Newburgh Underground: The Infrastructure of Lost Downtown Streetscapes (2023)

2023 isn’t the first time Newburghers have had to navigate excavated streetscapes.

A century ago, in 1913, workers toiled along many downtown blocks climbing in and out of trenches and pulling up cobbled roadways and slate sidewalks as they laid new subterranean electric lines.

A recent discovery of a set of scrapbooks made by a local photographer during a busy summer of change reveals not just the construction and the details of old pick and shovel excavation but the amazing streetscapes of downtown blocks – many now long vanished.

These images from our 2023 exhibit have been digitized and will soon be uploaded to New York Heritage.