© 2026 WSHU
News you trust. Music you love.
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Revolutionary: The only intersection that predates 1776 and survived a British burning

Kingston historian Taylor Bruck stands under the state placard honoring the intersection — a surprisingly popular local attraction.
Davis Dunavin
/
WSHU
Kingston historian Taylor Bruck stands under the state placard honoring the intersection — a surprisingly popular local attraction.

There’s only one known intersection in America where the buildings on all four corners were built before the American Revolution. The place is Kingston, New York — the state’s first capital — until British troops burned it to the ground. But that corner survived, and a few dozen more structures, thanks to some hefty building materials.

Davis Dunavin loves telling stories, whether on the radio or around the campfire. He started in Missouri and ended up in Connecticut, which, he'd like to point out, is the same geographic trajectory taken by Mark Twain.