At the corner of Rts. 22 and 23 sits an imposing brick house built circa 1783-1790 by a man named Parla Foster.
Although the house is listed in the Historic Hillsdale Resource Survey as being in the Federal style, it does not exhibit strong Federal characteristics. David Gallager, a local decorative arts expert and amateur architectural […]
It can be tempting to think of our town history in terms of its founding fathers, historic houses, and seminal events. But like the history of most small towns, those people, places and occasions serve as punctuation marks in the text of otherwise ordinary lives.
While Hillsdale, NY, indeed has had its share of larger-than-life figures, […]
By Howard Blue
Thanks to a congressional proclamation in 1987, March is Women’s History month. The designation came about as a result of the short shrift that women have traditionally gotten in many ways. Until 1839, for example, no American woman could own property. Then, in that year, Mississippi gave its female residents that right. Until […]
The arrival of the COVID-19 virus in America and the resulting state mandates in the Tri-State area advising residents to remain home and for non-essential businesses to temporarily close their doors has undoubtedly had an impact on those places that require foot traffic or the in-person experience to maintain viability. As the Northwestern Corner and […]
Anneke Jans – Dutch Colonial Trail Blazer and Woman Behind the Real Roeliff Jansen
Roeliff Jansen, a would-be explorer and colonist of Scandinavian origin, came to New Netherland from Amsterdam in service of wealthy Dutch Patroon Killian Van Rensselaer. As legend has it, in 1632 he discovered a major tributary to the Hudson […]
Elinor Mettler – Modern Trail Blazer
Women’s History Month is the perfect time to celebrate Elinor Mettler, who co-founded the Roeliff Jansen Historical Society (RJHS) in 1974. Elinor, known for her dynamism and seemingly limitless energy, was also a major force in saving and preserving the “Old Falls Copake Church,” built in 1892, now […]
The following cautionary tale was published in the November 24, 1881 issue of the Hillsdale Harbinger.
“The Badgerleys coming here to spend Thanksgiving?” said Mrs. Nettingley. “Not if I know it.”
Mrs. Nettingley was a close-fisted and calculating matron, who lived in a handsome house in a stylish neighborhood in New York and was one of those […]
Over the years, a number of celebrities have lived in or visited Hillsdale. Some were not famous when they lived here but achieved celeb status elsewhere. But Hillsdale was always “home.” A case in point was Hudson River School painter John Bunyan Bristol, who was born in Hillsdale but achieved prominence in New York City. […]
Agee left Fortune to join Time magazine as book reviewer and film critic. In 1942 he moved to The Nation where his film criticism found a growing circle of intellectual admirers, including W.H. Auden, who wrote “In my opinion, [Agee’s] column is the most remarkable regular event in American journalism today.” As a film reviewer, […]
James Agee was a commanding literary voice in mid-20th-century America: an extraordinarily versatile writer who in his lifetime won acclaim as a novelist, poet, and screenwriter. He is buried on a farm in Hillsdale.
That’s not big news. But we’ve also been told for years that he never actually lived in Hillsdale. That seemed odd. Why […]