Millerton - Quiet, Quaint, but Not Boring

The Other Tri-State Area: Millerton & Amenia

Betsy Mccall (front left) and the farmers of the Millerton Winter Farmers’ market.

For a photo slideshow of Milleron & Amenia, click here.

On a typical Saturday afternoon on Millerton’s Main Street, license plates tell the story of this village’s snug panhandle location. There are equal parts Connecticut and Massachusetts, with a more ample percentage of New York. This Tri-State trifecta serves Millerton’s businesses well.

Take, for example, the crowded Harney & Sons tasting room where rows of smartly packaged tea tins line the walls. The scope of varieties is exhaustive, while the price range reflects purity and scarcity. A four-ounce box of Earl Grey is an affordable indulgence at $6.50, while the same serving size of top Ti Quan Yin would fetch $85.
“Just like no one was an expert in wine 30 years ago, the same thing has happened with tea,” explains John Harney, master tea blender, founder of Harney & Sons, and patriarch of the family that moved to the area from Pittsburgh in 1957. “There’s still a lot of growth ahead in the specialty tea and coffee industries.”

For the entire article go to: http://hudson-valley.chronogram.com/issue/2011/4/Community+Pages/The-Other-Tri-State-Area-Millerton-and-Amenia?page=1

Sights to See Near Millerton

OLANA


A couple of weeks ago we decided to go for a drive and visit Olana and the town of Hudson.

Olana was the home of Frederic Edwin Church (1826–1900), a famous American landscape painter during the time and one of the major figures in the Hudson River School. Olana (named after a fortressed city in ancient Greater Persia) is an eclectic villa composed of many styles, which overlooks parkland and a working farm designed by the artist. As well, the residence has a wide view of the Hudson River valley, the Catskill Mountains and the Taconic Range. The stone, brick, and polychrome-stenciled villa at Olana is an unusual mixture of Victorian structural elements and Middle-Eastern decorative motifs from different times and places. Moorish elements blend with contrasting Italianate themes. And although Church never actually made it to Persia, the Middle-Eastern architecture is apparent.

We took a tour of both the upstairs and downstairs of the residence, much of which has been painstakingly restored to its original state. Olana is now a state historical site and therefore photographs of the inside were not allowed for “security reasons”. For more information, visit their website at www.olana.org.

Here are some photos of Church’s work. As you can see, his paintings are absolutely magnificent and the detail is extraordinary -- keep in mind most of his work is done on very large canvasses. I highly recommend taking a trip to Olana as these photos absolutely do not do it justice. And the inside of Church's home is remarkable.