Millerton - Things to Do

One of the reasons I fell in love with Millerton is the village's bucolic surroundings. When I have the time I greatly enjoy a slow drive through the area. On one particular fall day, I was driving on one of the many beautiful roads admiring the colors when I came upon this house.

Well, perhaps "house" isn't the right term.

It was love at first sight. I've taken friends and family by the house and everyone agrees that it's architecture and the surrounding gardens and pastures are flawlessly designed and manicured. After a little research I came across a little bit of information (mostly from Wikipedia).

Thomas Hidden, a New York City businessman who had made his fortune in paint manufacture and real estate, assembled all or part of four dairy farms in the Coleman Station area in 1903. He then retired to the 450-acre (180 ha) estate and built the house. He was one of the first wealthy New Yorkers to choose the Millerton area, as opposed to neighboring Sharon, Connecticut, and other towns in that state's Northwest Highlands, as a place for a country home. A horse breeder, he found the area an ideal place for that activity, with convenient nearby rail access to the city via the tracks originally built for the New York and Harlem Railroad.

For the horses, he built a half-mile (1 km) indoor training track and large stable complex. He also continued to produce milk as well. The house, whose architect is unknown, is considered the most architecturally significant in the Harlem Valley. It epitomizes the earlier stage of the Georgian Revival, with its close adherence to classical models and proportions.

After Hidden's death in 1918, the house was eventually sold to Sheffield Farms, a large corporate farm that would become by the middle of the century one of New York City's largest providers of milk. Shortly before Sheffield became part of Sealtest in the 1950s, the stable and track burned down. The estate was subdivided down to the 17 acres (6.9 ha) on which the house sits today.

It remains a private home. In the late 1980s an old brick farmhouse and carriage house that Hidden had kept were demolished by the then-owners, and the original Corinthian capitals on the front portico's entrance columns were replaced with the current Tuscan ones. Other than the changes to the carriage house, those have been the only significant changes to the property.