Catskill
house with sweeping mountain views
in protected wilderness area
The
uniqueness of the property
can best be understood with a little history of the place. In the
1920s, Edward R. Hewitt accumulated about 5000 acres in
this
wilderness area. In 1950, New York
City condemned about 3800 acres of it to build the Neversink Reservoir.
The remaining acreage was purchased from his estate in 1961 by a
partnership formed by four of his grandchildren. One partner now owns his grandfather's
house, and the other three partners built their own houses on partnership land.
The
partnership was
dissolved a few years ago with a plan to sell all but fifteen acres
around each house to someone who would preserve the wilderness area. A niece and her husband purchased most of the land with the right to build one house. She had known the property from childhood, and wanted a place where their family privacy would be ensured. The widow of one of the partners kept some acreage with a similar option to build one additional house. All of the land, other than the fifteen acre parcels, is in the process of being placed under a conservation easement. And no additional construction
will be permitted on the fifteen acre parcels.
One partner's house was built on a saddle of land near the top of Blue Hill. It is now for sale. To the northeast, the home enjoys sweeping views of the Catskill mountains, including Slide Mountain, roughly fourteen miles away. No houses can be seen in that direction, not even a light at night. The Neversink reservoir and the distant Poconos can be seen from on the
opposite side.
Slide
Mountain viewed from house
During the intervening years 313 acres of land to the northeast were purchased to protect it from
development. This has been sold to New York City as part of its watershed protection program.
There is a
series of essentially inaccessible rock ledges behind the house. Thus the site is protected on all sides. (Land beyond the ledges is owned by a real estate company which had planned, over thirty years ago, to build a ski resort on the other side of the mountain. Their public road access is about one mile away.)
The
house is at an altitude of 2,400 feet, a level at which we know of no other house having been built in this wilderness area. We believe that is because utility companies do not supply electricity to remote, wilderness sites. And, of course, reliable spring water is not usually available at such altitudes. Both problems were solved by burying a private, mile
long cable to the nearest utility source. That cable is now under the
ground that was sold to New York City, with an easement for it retained. A 444 foot
deep well, drilled during the 1963 drought, provides wonderful and plentiful water but requires, of course, an electric pump.
There are, regionally, occasional power outages on the utility grid, but we are normally unaware of them when they start, as an inverter automatically and instantaneously switches to a back up battery and solar panel system. That is sufficient to supply all electric requirements except the water pump. So only when we lose water pressure are we normally aware of a grid failure. We also have a large, commercial size generator, which can be turned on with a switch on the sleeping porch. That restores water pressure within two minutes.
The
house, which is insulated, contains 3,024 square feet, with five bedrooms and two and a half baths. It is a post and beam wooden construction, similar to that of a barn, except that the ridge beam is slightly off center and the living room floor is two and half feet lower than other house flooring. Random width wall paneling throughout the house was specially cut for tongue and groove installation without bevels. A separate building (approximately 1,800 square foot and not insulated) contains a garage, painting studio, game room with pool table, guest bedroom, and one and half baths.
Click
on a photo caption below to view a larger image.
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