The Catskill Mountains    

The area was first inhabited by the Mohican people,  settled in the 1640s by the Dutch and subsequently by Palatine Germans.  Great numbers of English settlers arrived after the American Revolution. Historically the area was the seat of the American Romantic movement in literature and art. America’s first novelists James Fennimore Cooper - “The Last of the Mohicans” - and Washington Irving - "the Tale of Rip Van Winkle” - set these iconic  stories and others in this area.   
 
This was also the site of America’s only native school of Art, the Hudson River School of Painting that began with Thomas Cole and Frederick Church. Their work spawned almost a century of panoramic landscape painting of North and South America. The school included Frederick Bierstadt whose enormous canvases engendered the vision of a legendary Mountain West.




Thomas Cole
Landscape, Sunrise in the Clove, undated.


The parcels are located in the hilly portion of the sprawling river and hill town  of New Baltimore surrounded by farms and rolling fields. The closest post office is Coeymans Hollow, hence the address. The nearest town for shopping is Coxsackie, a short drive down the hills and incidentally the site of the oldest Dutch house in America and the Bronck Museum and Vedder Library which preserve extensive records of early Dutch life in the Hudson Valley. 

New Baltimore has a center - The  hamlet – which is  also close by and   perches on an escarpment overlooking the Hudson. It has fine examples of Federal,  Greek Revival, Italianate and Victorian architecture built between 250 and 150 years ago. There is a lively conservancy group which sponsors paddle trips on the river, maintains two nature preserves and trails and hosts a number of seasonal parties. The hamlet also has a marina with its own restaurant and there is a town park at the river’s edge with access to the river for paddlers and small sailboats.  There are trails for hiking or horseback riding.
 
Twenty minutes south is the town of Catskill, the Greene County seat and a burgeoning art center with a revitalized main street lined with interesting shops and restaurants. It is also the site of Cedar Grove, a National Historic Site and  the home of Thomas Cole, the founder of the Hudson River School of Painting. Cedar Grove hosts numerous speakers and events over the year
 
Hudson is across the river from Catskill over the Rip Van Winkle bridge where you can visit Frederic Church’s castle and home, Olana. There are also art galleries and antique shops and more restaurants. The Amtrak station for travel to and from New York City is in Hudson.
 
The Albany County International Airport is 1/2 hour to the North. The NYS Thruway and Mass Pike, are close by making traveling to Albany, NYC, or Boston easy.