Newburgh

For years, we’ve been dying to go to the house tour in Newburgh, N.Y., called the Candlelight Tour, and this year we finally did. A few years ago, we’d heard of Newburgh because we read the blog Door Sixteen, but we didn’t know anything about it. One day we were tagging along with a friend who had business in town, and were simply agog when we stepped out of the car. The streets are like an outdoor house museum, with picture postcard examples of different architectural styles spanning the 18th through the early 20th century.

Newburgh’s perch overlooking the Hudson makes it extremely scenic as well as important militarily. It was a key spot during the Revolutionary War (George Washington’s house there is now a museum) and it became a fancy resort town in the late 19th century. It fell on hard times about 90 years later. Its history has been well documented here and here by the blog Big Old Houses.

The house tour, which took place Sunday, was brimming with friendly folks, above, all of whom seemed to know each other and have interesting stories to tell about their houses. We wish we could have stayed for hours more. We highly recommend the tour — and lunch at the always delicious Mexican restaurant the Maya Cafe in nearby Fishkill. Has anyone else attended the tour? Click through to the jump for tons of pictures.