Van Keurens is a

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play. Set in Denmark, the play (the ...

in the town of Poughkeepsie, Dutchess County, New York, United States. It was established by Matheus Van Keuren in the eighteenth century. The Van Keurens lived in

Kingston, New York Kingston is the only Administrative divisions of New York#City, city in, and the county seat of, Ulster County, New York, United States. It is north of New York City and south of Albany, New York, Albany. The city's metropolitan area is grou ...

, but Matheus owned a foundry on a parcel of land on the

Hudson River The Hudson River, historically the North River, is a river that flows from north to south largely through eastern New York (state), New York state. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains at Henderson Lake (New York), Henderson Lake in the ...

, close to what is now

IBM International Business Machines Corporation (using the trademark IBM), nicknamed Big Blue, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, and present in over 175 countries. It is ...

, in the community of

Spackenkill Spackenkill () is a hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) in Dutchess County, New York, United States. The population was 4,123 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Kiryas Joel–Poughkeepsie– Newburgh, NY Metropolitan Statistical ...

. Matheus forged at his foundry at Spackenkill many of the links of the chain used during the Revolutionary War as part of the

Hudson River Chain The Hudson River Chains were a series of boom (navigational barrier), chain booms constructed across the Hudson River at West Point, New York, West Point by Continental Army forces from 1776 to 1778 during the American Revolutionary War. These s ...

around Fort Montgomery. The hamlet is now partly a wooded, unpopulated area between IBM and the Clinton Point Quarry owned by Tilcon, Inc., and part of land that rests on a Spackenkill residential community known informally as

Crown Heights Crown Heights is a neighborhood in the central portion of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. Crown Heights is bounded by Washington Avenue to the west, Atlantic Avenue to the north, Ralph Avenue to the east, and Empire Boulevard to the so ...

External links

About the Van Keurens

Topographic map showing Van Keurens land
from

USGS The United States Geological Survey (USGS), founded as the Geological Survey, is an government agency, agency of the United States Department of the Interior, U.S. Department of the Interior whose work spans the disciplines of biology, geograp ...

The National Map ''The National Map'' is a Collaboration, collaborative effort of the United States Geological Survey (USGS) and other federal, state, and local agencies to improve and deliver topographic information for the United States. The purpose of the eff ...

'' {{Dutchess County, New York Hamlets in New York (state) Hamlets in Dutchess County, New York