POUGHKEEPSIE (ante), the co. seat of Dutchess co., on the Hudson river, and the Poughkeepsie and Eastern railroads; pop. '80, 20,207. It is regularly laid out; the streets are shaded and lighted with gas; and there are many handsome public and private buildings. Two m. v. of the city are the buildings of the Hudson river state hospital for the insane, built 1867-71 at a cost of about $750,000.. Vassar college, for women, is about 2 m. e. of Poughkeepsie by horse-cars. The principal building, modeled after the Tuileries, is 500 ft. long, 5 stories high, and contains 242 bedrooms and 100 parlors, with recitation rooms, a chapel, library, laboratories, etc. The college has also an observatory, art museum, and gymnasium. The mineral cabinets are large. The art gallery has one of the best collections of water colors in America. The observa tory has a large equatorial reflector. The college was founded in 1861 by Matthew Vassar, who endowed it with $400,000, and afterward made it large gifts. The num
ber of students is about 400. Poughkeepsie is noted for the number of its educational institutions, among which, besides Vassar college, arc the Poughkeepsie collegiate insti tute, the military institute, Cottage Hill seminary, St. Peter's academy, the Pough keepsie female academy. Riverview military academy, and Eastman's national business college. It is connected with New Paltz, opposite. by steam ferry. The city has a considerable trade with the rest of the county. The manufacturing industries are large, including rolling-mills, furnaces, ship-yards, tanneries, foundries, coopers' shops, boot and shoe factories, etc. It has been for some time in contemplation to put a bridge across the Hudson at this point, at an estimated cost of $2,600,000. Over this it is proposed to run a railroad connecting' Boston with the Erie 'railroad and the west.— The state legislature met here during the invasion, 1777-78, and assented to the articles of confederation.