are leading the charge — battlefield pun intended — with their exciting Rev250 events.
The Pawling Historical Society unveiled its newest permanent exhibit, “Washington in Pawling,” at the historic Kane House Museum on April 25, 2026. The exhibit offers an immersive journey into one of the most compelling — yet little-known — chapters of the American Revolution. In the autumn of 1778, General George Washington and a significant portion of his Continental Army encamped in and around Pawling for approximately two and a half months. During this remarkable period, the small Dutchess County community became a key military hub as Washington coordinated troop movements, managed supply lines, and prepared his forces for the campaigns ahead. “Washington in Pawling” brings this extraordinary chapter to life, giving visitors a vivid sense of what it meant for a rural American town to host the father of the nation and his army. Featuring engaging interactive displays, the exhibit explores the military strategy behind Washington’s encampment, the daily life of Continental soldiers, and the profound impact the army’s presence had on local residents and the surrounding landscape. Through hands-on experiences and thoughtfully assembled historical content, visitors will gain a deeper appreciation for the sacrifice, resilience, and ingenuity that defined the Revolutionary War era—and for the unique role that Pawling played in that struggle.
Launch date: May 16, 2026, at Wappingers Community Day at Brexel-Schlathaus Park
This project consists of two components: a comprehensive 52-page guidebook to Wappinger Revolutionary War history and a graphic map highlighting 20-25 historic sites in the Town of Wappinger. In collaboration with the Town of Wappinger, the Wappingers Historical Society will create a sign-posted driving trail of historic sites mentioned in the guidebook and map. Click here for details.
Highlights of the guidebook:
• Names, profiles and burial locations of 30-plus Wappinger residents who were primarily members of the Second Regiment of the Dutchess County Militia.
• Information on eight cemeteries located in the Town of Wappinger which can be considered Patriot burial grounds.
• Historic sites, including the Brower Shipyard; the Van Benschoten Mill; an Albany Post Road mile marker; Mesier Homestead and the Wappingers Tea Party; historic homes, including the General Swartwout House, Farmer’s Landing, the Joseph Horton House, and the Obidiah Cooper House.
• An original story written for fourth-grade students using some of the locations and profiles contained in the guidebook presented age-appropriately to provide an overview of why people in this area felt the way they did, and what life here was like in the mid-18th century.
Highlights of the map:
• A 27-square-mile area of the Town of Wappinger and relevant parts of the Town of Poughkeepsie as it relates the Brower Shipyard, Wappingers Creek and New Hamburg Presbyterian Cemetery.
• Historic sites, including cemeteries, early houses that are still standing, early roads in the Town of Wappinger, and the Mesier Homestead.
• Icons indicating the locations of sites that are no longer standing, like the Brower Shipyard; the VanBenschoten Mill; and the original site of the New Hackensack Dutch Reformed Church.
• Other sites of historic significance, including locations tied to early settlement and strategic military encampment sites tied to the Fishkill Supply Depot.
Saturday, June 13, 2026, 10 a.m.–4 p.m., at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum, Hyde Park
Dutchess County continues its multi-year commemoration of America’s 250th birthday with RevCon 2026 — the third-annual Revolutionary War Reenactment and History Fair — hosted by Destination Dutchess and the Dutchess County Department of History. Click here for complete details.
• New at RevCon this year will be the "Commander in Cheers" beer tasting. As part of Dutchess County's Rev250 celebration, local brewers have crafted limited-edition Commander in Cheers beers, which are available in special commemorative cans.
• Presentation by Professor Michael Gabriel on General Richard Montgomery: Dutchess County’s Revolutionary Martyr.
• Presentation by Foodways Historian Sara Evenson on the Colonial Kitchen vs. the 21st Century Kitchen — what has changed and what has stayed the same.
• Cannon firing, musket firing, and children’s wooden musket drill by colonial reenactors.
• Displays on indigenous history and contributions to the struggle for liberty.
• Special oxen and horse demonstration: Moving Supplies in Revolutionary Dutchess.
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Second Sunday of each month, June 14–Nov. 8, 2026, 1-4 p.m., at multiple locations (Participating locations open on a rotating basis; not every location will be open for each month’s tour)
By the early 1800s, Dutchess County was home to the greatest number of Quakers outside of Philadelphia. The monthly Dutchess County Quaker Meeting House Tour series was a tremendous success in its inaugural iteration in 2025, and the programming has been expanded in 2026. Participating locations include Clinton Corners, Millbrook, Pawling, LaGrange, Stanford and Hyde Park. These Quaker Meeting Houses, some of the oldest surviving Meeting Houses in the Hudson Valley, stand as testaments to the Quakers’ steadfast principles of nonviolence, peace and neutrality. Quaker communities denounced slavery as a grave sin and advocated for the freedom of the enslaved people. Several Dutchess County Quaker communities are said to have been stops on the Underground Railroad, providing safe havens for those risking their lives in pursuit of freedom. Among the exciting new developments for 2026, the LaGrange Historical Society presents a virtual-reality recreation of the historic Beekman Meeting House, hosted at The Little Red School House, allowing visitors to experience this lost piece of Quaker heritage in a fully immersive new way. Click here for tour details and the 2026 schedule.
Beacon is the only town in the Hudson Valley named for its role in the Revolutionary War, as it was the site of the signal fires ordered by General Washington to serve as warnings for the Continental Army. Beacon has an array of exciting Rev250 programs and festivities planned for the spring and summer:
• Veterans’ groups in Beacon will incorporate educational storytelling about the Revolution into their annual ceremonies for Memorial Day, Independence Day and Veterans Day. The Veterans Memorial Building will also host Rev250-themed programming around the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, and programs showcasing the history and music of the American Revolution.
• The Beacon Historical Society is hosting a yearlong exhibit entitled “From Mount Beacon to the Hudson: Beacon’s Role during the American Revolution.” To accompany the exhibit, the Society created a custom illustrated map highlighting historical sites in Beacon from the Revolution that can be visited today. The map is available at no charge.
• Throughout June and early July, the BonfireWORKS Foundation will present “Rev250 Illuminated,” a series of outdoor digital light projections on municipal buildings and other iconic city locations. The illuminations will take place after sundown on June 14, 19, 20, 26, 27 and July 3 and 4, with additional dates planned in November.
• City-wide Rev250 festivities will include a patriotic garden contest sponsored by the Tioronda Garden Club, as well as public readings of the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution. The Tioronda Garden Club will also be decorating Beacon’s Main Street and Washington’s bust with patriotic themed red, white and blue floral displays. Commemorative “Liberty Trees” will be planted and dedicated in partnership with the Beacon Tree Committee, and a series of performances and concerts will occur through 2026.
• The Melzingah Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution will host tours of the historic Madam Brett Homestead, an Independence Day Ice Cream Social and a fall concert by the Putnam Choral tracing the musical story of the U.S. from early Colonial roots to the anthems of the 20th century.
• In October, the Beacon Historical Society and Howland Cultural Center will host “Music of the American Revolution,” an interactive program highlighting music of the American Colonies, songs of the American Revolution and military field music played by armies on both sides of the Revolutionary War.
• A fun “selfie station” for photo opportunities with Alexander and Eliza Hamilton, who were Beacon residents during the Revolution, has been created by the Beacon Historical Society and will be located on Main Street.
Saturday, June 27, 2026, 10 a.m.-3 p.m., at Fishkill Farms, Hopewell Junction
Celebrate the start of summer in the orchards at Fishkill Farms, makers of Treasury Cider. It will be a day filled with Revolutionary War and Colonial-era history, wagon rides and farm experiences, and, of course, apple cider! Click here for details.
• Foodways Historian Sara Evenson presenting on common dishes of the colonial Hudson Valley.
• Master storyteller Jonathan Kruk and musical accompaniment sharing stories of the colonial Hudson Valley.
• Orchard Talk Wagon Rides with Josh Morgenthau, Owner and Operator of Fishkill Farms, throughout the day.
• Live Americana music.
• Food from Fishkill Farms' outdoor grill, along with the Graze & Harvest food truck.
• Make reservations to pick your own fruit at Fishkill Farms.
July 5, 2026, 11 a.m.–2 p.m., Freedom Park, LaGrange
• Young Colonials Fife and Drum Corps performance.
• George Washington interpreter reading the Declaration of Independence.
• Foodways Historian Sara Evenson performing an active cooking demonstration with buckwheat and rye.
• Fiber artist Celeste Sherry demonstrating flax and wool-spinning.
• Blacksmithing demonstration.
• Meet Benjamin Franklin and Baron von Steuben.
• Colonial crafts.
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Aug. 8, 2026, 10 a.m.–4 p.m., at the Brinckerhoff House Historic Site, Hopewell Junction
The East Fishkill Historical Society presents a day of demonstrations by skilled colonial craftspeople including blacksmithing, woodcarving, gunsmithing, spinning and wool-dying, broom-making, candle-making, stone masonry, hat-making, open-hearth cooking and baking in the beehive bake oven, and a special demonstration of colonial iron smelting in a bloom furnace. Click here for updates.
Aug. 21, 22 and 23, 2026, at the Amenia Town Hall
Produced by the Amenia Historical Society, "Amenia’s Spycatcher" is a new full-length historical play that uses live performance to engage the public with the local impact of the American Revolution in Dutchess County. By dramatizing lesser known but well-documented events that took place in Amenia between 1777 and 1785, the project invites audiences to understand how national ideals of independence, loyalty, and governance were experienced and contested at the town level. The play centers on Ephraim and Mary Paine (both laid to rest in the Old Amenia Burying Ground), Amenia residents whose lives were shaped by Revolutionary-era political and social upheaval. Ephraim Paine held several significant public roles, including serving as the first Dutchess County Judge and as a delegate to the Continental Congress, placing Amenia directly within the civic and political life of the emerging nation. Through their story, the play highlights how local residents navigated questions of allegiance, authority, and justice during the American Experiment.
Exhibit launch: Sept. 19, 2026, Hardscrabble Day, at the Elmendorph Inn, Red Hook
• Interactive interpretive elements on tables (hands-on reproductions and discussion prompts focused on tavern life, community networks, and civic debate).
• An immersive tavern soundscape (fire, music, debate, and period-appropriate ambience) to bring the room to life.
• A talk-back station inviting visitors to reflect on what civic participation looks like today in Red Hook.
• Cooking in the historic kitchen and living history interpreters.
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Sept. 23, 2026, 5:30–7 p.m., at the Old Drovers Inn, Dover
• Vignettes of documented Dover-area denizens and visitors, ranging from indigenous elder Eunice Mauwee to the Marquis de Chastellux.
• Dramatic reading will take place in the Preston Barn catering hall at Old Drovers Inn.
New York's Hudson Valley played a pivotal part in the Revolutionary War, and while no battles took place here in Dutchess County, the county's strategic location made it vital to the Patriot cause. The Village of Fishkill was home to one of the largest supply depots for the Continental Army during the war. And after the burning of Kingston by the British in 1777 — in retaliation for the Patriot victory at Saratoga — Poughkeepsie served as the state capital until the end of the war. General Friedrich Von Steuben of Germany, who introduced the basic training methods, marching drills and battlefield tactics he had learned in Europe to the soldiers in George Washington's Continental Army, set up his headquarters at Mount Gulian in Beacon following the Patriots' decisive victory in Yorktown, Va., in 1781 to protect the Hudson Valley from renewed attacks by the British. This location put him close to the Fishkill Supply Depot and right across the Hudson River from Washington’s headquarters in Newburgh. At the end of the war, the Society of the Cincinnati — America’s first veterans’ fraternal organization — was formed at Mount Gulian with Von Steuben presiding.
To read more about Dutchess County sites you can visit with ties to the American Revolution, click here.
