Hudson River Historic District - Geography

Geography

The Hudson River Historic District roughly corresponds to the 40 estates established along the river on lands originally granted to the Livingston family. Portions, the Sixteen Mile District and Clermont Estates Historic District, were previously included in two other smaller districts that were later incorporated into the district.

Two of its boundaries are political. On the west it ends at the Ulster county line in the middle of the river channel. The Kingston-Rhinecliff Bridge provides the only access from this direction. In the north it is the line between the towns of Clermont and Germantown. The south boundary is not a municipal line but rather coterminous with the south boundary of Margaret Lewis Norrie State Park north of Staatsburg.

Only to the east does the delineation get complicated. It follows an irregular line parallel to US 9 north to Weys Corners, the junction with NY 9G north of Rhinebeck, and then 9G from there to the north boundary. It has been drawn very tightly to exclude some newer properties that do not reflect the traditional character of the area yet include some lands still reflecting their development as estates that had not previously been recognized. There are no signs or other indicators of the district boundary along the local and county roads that serve it.

The land within the district is generally a gentle and gradual slope from the low glacial ridge followed by routes 9 and 9G to the river, which generally remains about 10 feet (3 m) above sea level at this point. The railroad tracks built for the Hudson River Railroad to connect New York City and Albany, still used by Amtrak and CSX today, run at the river's edge through much of the district.

Most of the land reflects its past as large country estates, with large fields and meadows alternating with woodlots. The slope allows for expansive views from cleared areas of not only the river and the higher glacial ridges on the west side but the Catskill Mountains in the distance. This prospect has attracted homebuilders from the earliest times of settlement to the present, and is considered an essential quality of the district: "There is a sense of openness that belies s constrained width because it is counterpointed by the persistent vision of the mountains in the west," writes architectural historian Neil Larson in the NHL application. "The district benefits from such a direct and imposing profile of the mountains, and its legendary country estates would lose much of their appeal without this extraordinary setting."

The district's permanent human population and attendant development is densely concentrated in the small riverside communities — from south to north, Rhinecliff, Barrytown, Annandale and Tivoli. This, too, reflects the years of estate and country house development, as well as the historic importance of the river and rail transportation corridor to the local economy.