The exterior of this Catskill Italianate isn’t exactly shy and retiring. After a renovation by the artist owners, a bold green facade now makes the white brackets, window surrounds and porch details pop and the bright red door is hard to miss.

Located at 48 Day Street near downtown Catskill, N.Y., the house on the market also has a renovated interior with a more soothing color palette and some period details. Those vintage features reflect a mix of centuries, from a 19th century newel post to an eye-catching mid 20th century kitchen.

historic map
An 1889 birds-eye view of Catskill includes a sketch of the house showing it alone on this stretch of Day Street and suggesting it may once have had a taller tower. Map by L. R. Burleigh via Library of Congress

It’s located in the East Side National Register Historic District, and the documentation gives the house a vague “late 1800s” construction date, while the county property records peg it at 1880. An in-person dig through the archives at the Greene County Historical Society would yield some more definitive tidbits, but with the online records available it is still possible to glean some clues to the early history of the house.

Historic maps of Catskill show that Day Street, presumably named for the Day family that resided nearby, didn’t yet exist in 1867, but was in place by the 1880s; there are frustratingly few maps of Catskill for the years in between. That timeframe can be narrowed down a bit with historic newspapers, which make references to Day Street as early as 1873.

Ads in The Catskill Recorder show a John D. Shaffer was seeking a summer renter for his “commodious” 12-room home on the south side of Day Street in 1876. By 1879 that house, a “desirable property,” was available for sale or rent. The fact that it is noted as being on the south side of Day Street means it was likely this house; the neighboring houses were all constructed between circa 1897 and 1900. All of this implies a possible construction date of the mid 1870s, which is compatible with its architectural style.

1891 map of catskill
An 1891 map of Catskill shows the house on Day street as the property of brothers Henry and Willis Conklin. Map by F. W. Beers via New York Public Library

A wonderfully detailed 1889 aerial view of Catskill seems to confirm this. It includes a sketch of what appears to be this house, showing it alone on the south side of Day Street. If the artist’s rendering is accurate, it also implies the house once had a taller central tower, which would be more in keeping with the Italianate designs of the period than the squat one now in place.

From the 1880s through at least 1930 the house was the property of the Conklin family. Brothers Henry and Willis Conklin were in the grocery business and census records show the multi-generational household at times included their mother, Jane, as well as Henry’s wife, Harriet, and their children.

interior of 48 day street

interior of 48 day street

The current artist owners purchased the property in 2018, giving the formerly all-white exterior a bolt of color and renovating the interior into a four-bedroom, two-bath home.

The softly toned interior includes a brown marble mantel in the front parlor, although it is no longer part of a working fireplace. A formal dining room has a bay window facing the covered front porch and walls adorned with wallpaper.

interior of 48 day street

In the kitchen, the mid century kitchen was kept intact and has an expanse of sunny yellow steel cabinets, stainless steel countertops and an island topped in butcher block. The listing identifies it as a St. Charles kitchen. Founded in the 1930s in St. Charles, Ill., the steel cabinets were popular with architects and their catalogs promised custom solutions, a range of colors and “beauty and utility artfully combined.” The kitchen was likely installed by Philip and Edna Lerner, who owned the house by 1940 through at least 1971.

A staircase with curved railing and original newel post leads to the bedrooms upstairs; listing photos show wood floors and later wall moldings and picture railings.

interior of 48 day street

An atmospherically rustic attic has stairs leading to the shortened tower while the basement level has been renovated to include work space, a game room and storage.

The house sits on just under half an acre, which includes a two-car garage, patio and tree-ringed lawn.

Nearby attractions include the shops and restaurants centered around Downtown Catskill’s Main Street and the Thomas Cole National Historic Site. A walk across the Hudson River Skywalk connects visitors to artist Frederick Church’s Olana. The house is about a five-mile drive from Hudson’s Amtrak station.

Listed by Oliver Thiess-Helden of Four Seasons Sotheby’s, the property is priced at $750,000. The listing went up less than a week ago and there is now a pending offer on the property.

door of 48 Day Street

door of 48 Day Street

door of 48 Day Street

door of 48 Day Street

interior stair at 48 Day Street

interior stair at 48 Day Street

interior of 48 day street

interior of 48 day street

interior of 48 day street

interior of 48 day street

interior of 48 day street

interior of 48 day street

interior of 48 day street

interior of 48 day street

interior of 48 day street

exterior of 48 Day Street

exterior of 48 Day Street

exterior of 48 Day Street

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