Bordering Rondout Creek, Kingston’s downtown business area developed as a separate village from Kingston called Rondout. Rondout was a scene of maritime activity beginning in the early 17th century when the Dutch set up trading posts on the Hudson. In the 19th century, the village population exploded following the 1828 opening of the Delaware and Hudson Canal, whose eastern terminus was at Rondout. Waves of immigrants, mostly Irish and German, poured in seeking jobs on the canal and river and in businesses such as boat building, brick making, and mining. In 1849 Rondout was incorporated as a village, and by 1855, with 6,000 residents, it had surpassed the uptown village of Kingston in population. Rondout reached its peak in 1870 when 3 million tons of coal were shipped on the canal. In 1872 the villages of Kingston and Rondout were incorporated together as one city called Kingston. The rise of rail transportation in the second half of the 19th century led to the closing of the canal in 1898, and the waterfront area declined over the next 60 years as boatyards and shops shut down. In the 1960s, Urban Renewal forced most of the population to move out of the Rondout area. In the early 21st century, Rondout’s decline had been reversed, and the waterfront again bustled with activity, with marinas filled with pleasure boats lining Rondout Creek, Kingston serving as a port-of-call for many cruise ships, and numerous restaurants, art galleries, and boutiques, anchored by Mariner’s Harbor in the former Freeman Building, filling storefronts once occupied by first-generation immigrants.