Postal Milemarker 77

77 Miles to N. York

Location:

This mile marker stone is located within the NYSDOT right-of-way [1] along the west side of US Route 9, a little north of the intersection with Anthony Drive, in the Town of Poughkeepsie. Coordinates are 41.647653, -73.925591

History:

In 1934, the Dutchess County Historical Society’s Committee on Milestones [2] surveyed “the few remaining brownstone mile posts located on the Albany Post Road” between Wappingers Falls and the Dutchess-Columbia County line. They located milestone “77 Miles to N. York” 3.9 miles north of the Wappingers Falls Post Office and found it to be “reversed” with its “front facing field”.

In the 1980s, James & Marguerite Spratt [3] researched the milestones of Albany Post Road and created a sketch showing Route 9 at the time (in black) and the original path of Route 9 (in red). These sketches show a stone located approximately where this one is located, however it is labeled on the sketch and identified in photos as #79 instead of #77. The stone is the same one that can be seen in 2009-2021, and its face clearly say “77”, so it seems the Spratts incorrectly identified the stone.

According to the Spratts, the stone was saved by Robert Ahmen, the former mayor of Poughkeepsie, during construction of one of his car dealerships.

Around 2015/16, when Texas Roadhouse was being constructed, the Town of Poughkeepsie Planning Board required a fence be erected around the stone to protect it.

Sources:

[1] 1986 NYSDOT Contract D251991, sheet 55R

[2] Dutchess County Historical Society Year Book, 1935, page 17 “Report of Committee on Milestones Read at Annual Meeting in May, 1935”, https://books.google.com/books?id=E9spAQAAMAAJ