Kingston - NY - Images of America Author:Edwin Millard Ford 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... more » 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.« less