They were all built well before 1800 Welcome back to Period Dramas, a weekly column that alternates between rounding up historic homes on the market and answering questions we?ve always had about older structures.
About 90 miles north of New York City, along the west bank of the Hudson River, is the idyllic enclave of Ulster County, home to rugged, bucolic landscapes and some of the most charming 18th-century stone houses you?ll ever see.
This isn?t the first time we?ve talked about stone houses: In May, we looked at stone houses in Pennsylvania. While those houses were built by English settlers, the ones in Ulster County were constructed by the Dutch, who first set foot in the region in the early 17th century.
Different settlers means different building styles: The stone houses you?ll find in Pennsylvania look more like the classic Georgian homes of New England. These Dutch dwellings?most of which were farmhouses?are categorically different, characterized by steeply sloping roofs, simple floorplans (just two or three rooms per floor), and large chimneys bookending the building. These farmhouses were originally designed as single-story dwellings, with the space under the eaves of the house allocated for hay storage. In many stone houses, you?ll still find an odd window or small door on the second floor that was used for transporting hay in and out of the house. As these homes lost their farmhouse function and became houses for more modern use, the hay storage space wa...