Upstate Greek Revival Beauty Dating to the 1700s Can Be Yours for under $500K
Want an historic home to call your own, but don’t feel like paying $17 million for a West Village townhouse or $5 million for a Hamptons estate? Take your dreams a bit north to Queensbury, New York, where there’s a completely charming Greek Revival home on the market for $479,000.
Known as the Nehemiah Wing House, the five-bedroom residence can trace it roots to the 1700s, when the clapboard rear of the current house was built. The brick addition was constructed in 1852 after then owner Nehemiah Wing, whose grandfather founded the town, was successful in the Gold Rush. The current owners purchased the property in 1978 for a mere $49,000, and since then they have restored it to a picture-perfect Early American dream home.
Located in the foothills of the Adirondack Mountains and on the shores of Lake George, Queensbury is a quintessential upstate hamlet. But when the current homeowners first took a look at it, their real estate agent told them most prospective buyers wouldn’t even get out of the car. It had been abandoned for three years, and there was no heat or working water. But the newlyweds saw potential and agreed that they would renovate one room each month, though they joked to Country Living magazine, “Ten years later, we were practically just finishing the kitchen.”
The two parts of the house are connected inside by a crawlspace. The clapboard rear holds the kitchen and family room, both adorned with fireplaces, on the first floor and two bedrooms and a bathroom on the second floor. There are three additional bedrooms and another bathroom in the addition, as well as a dining room and formal living room. Preserved historic features include exposed brick walls and beams, planked floors, and built-ins.
Even older than the farmhouse is the stone “sheep house,” which sits in the back of the property. It’s believed that in the past people lived in one part of the stone house with animals in the other. Today, it’s used as a potting shed, surrounded by flower gardens. In fact, the backyard is so picturesque, that two of the owner’s children got married there.
[Listing: 238 Chestnut Ridge Road for sale by owner via CIRCA Old Houses]
[Via Country Living]
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Photos via CIRCA Old Houses
