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Members of the Kingston, N.Y.-based Society for the Preservation of Hudson Valley Vernacular Architecture, a group concerned with the study, appreciation and restoration of early Dutch homes and barns, was welcomed by Clarkstown Town Supervisor George Hoehmann. "This is personal," Hoehmann said, about wanting to restore the 1739 Vanderbilt-Budke house, the second-oldest in Rockland. "I used to play here. I used to fish in the ponds."
The Vanderbilt-Budke house , which the town purchased in 2011, is front and center, as government officials and citizens begin planning the town's milestone birthday. October will be designated as Clarkstown History Month.
Plans are afoot to gather artifacts to be collected and displayed in the lobby of Town Hall in display cases that will be built by a Boy Scout.
The historic house tour, organized by the John Green Preservation Coalition in Nyack, next took the group to the John Green House, Nyack's second-oldest house. The coalition is working with a developer to shore up the sandstone structure on Main Street, and plans to reconstruct the house.
After a stop at the 76 House for lunch, the group concluded their tour at the Old Stone Church in Upper Nyack. The 1813 stone church is Rockland's oldest house of worship.
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