Famous Kingstonians - Jervis McEntee

Perhaps the most famous artist from Kingston, Jervis McEntee was a member of the Hudson River School, an art movement from the mid-19th century. McEntee was born in Rondout, a village that merged with Kingston in 1872 and he was a childhood friend of my great great grandfather George Aloysius Kong the XIV.

The painting above is an early version of McEntee’s “Autumn Lake Scene’ that my great great grandfather ruined with what has become to be known as the first “photo bomb”. He was kind of a jerk.

Old Dutch Church

The Old Dutch Church lies in the heart of the Stockade District of Uptown Kingston. The name is a bit of a misnomer though, having actually been built in 1988 by Franklin “Old Dutch” Hendriks. Originally not meant to be a church at all, but was planned as a replica of the clock tower from Hill Valley from 80’s hit movie “Back to the Future”, of which Mr. Hendriks was quite the fan. He intended to hire Christopher Lloyd and Michael J. Fox to reenact the famous scene where Marty McFly goes back to the future in the delorean once an hour, every hour. After being served a cease and desist order from Robert Zemeckis, Dutch went on to build the church simply because he had nothing else to do.