Fur trading posts were built here in about 1610, and a Dutch settlement known as Esopus was established by 1652. The Old Dutch Church dates from 1659. The community was chartered as Wiltwyck in 1661 but in 1669 the British renamed it Kingston. It was selected as the first capital of New York but the British sacked and burned the town and the capital was moved to Poughkeepsie, across the river. In 1872 Kingston annexed the adjoining communities of Wiltwyck, Wilbur and Rondout. The population is now about 25,000.

Rondout Creek was used as the Eastern terminal of the Delaware-Hudson Canal, which was built by manual labor in the early 1800s by Irish immigrants fleeing the Potato Famine. The canal was used by barges bringing coal and agricultural products from Pennsylvania, but declined due to the advancement of road and rail services. 

The canal barges were owned by families who lived aboard and hired steam-engined tugs to push them through the water. The southern shore of Rondout Creek near the mouth into the Hudson River is littered with the remains of abandoned sunken barges and disused pilings.