What $2.7 Million Gets You in Kingston
Following up on yesterday’s post about a beautiful but slightly rundown turn of the century house in Kingston, NY, we thought we’d take a look at what’s on the market in the former state capital. The most eye-popping property on the market right now, as far as we can tell, is the Cordts Mansion, a…
Following up on yesterday’s post about a beautiful but slightly rundown turn of the century house in Kingston, NY, we thought we’d take a look at what’s on the market in the former state capital. The most eye-popping property on the market right now, as far as we can tell, is the Cordts Mansion, a 30-room, Second Empire house on 13 acres overlooking the Hudson River. You’ve gotta click thru and check out the photos in the listing. It’s insane! And the price? $2,700,000, slightly less than what the Carroll Gardens Atrocity is listed for. Drool.
John H. Cordts Mansion Listing [OldHouses.com]
Kingston is–
Full of artists, eco-hippie post-urbanites, and assorted other leftists. Kingston’s Ulster County is heavily democratic and feels more like parts of Northern California than anything else. Bard College is 15 minutes away, and the Amtrak goes to Rhinebeck (ten minutes from Bard in the other direction). This area is full of the ACTUAL farms that the NYC people use to tout their “locavore” diets–you can pick your own in season, and get whatever’s growing the rest of the year. Kingston has an actual ORGANIC butcher–which doesn’t even exist in NYC. Because of the Culinary Institute close by, restaurants can be better than NYC at half the price.
I live close by, in Red Hook–downtown Kingston is funky and gorgeous–it reminds me more of Utrecht, The Netherlands, than it does of much of anything else. This is a very, very interesting area, architecturally, and culturally.
Nearby towns:
Red Hook is a sort of Park Slope with a splotch of Vermont. Rhinebeck is like Sausalito, California, kind of. Omega, the huge New Age center, is in Rhinebeck, which means more yoga and pilates and meditation than you can shake a stick at. Eco-housing cooperative.
Jobs: here’s where you get creative: colleges and universities: Bard, SUNY, etc.–lots of lawyers and shrinks driving down to the city a couple of times a week. Lots of people on the DIY. You can really live cheap up here. Instead of the food coop, just have your own goats and chickens.
Diversity: virtually none. Please, people of color, move up here. It’s great, cheap, and feels like some sort of strange retreat that is also very connected. Doesn’t feel racist, actually less so than Park Slope does.
Having lived for several years in the Bay Area, several years in Europe, NYC, Boston, and Chicago, this is one of my favorite places. It’s not the French countryside, but it ain’t New Jersey.
BTW: anyplace an hour from NYC absolutely sucks. If you’re talking lower Westchester and/or anyplace in New Jersey, there is zero nice architecture, no lefty/hippie culture, and robotic android suburbanites with zombified taste and feral, glum, horrible children.
Take a little ride sometimes on the train and you’ll see what I mean. I almost feel like I should do tours up here for Brooklynites who don’t get it–this ought to be what Mendocino is to San Francisco.
Kingston is–
Full of artists, eco-hippie post-urbanites, and assorted other leftists. Kingston’s Ulster County is heavily democratic and feels more like parts of Northern California than anything else. Bard College is 15 minutes away, and the Amtrak goes to Rhinebeck (ten minutes from Bard in the other direction). This area is full of the ACTUAL farms that the NYC people use to tout their “locavore” diets–you can pick your own in season, and get whatever’s growing the rest of the year. Kingston has an actual ORGANIC butcher–which doesn’t even exist in NYC. Because of the Culinary Institute close by, restaurants can be better than NYC at half the price.
I live close by, in Red Hook–downtown Kingston is funky and gorgeous–it reminds me more of Utrecht, The Netherlands, than it does of much of anything else. This is a very, very interesting area, architecturally, and culturally.
Nearby towns:
Red Hook is a sort of Park Slope with a splotch of Vermont. Rhinebeck is like Sausalito, California, kind of. Omega, the huge New Age center, is in Rhinebeck, which means more yoga and pilates and meditation than you can shake a stick at. Eco-housing cooperative.
Jobs: here’s where you get creative: colleges and universities: Bard, SUNY, etc.–lots of lawyers and shrinks driving down to the city a couple of times a week. Lots of people on the DIY. You can really live cheap up here. Instead of the food coop, just have your own goats and chickens.
Diversity: virtually none. Please, people of color, move up here. It’s great, cheap, and feels like some sort of strange retreat that is also very connected. Doesn’t feel racist, actually less so than Park Slope does.
Having lived for several years in the Bay Area, several years in Europe, NYC, Boston, and Chicago, this is one of my favorite places. It’s not the French countryside, but it ain’t New Jersey.
BTW: anyplace an hour from NYC absolutely sucks. If you’re talking lower Westchester and/or anyplace in New Jersey, there is zero nice architecture, no lefty/hippie culture, and robotic android suburbanites with zombified taste and feral, glum, horrible children.
Take a little ride sometimes on the train and you’ll see what I mean. I almost feel like I should do tours up here for Brooklynites who don’t get it–this ought to be what Mendocino is to San Francisco.
That PPS house with MKG has been on the market longer than 2007. I remember seeing it listed back in 2006. They originally listed it for $2.7 million and stubbornly held at that price for the longest time. They could have sold in a better market back then if they’d been realistic.
I like the (town of) Hudson architecture too, Dittoburg, especially the eclecticism. The Italianates are my fave. But yeah, too far. My husband hates the idea of ever leaving Brooklyn but if we ever did we’d have to be less than one hour from NYC.
I’ll take it! Zero percent down and zero percent financing and 4% for 30 years plus the president’s bailout money. God it is easy to be a homeowner an get suckers to pay for it.
qkw, what are you talking talking about? Kington has a lovely historic downtown with amazing old houses and commercial buildings. There are a good number of cool restaurants and stores. There’s also the historic roundout area along the kingston river which is wonderful. It is much nicer than Hudson. Did you drive through the outskirts of town once and think you had seen it all? And then decide that that experience made you the expert?
Has anyone actually been to Kingston? It’s a complete armpit of strip malls and big box stores. Just horrible. And Hudson is NOT 3 hours away – it’s 2 1/2. 2 on the train.
If this is the place I think it is they used to rent this out for weddings…and a friend got married there. It was glorious, and the immediate wedding party got to stay in the house. The carriage house is pretty big.
The town of Hudson has some amazing houses too, many are federal period, and a great old Opera House. Unfortunately its a three hour drive.
Say, Brownstoner, you getting itchy feet?