Article Reprinted From : http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/12/greathomesanddestinations/12havens.html
A River Town With Restoration in Its Bones
Nathaniel Brooks for The New York Times
TRADITION Kathi Denniston tends bar at the Stewart House, a restored inn built when Andrew Jackson was in office.
By LISA A. PHILLIPS
ASHTON HAWKINS and Johnnie Moore had been living part-time in the
second-home hot spot of Hudson, N.Y., for five years before the right
house lured them across the Hudson River to the smaller and less-known
village of Athens.
It was the Haight-Van Loan House, a 7,000-square-foot Federal
mansion that has panoramic views of the Hudson River and looms over
eight acres on a hill at the south end of the village. And they were
able to buy it for just $925,000.
“I feel like we made the bargain of the century,” said Mr. Moore, a theater actor and producer who lives in Manhattan.
More
than two years later, the couple are still enthusiastic about their
find, which would have cost more than $3 million across the river in
Columbia County, local real estate agents say. They are now in the
middle of an extensive restoration being overseen by Howard Hall Farm,
a local firm that uses environmentally sensitive preservation
techniques. The red shag carpeting has been ripped out, and a brace
holds up the ceiling of the grand ballroom while an original beam of
the house is being repaired.
“The house has been peeled back to its essence,” said Mr. Hawkins, a consultant to Christie’s and a former general counsel for the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
The restoration of the Haight-Van Loan House is perhaps the perfect
emblem for Athens. Its trove of historic homes in various states of
restoration and repair has become a draw for second-home owners who
have an eye for vintage architecture.
Newly spruced-up houses stand beside neglected properties of
weed-infested yards, peeling paint and crumbling brick. Scaffolding is
a common sight, and town gossip often revolves around who’s fixing up
what and how.
The Village of Athens, a separate municipality
within the town of Athens, sits on the west bank of the Hudson River,
four miles north of the Rip Van Winkle Bridge in Greene County. First
settled in the late 17th century, the village, a port on the
Hudson-Athens Ferry, became a thriving hub for shipbuilding, brick
making and ice harvesting. Athens fell on hard times after the bridge
went up in 1935, eliminating the need for the ferry, which closed in
1947. Athens’s layout and architecture have remained essentially the
same since its heyday in the late 19th century. It has more than 300
buildings on national and state historic registers and has the feel of
a living museum of American architecture, with examples of many of the
predominant styles of the 18th and 19th centuries, including Federal,
Greek Revival, Italianate, Stick, Second Empire, Folk Victorian and
Queen Anne.
Geoff Howell, who owns a Manhattan design and
production studio, bought a five-bedroom Italianate house four years
ago for $225,000. He has since bought two houses to restore and sell.
“I’ve been interested in historic preservation my whole life but never
felt I could make a difference in the city,” he said. “But Athens is
small enough that every house you restore makes a big difference in the
community.”
The Scene
Ursula’s Diner is a friendly gathering place across from a waterfront park and boat launching area. And kayaks, powerboats, tugs and barges are a common sight on the river.
Boating, fishing
and other water sports are also popular at Sleepy Hollow Lake, a
750-home private community that surrounds a two-and-a-half-mile
man-made lake outside the village. Sleepy Hollow includes tennis
courts, a marina, a driving range, two swimming pools, a lodge and a
campground.
Night life revolves mainly around the bar and
restaurant at the Stewart House, a recently restored 1833 inn. The
Athens Cultural Center hosts art openings and other events.
Otherwise, the social scene in Athens tends toward impromptu Saturday night gatherings. Sarah Gray Miller, editor in chief of Country Living
magazine, and her husband, Tony Stamolis, a photographer, who live in
Manhattan, bought a four-bedroom Italianate house two years ago for
less than $300,000, she said. They then persuaded friends in their New
York social circle to buy four other houses in Athens.
The
couple entertain often, filling their bedrooms with visitors and
inviting friends to dinner parties that can expand from 6 guests to 16
in the span of an evening. “We can all walk to each other’s houses, and
there’s something very casual about it,” Ms. Miller said. “It’s like
the joy of living in a commune, but you don’t actually have to share a
house.”
Pros
Athens sits on a
gradual slope up from the river, with houses and restaurants literally
a stone’s throw from the water. On the east side of the Hudson,
railroad tracks limit river access in many communities, while in most
towns on the west side, steep riverbanks pose a similar challenge.
Chris Baswell, a professor of medieval literature at Barnard and
Columbia who lives in Manhattan, is renovating a Federal brick house,
built around 1800, eight blocks up from the river. “I use a wheelchair,
so the gentle grade is good,” he said. “I can go anywhere in the
village — the park, the diner, the river’s right there.”
Athens is smaller and less expensive than Hudson, a city across the
river also noted for its stock of vintage homes. Though prices in
recent years have begun to catch up, the median price in Athens is
still about $50,000 less than in Hudson, according to the Greene County
Multiple Listing Service.
Cons
Besides
a basic gas station-convenience store, there is no retail shopping in
Athens. The closest supermarket is in Catskill, 10 minutes away.
The Real Estate Market
Historic
fixer-uppers can be found for $100,000 to $150,000 in the village,
local agents say, but expect to pay at least $200,000 for a
three-bedroom house in move-in condition. Lot sizes in the village
average a third of an acre.
Most lakefront homes at Sleepy Hollow
cost $350,000 to $450,000, with off-lake properties available in the
$200,000 range, said Vicki Wolpert, who owns Lake and Mountain Realty
in Athens. Listings of more than $500,000 are rare.
Athens has
managed to hold its own in the down housing market. The median price of
homes sold in the town of Athens, which includes the village proper,
from January through mid-September 2008 was $181,000, according to the
Greene County Multiple Listing Service. In the last five years, the
average price of a home rose more than $100,000.
“Lower-priced
deals on homes that need work can still be found, but it’s not like it
was,” said Andrea Smallwood, the village mayor and a sales associate at
Heart Land Realty in Coxsackie, N.Y.
The average listing stays
on the market for about six months, about a month longer than in 2007.
Local real estate agents estimate that 10 to 15 percent of the houses
in the village of Athens and about 50 percent of the houses at Sleepy
Hollow Lake are used as second homes.
The homes at Sleepy
Hollow Lake are mainly A-frames and contemporaries built in the last 40
years. The property owners association regulates paint color and other
features.
“We don’t have the grand old houses,” Ms. Wolpert
said. “When people contact us, they are looking for lakefront. That’s
what attracts them first. Then we move on to what kind of home.”
LAY OF THE LAND
POPULATION 1,743, according to a 2006 Census Bureau estimate.
SIZE 4.6 square miles.
WHERE Athens is 132 miles north of New York City, about a two-and-a-half-hour drive.
WHO’S BUYING Lawyers, journalists and other professionals from New York City and North Jersey.
WHILE YOU’RE LOOKING
Rooms start at $147.50 a night at Stewart House (2 North Water Street, 518-945-1357;
www.stewarthouse.com
). The inn also includes a well-regarded restaurant.
