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New York · Hudson Valley · #409
Ulster County, New York
Where the Catskills meet the Hudson Valley, Ulster County has become the preferred address for New York City's creative exodus - a county with Dutch colonial roots, the Woodstock concert's legacy, and the most interesting real estate market in the mid-Hudson region.
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Office: Ulster County Emergency Communications and Management – 238 Golden Hill Lane, Kingston, NY 12401 | (845) 331-7000
Services: Operates the county’s 911 dispatch system and coordinates fire, EMS, and disaster planning and response; Ulster County Fire Services provides basic firefighter training countywide, including graduations held at SUNY New Paltz.
Roads & Utilities
ROADS & TRANSPORTATION
Roads: NY-28 and NY-32 serve Kingston, the county seat, along the Hudson River in the Hudson Valley
Transit: Limited; Trailways and Ulster County Area Transit (UCAT) provide regional bus service.
Business & Permits
BUILDING & PERMITS
Office: Individual towns issue building permits – e.g., Town of Ulster Building Department, 584 East Chester Street Bypass, Kingston, NY 12401, (845) 340-3884
Notes: Ulster County has many towns, each issuing its own separate building permits; the Ulster County Safety Department administers permits specifically for county-owned buildings and property.
Veterans Services
VETERANS SERVICES
County VSO: Ulster County Veterans Service Agency – Kingston, NY
Services: Genuinely established in 1899, providing public library services to Kingston residents for well over a century; holds roughly 59,000 volumes; part of the Mid-Hudson Library System, which serves Columbia, Dutchess, Greene, Putnam, and Ulster Counties.
Parks & Recreation
PARKS & RECREATION
Key Assets: Ulster County’s seat, Kingston, is genuinely New York State’s first capital – during the summer of 1777, with New York City under British occupation and Albany under threat, the newly independent state’s government relocated to Kingston, where the New York State Constitution was formally read aloud on the steps of the Ulster County Courthouse and the first New York State Senate convened at what is now the Senate House State Historic Site; British forces, having been stopped at the Battles of Saratoga, nonetheless reached Kingston, and on October 13, 1777, troops under General John Vaughan burned the city to the ground, destroying more than 300 buildings in retaliation for its role as the seat of revolutionary government and its support of Washington’s army; the state government fled to nearby Hurley before the attack; Kingston honors this history today with an annual reenactment of the “Burning of Kingston,” and its historic Stockade District preserves many rebuilt colonial-era buildings
Notes: Ulster County’s Kingston is genuinely New York State’s first capital, burned by British forces in 1777 in one of the Revolutionary War’s most dramatic acts of retaliation, making it one of the most historically significant county seats found anywhere in this project.
GIS & Maps
GIS & MAPS
GIS Portal: Ulster County GIS – accessible via ulstercountyny.gov
Parcel Search: Ulster County Real Property Tax Service – Kingston, NY
Addressing/911: Coordinated through Ulster County Emergency Communications and Management
Services: A private, no-kill nonprofit and the only Humane Law Enforcement organization in the county; not funded by Ulster County government or the ASPCA; note the shelter has maintained waiting lists for intake due to capacity constraints – call ahead.
Environmental & Waste
ENVIRONMENTAL / WASTE MANAGEMENT
Environmental Complaints: NYS Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) – dec.ny.gov
Notes: Contact your specific municipality directly for current refuse collection and recycling program details.
NOTES
Ulster County’s Kingston is genuinely New York State’s first capital, burned by the British in 1777 after hosting the drafting of the state constitution. All contact information above was sourced from official county, city, library, and shelter pages as of this writing; phone numbers and hours should be reconfirmed directly with the relevant office before a visit.
About Ulster County
Ulster County holds the distinction of having been the first capital of New York State – Kingston served briefly in 1777 before British forces burned it. The county’s Dutch colonial heritage is visible in the Stockade Historic District in Kingston, one of the best-preserved colonial-era neighborhoods in the northeastern United States, with stone houses dating to the 1600s still standing and occupied. The county’s position at the foot of the Catskills and along the Hudson River has shaped its character through every era: as a resort destination for nineteenth-century urban elites (Woodstock was a Hudson Valley arts colony decades before the 1969 concert), as an agricultural county producing dairy, apples, and the Hudson Valley wine and cidery cluster, and now as the recipient of the largest wave of urban-to-rural migration the region has seen in generations.
The pandemic accelerated a trend already underway: New York City residents discovering that Kingston, Woodstock, New Paltz, and Rhinebeck offered a quality of life unavailable in the five boroughs at prices (formerly) a fraction of Brooklyn. The resulting real estate surge – 2020 to 2023 saw median home prices roughly double in many Ulster County towns – has profoundly changed the county’s demographic and economic composition. The creative economy (artists, designers, writers, musicians, remote tech workers) now forms a substantial employment sector alongside the traditional agricultural and healthcare base. Kingston’s thriving restaurant and gallery scene, the Catskill Center for Conservation, and the Hudson Valley Rail Trail reflect the new Ulster.
All Services
Browse every category and topic available for this county.
Ulster County municipalities assess at varying percentages of market value; many towns conduct infrequent revaluations, meaning assessed values may diverge significantly from current market. The Basic STAR exemption reduces the school tax for owner-occupied primary residences (income under $500,000); Enhanced STAR for seniors 65+ (income ≤ $107,300 in 2025) is issued as a New York State check. Grievance Day (Board of Assessment Review) is the third Tuesday of May in most towns; SCAR provides a residential appeal path. New York’s estate tax applies above $7.16 million (2025); no New York inheritance tax. Ulster County’s dramatic appreciation makes it worth reviewing your assessed value annually.
Courts & Legal
Courts & Legal
SENIOR SERVICES
Ulster County Office for the Aging
300 Flatbush Avenue, Kingston, NY 12401
Phone: (845) 340-3456
Senior transportation, Meals on Wheels, caregiver support, home modification, SNAP assistance, and long-term care counseling for Ulster County residents.
Senior Services
Ulster County Office for the Aging
300 Flatbush Avenue, Kingston, NY 12401
Phone: (845) 340-3456
Senior transportation, Meals on Wheels, caregiver support, home modification, SNAP assistance, and long-term care counseling for Ulster County residents.
Marriage & Vital Records
Marriage licenses, divorce records, and birth & death certificates are handled by the following office(s):
COUNTY CLERK
244 Fair St, Kingston, NY 12401
(845) 340-3288
Genealogy
County-level record sources
Ulster County Surrogate’s Court, Kingston (probate case files – see Probate section above).
Kingston, New York’s first state capital (1777), has significant historical archives.
Local societies
No dedicated Ulster County genealogical society was confirmed in available directories.
Probate & Estate
Losing someone and having to deal with courts and paperwork at the same time is hard. This section won’t make that easier, but it should tell you what to expect, what it costs, and where to go – so at least you’re not walking in blind.
Where to go
Ulster County Surrogate’s Court 244 Fair Street, Kingston, NY 12401 (845) 481-9338 Ulster County is in New York’s Hudson Valley, seated in Kingston, New York’s first state capital.
Step 1: figure out which path applies
New York probate and estate administration is governed by the Surrogate’s Court Procedure Act (SCPA) and handled by the Surrogate’s Court in the county where the decedent was domiciled. New York has 62 counties, each with its own Surrogate’s Court.
Voluntary Administration / Small Estate Affidavit (SCPA Article 13) – available when the decedent’s PERSONAL property (not real property) has a gross value of $50,000 or less, excluding certain property automatically set aside for a surviving spouse or children under 21 (EPTL 5-3.1). Owning real property does NOT disqualify an estate from this process – only the personal property counts toward the $50,000 cap. The filing fee is just $1.00.
Probate – required when there’s a valid will and the estate exceeds the small-estate threshold or involves real property.
Administration – required when the decedent died intestate (no will); the Surrogate’s Court appoints an administrator following the statutory priority order under SCPA 1001.
Step 2: filing for probate or administration
File the will (if any) with the Surrogate’s Court in the county where the decedent was domiciled, along with a probate or administration petition.
The court issues Letters Testamentary (with a will) or Letters of Administration (without a will) to the appointed fiduciary.
The fiduciary notifies creditors and beneficiaries and inventories the estate’s assets.
Debts, expenses, and any required New York State Estate Tax are paid.
The fiduciary distributes the remaining assets according to the will or New York’s intestacy law and files a final accounting to close the estate. Public parking is available near the court, fee required.
What it costs
Voluntary Administration filing fee: $1.00.
Full probate/administration filing fees vary and generally scale with estate value.
UNIQUE TO NEW YORK: New York imposes its own separate state ESTATE TAX. For 2026, the New York basic exclusion amount is $7,350,000 – estates at or below that owe no state estate tax. New York has an unusual “cliff”: if the estate’s value exceeds the exclusion by more than 5% (over $7,717,500 in 2026), the ENTIRE estate becomes taxable from the first dollar. No portability between spouses. Rates range from about 3.06% to 16%.
New York has no separate state inheritance tax.
Probate filings, estate administration, and guardianship matters are handled by the following office(s):
Public Safety & Arrests
Arrest records, inmate search, and law enforcement services are handled by the following office(s):
SHERIFF
380 Boulevard, Kingston, NY 12401
(845) 338-3640
Elections & Voting
Voter registration, polling locations, and elections information are handled by the following office(s):
BOARD OF ELECTIONS
284 Wall St, Kingston, NY 12401
(845) 334-5470
Health & Human Services
Offices & Contacts
Health services, social services, and assistance programs are handled by the following office(s):
Health Department
239 Golden Hill Ln, Kingston, NY 12401
(845) 340-3010
Social Services
1061 Development Ct, Kingston, NY 12401
(845) 334-5000
Public Health Information
PUBLIC HEALTH
Office: Ulster County Department of Health – Kingston, NY
Editorial independence: CountyOffices maintains strict editorial independence from our affiliate partners. Our content is researched from official government sources. Affiliate relationships do not influence our recommendations or the information we publish.
Editorial Trust
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Reviewed by CountyOffices Editorial Team
Last verified June 2026
County Facts
County Seat: Kingston
Population: 181,000
Tier: 2
Inmate Services
Care Packages
Send care packages to inmates in Ulster County facilities via Amazon.
