Tonight, September 2, will be the first meeting with the new board members of the Industrial Development Agency. The meeting is at 6:30 p.m. at the City of Newburgh Council Chambers, 83 Broadway, City Hall.
One of the charges of the IDA is to promote economic development. Newburgh had an industrial past, and looking back to 1930, it is astonishing all the goods that were produced here:
Newburgh has a great diversity of industrial products, chief of which are the following: Fabrikoid, lawn mowers, overalls, camel hair and llama fabrics, and plush robes, felt products, papeteries, spiral riveted pipe, sluice gates, sugar plantation machinery, worsted yarn, woolens, boilers, Crex carpets and rugs, rugs, carpets, mackinaws, wood turning machinery, belts, underwear, ladies’ coats and dresses, silk, leather novelties, lace, valves, flags, medicines, perfume, brick and plaster, wire specialties, wicker furniture. The city’s total annual value of manufactured products aggregates about $100,000,000. In 1929, Newburgh exported abroad $476,500 worth of manufactures.*
The City of 1930 also had thriving farmers’ markets:
Newburgh is the natural trading center for a large area of New York State lying on the west side of the Hudson River. Years ago, drovers brought steers from Binghamton to Newburgh for shipment by river to the New York market. In recent years, the New York State Bureau of Farms and Markets, after an intensive survey covering several years, decided to locate its initial Primary Terminal Market at Newburgh, thus showing that the city has maintained its natural advantages as a trading and distributing center. The city now has one of the largest and most successful locally developed and operated farmers’ markets in New York State.*
A note on property values and indebtedness from 1930:
In 1930, the assessed value of property in Newburgh was $38,961,305. Special franchise, $979,695. Total taxable value, $39,941,000. The property which was exempt from taxation amounted to $6,745,281. In 1930, the bonded indebtedness of the city was $2,512,584.*
*Greene, Nelson, (editor), History of the Valley of the Hudson, (1609-1930), (Volume 2), pp. 877-894.
