The Upstater: Second Empire Victorians

This week, Upstater brings you mansard roofs and bracketed cornices to your heart’s delight. You can find them on both sides of the river, in villages and in the countryside, and many of them are on or near the Hudson.

If you’re in the market for a mansion, try this 11,000-square foot beauty in Kingston, which we profiled last year on Upstater (it’s still waiting for a taker). Built in 1873, Edgewood Terrace has 30 rooms, seven beds, five baths and almost 12 acres. It’s $2.1 million, which these days is the price of a fixer-upper Brownstone over here in Park Slope.
Check out interior photos on the jump…

We recommend marketing it as a place to marry, since there’s a seemingly endless demand for wedding venues near New York City, or perhaps they can film a few episodes of Downton Abbey here. Another thing to recommend it: it’s very close to the Hudson, and has river views.
132 Lindsley Avenue, Kingston. $2.1 million. GMAP

The beauty among the crop is this fully renovated, second empire in Germantown, about 25 minutes north of Rhinebeck. Great location — it’s not directly on the Hudson River, but it’s just a few feet from it — and an amazing house, if you’ll allow us to drool. Cherry cabinets in the kitchen, great views, lots of space.

Germantown is the southern- and western-most town in Columbia County, which is purported to have slightly more reasonable taxes than Dutchess County. Property Shark has them listed in the $6,500 range, which seems weirdly reasonable to us, though the house is assessed there at about half what it’s listed for. Perhaps that’s because of the lot size: .39 acres.
8 Cheviot Road, Germantown. $639,000. GMAP

Yes, 794 Woods Road in Livingston, NY is a $3 million fixer-upper, but it happens to be the childhood home of Eleanor Roosevelt.

We can’t see much of the interior in the listing, but the bird’s eye view is instructive enough: riverfront property, indeed, and 25 acres of it at that. It has 10 bedrooms, 8,375 square feet.

They’re offering to sell it for an additional $750,000 with a complete and historically accurate renovation, and they add this: “The first steps towards renovation and restorations of the original porch have begun to return the house to its once prominent state. The original specifications and old photographs were used by experts to reverse engineer the porches, balustrades and cornices, so that these features can be restored exactly as they were. These were built in Bolivia by local craftsmen using indigenous hardwoods. They are now in storage close to the property, in preparation for further renovation projects.”
794 Woods Road, Livingston. $3 million. GMAP

Here’s a looker in downtown Kingston, the only property on the list below half a million bucks. And what a lot you get for $397,000: seven beds, four full and two half-baths, 5,820 square feet.

It’s also listed on the National Register and known locally as the Chichester House. There’s a finished basement with an apartment in it.
116 Fair Street, Kingston. $397,000. GMAP.