Piano Factory, Poughkeepsie, NY

The “Piano Factory” building is located on North Water Street in Poughkeepsie, next to the Fallkill River.  Painted lettering on the façade names the building “Davis and Co. Piano Hammers”.  It was also previously part of the Innis Dye Works.  The building is now residential condos.

A 1980 building inventory form describes the following history:  “The building is shown on the 1887 Sanborn Map as part of “Innis and Company, Dye Works, Dye Stuffs, Extracts, Log Woods, Etc.” and was used for pulverizing and storage.  According to Platt, the Innis Company was founded by Aaron Innish prior to 1838, after which time his son, George, ran the company until 1898, ‘when the dye works industry was forced to give way to aniline dyes’. George Innis was a prominent citizen and was three times elected mayor in the 1860’s. By 1913, this edifice was a piano hammer factory, in 1934 the Poughkeepsie Dye Stuffs Corporation, and since 1935 has been used as a warehouse.”

Location:  Google Maps (41.708850, -73.938742)

Structure at Stony Kill Farm, Fishkill, NY

This structure is located on Baxtertown Road on Stony Kill Farm property.  I do not know what this structure was.  It is clearly an agricultural building, likely storage.  It is partially buried, like a root cellar, but the only way to “get in” is through the gable roof, which wouldn’t normally be open except for the decrepit nature of the structure.  I did not go inside for fear of not being able to get back out.

A structure inventory form from 1987 appears to identify the structure.  The person who was filling it out was also not sure what it was and called it either an outbuilding or a pump house.

Location: Google Maps (41.545756, -73.941204)

Airplane Hangar, Stone Ridge, NY

I was invited by the owner of this residential property to check out the old airplane hangar located on the property.  It was built in the 1940s by a Fred Wright, whose family owned the property from 1947 until 2000.The meadow was used as a landing strip.  Reportedly Fred’s flying buddies would land their planes and hang out.

Location:  Not disclosed

Olana, Greenport, NY

The main house at Olana sits at the top of a large hill along the Hudson River in Greenport, NY.  It is a unique mixture of Victorian architectural elements and Middle-Eastern decorative motifs created by Frederic Church and architect Calvert Vaux.  Church continued to work on the house for much of the rest of his life. By 1891, the house was essentially complete, looking much as it does today.

The house is ornamented with elaborate stencils, inside and on the exterior cornices.  By the 1950s, the patterns were barely visible, and the cornices were painted brown.  Using a combination of archival documents and photographs and detailed analysis of a cross-section of each of the five original cornices, the exterior cornices were repainted in 2004-2005.

More information:  Olana History

Location:  Google Maps (42.217128, -73.829285)

Dutchess Poorhouse, Millbrook, NY

These buildings are located on Oak Summit Road near the Village of Millbrook.  As mentioned in a Poughkeepsie Journal article, “Originally, the Dutchess County Poorhouse, the campus opened in 1864 and housed people with mental illness and physical disabilities, and the most destitute.”  In 2014, it was planned that six of the buildings would be razed, two would remain (west and north wings), and a potter’s field (cemetery of hundreds of unidentified people) would remain.  The east wing had previously been demolished.  In 2008 Dutchess County rehabilitated the property’s 1960 north wing into what is now the Eastern Dutchess Government Center.  Also present on the property is an 1864 farmhouse, now in disrepair.

More information:  Historic Resource Survey; Poughkeepsie Journal article about demolition

Location: Google Maps (41.763698, -73.699964)

Palen Road Ruins, East Fishkill, NY

These ruins are located on the east side of Palen Road, just north of the intersection with Route 52.  Right along Palen Road are a set of double-wide stairs, covered in leaves.  Further to the east I located the round metal “slats” of either a silo or water tower whose wood structure has since decomposed.  Along Route 52 is a grand stone entrance and wall (a “wall of affluence”) and nearby is the clay vertical pipe.  Historic aerial photos show that structures were located on the property up until 1980, relating to an orchard and perhaps other agricultural pursuits.

Location: Google Maps (41.545685, -73.827661)

Baxter Cemetery, Putnam Valley, NY

This cemetery is located in the woods off the Taconic State Parkway (to the east) near road reference marker 987G 84021085.  It is in what is now a forest, but the cemetery is reportedly located off what remains of the old Wicopee Road which leads from the Parkway down the hill, but it not really visible any more.  Based on a list of graves, the oldest grave is from 1825 and the newest is from 1924.

More information:  Putnam Graveyards; Find A Grave (graves)

Location:  Google Maps (41.43813, -73.815568)

Johnson House, Fishkill, NY

Located at the intersection of Main Street and Jackson Street (1020-1022 Main Street) in the Village of Fishkill, the Johnson House was demolished in 2012 and the site rebuilt with a new structure resembling the old one (Rhinebeck Bank).  It is a shame that the old building was demolished; the building was part of the village historic district.

The photos of the old house were taken in 2011 and the new building photos were taken in 2013 and include a photo of the plaque on the building.  The plaque states, “This building is a 2012 rebuild of a farmhouse originally built in the late 1800s that was occupied by Dr. E. Kingsland Johnson and his father.  The Johnson Family contributed to the health and welfare of the community of the Village of Fishkill for more than 50 years.”

Location:  Google Maps (41.533369, -73.905114)