Upstate

Former Black-Owned Catskill Guest House in Need of Rescue, Yours for $99K

catskill - house exterior with bothic windows

Photo via Houlihan Lawrence

by Susan De Vries

10/27/2023 8 minute 0

It requires looking past some caution tape, but for those not daunted by old-house challenges, this Catskill cottage offers the opportunity to bring some life back to a dwelling that spent decades as a Black-owned guest house. In the early 20th century two women made this quirky cottage a welcoming place of respite for Black travelers looking to enjoy the natural beauty of the area.

Operated as the English House from about 1907 to 1938, the house on the market at 145 North Street in Catskill offered boarding year-round with a promise of mountain views and light and airy rooms. The house itself dates to the previous century and its architectural details, which suggest a 19th century builder was gleefully experimenting with craft, add another layer of appealing character to the history-rich house.

newspaper ads — Left: A 1907 ad for the guest house when it was run by Minnie English. Right: A 1926 ad when it was operated by Clarissa Mims. Images from The New York Age via Fulton History

Local records show that Minnie Scott English, born in Virginia around 1858 according to census records, purchased the little house in 1905 from a William Naylor. By 1907 Minnie was advertising her “first class accommodations” in The New York Age, a prominent Black newspaper. Amenities included “modern conveniences,” a tennis court, and croquet grounds.

W. B Dubois’ “The Crisis” magazine highlighted the racism faced by Black vacationers in the 1912 article “Vacation Days.” While some readers reported that “you are tolerated if you are very careful,” the magazine noted that such tolerance rarely extended to accommodations for vacationing. So, the Black community was “providing summer resorts for themselves, running hotels, and acquiring pleasant cottage sites.”

The New York Age newspaper reported with some frequency on the guests who were enjoying the pleasant but petite cottage in Catskill. The social blurbs included mentions of guests from Boston, Albany, New York and, often, Brooklyn. There were some notable names mentioned as English House guests, like composer and performer Robert Cole who was a guest in 1910 and was visiting the area again in 1911 when he tragically drowned.

In 1915 records show that Minnie sold the property to Clarissa E. Scott Mims. It isn’t clear if there was a familial relationship between the two women, but Clarissa, as Mrs. Walter Mims, was mentioned at least twice as a guest in the house before her 1915 purchase. The ads for the English House continued to appear in The New Age until at least 1938, but with “C. Mims Proprietress” as the new owner.

Clarissa, who was born in New York in 1878, died in 1940 and the house was later listed as a property available at a tax sale, ending its run as a Black-owned guest house.

a black and white photo of the house — The house photographed in 1979 when it had a columned front portico and was surveyed for the National Register by the Association for the Preservation of Historic Catskill. Photo via NYS Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation

In 1979 the Association for the Preservation of Historic Catskill filled out a number of architectural survey forms for the National Register in the neighborhood, including for 145 North Street. While the house wasn’t listed or declared eligible the form does provide some potential info about the earlier history of the house. It speculates a circa 1880s construction date and suggests that the house may have been moved from Summitt Avenue when the West Shore Railroad was constructed through the neighborhood. However, no definitive sources are given for the relocation story.

The form does include the only 20th century image uncovered for the house. The 1979 photograph shows the house with a columned porch, a bit more of its frieze ornament intact, and with a slightly different roofline.

In looking at maps to narrow down the construction date, a map of 1867 doesn’t appear to show the house in place. The earliest Sanborn maps for Catskill frustratingly cut off just before this section of North Street, although an 1889 map does have a note indicating there were four frame dwellings on the street where this house would be located. The first Sanborn map to show the house dates to 1912 when it was already owned by Minnie English. It is depicted as a two-story dwelling with a porch extending fully across the front facade.

map showing the wood frame house — The house at 145 North Street is shown in 1912 as having a porch across its front facade. Map by the Sanborn Map Company via Library of Congress

While the many arched windows nod toward the Gothic style, based on the intriguing mix of details on the interior of the house it was likely never a purely Gothic cottage, but a carpenter’s fancy taking a bit of this and that to create a dwelling.

The dramatic stair, with a curved rail and paneled sides punctuated with ovals, has a heavy newel post similar to those found in pattern books and millwork catalogs of the 1870s and 1880s. Other details of note include arched doorways with ornamental corbels and a later columned mantel.

window details — Left: While some windows have Gothic arches, others have angular heads. Right: A similar angular window detail from an 1851 pattern book. Image via The Architect: A Series of Original Designs by William H. Ranlett

The roughly 1,720-square-foot house, not surprisingly perhaps, is being sold as-is and it is not a project for the faint of heart. The listing notes that there are four bedrooms and two bathrooms. While the latter do have fixtures, the glimpse of the kitchen doesn’t appear to show a functioning one.

The house is a few blocks away from the shops and restaurants centered around Downtown Catskill’s Main Street, and the nearby historic attractions include the Thomas Cole National Historic Site. A walk across the Hudson River Skywalk connects visitors to artist Frederick Church’s Olana. It is about a six-mile drive from Hudson’s Amtrak station.

Dina Palin of Houlihan Lawrence has the listing and the property is priced at $99,000. The house has been on the market for just 19 days and the listing was recently updated to note an accepted offer.

[Listing: 145 North Street, Catskill, N.Y. | Broker: Houlihan Lawrence] GMAP