National Register of Historic Places listings in Orange County, New York facts for kids

Location of Orange County in New York

Welcome to Orange County, New York! This area is full of amazing places that are so special, they've been added to the National Register of Historic Places. Think of it like a VIP list for buildings, sites, and districts that are super important to American history, architecture, or culture. Some of these spots are even more special and are called National Historic Landmarks – they're like the superstars of historic places!

This list will take you on a journey through some of Orange County's most fascinating historic sites. Get ready to discover old courthouses, grand estates, important battlegrounds, and even a place where a giant woolly mammoth was once found!

Historic Buildings and Homes

Orange County is home to many old buildings that tell stories of the past.

Old Courthouses and Public Buildings

• 1841 Goshen Courthouse: This beautiful building in Goshen was designed in the Greek Revival style, which means it looks a bit like an ancient Greek temple. It was used as a courthouse for a long time.
• Highland Falls Village Hall: Built in 1894, this building in Highland Falls first housed a local bank before becoming the village hall. It's designed in the Italianate style, known for its decorative features.
• New York State Armory (Newburgh): This large 19th-century building in Newburgh was once an armory, a place where military equipment is stored. Today, it's used for county offices.
• US Post Office-Goshen: This brick post office in Goshen was built in 1935 as part of the "New Deal" – a plan by the government to create jobs during the Great Depression. Inside, you can see a cool painting of the Historic Track!
• US Post Office-Newburgh: Another Colonial Revival style post office, this one in Newburgh was built in the early 1930s.
• US Post Office-Port Jervis: This post office in Port Jervis, built in the mid-1920s, also features the Colonial Revival style.

Homes of Famous People and Early Settlers

• Arden (estate): Located in Harriman, this was the home of Edward H. Harriman, a very rich railroad owner, during the last years of his life. Today, it's used as a conference center by Columbia University.
• Amelia Barr House: In Cornwall-on-Hudson, this was the summer, and later full-time, home of Amelia Edith Huddleston Barr. She was a super popular American novelist in the 1800s!
• John Blake House: This house in Maybrook, built in 1794, belonged to an early settler who later became a town supervisor (a local government leader). It shows how English settlers built homes before the American Revolution.
• Bodine Farmhouse: This farmhouse in Montgomery was built in 1769 and was home to several generations of the Bodine family.
• Bull Stone House: Built in 1722 in Hamptonburgh, this was the home of William Bull and his wife Sarah Wells, who were early settlers. Nearby, there's a very old Dutch barn, which is a rare type of building from that time.
• William Bull III House: This 1780 home in Wallkill belonged to one of William Bull's grandsons and stayed in the family for five generations.
• Bull-Jackson House: This 18th-century stone home near Campbell Hall belonged to another of Thomas Bull's sons. It's now a county museum!
• David Crawford House: In Newburgh, this Greek Revival home from 1834 belonged to a river captain.
• John I. Crawford Farm: This farm in Crawford was the home of the settler who gave the Town of Crawford its name.
• Cromwell Manor: This large Greek Revival home in Cornwall, built in 1835, was one of the first big houses in Cornwall that wasn't a farmhouse. Today, it's a bed and breakfast!
• Silas Gardner House: This stone home in Gardnertown belonged to an early settler who the neighborhood is named after.
• Benjamin Haines House: This house belonged to an early farm family in Montgomery.
• John R. Hays House: In Walden, this Second Empire style home from 1902 belonged to a local businessman and Union Army officer during the Civil War.
• Nathaniel Hill Brick House: This Georgian style home in Montgomery was built in the 1760s by an Irish immigrant. He even had to import bricks from England because they weren't made in the area yet!
• Webb Horton House: This fancy mansion in Middletown, built in 1902, belonged to a Middletown businessman. Now, it's an administration building at SUNY Orange college.
• House at 116 Main Street: This Italian villa-style house in Highland Falls, built in 1865, is one of the most important houses of its kind in the village.
• House at 37 Center Street: This mid-19th century Greek Revival house in Highland Falls might be one of the oldest buildings still standing there.
• Johannes Miller House: This home in Montgomery belonged to an investor who helped build roads in the early 1800s.
• Gilbert Millspaugh House: In Walden, this Victorian cottage-style home belonged to a local merchant.
• Jeremiah Morehouse House: This house in Warwick, built in 1767, was greatly updated in the 1840s.
• Moses Mould House: This was the home of an early Palatine settler in Montgomery.
• James "Squire" Patton House: This well-preserved home in New Windsor belonged to an early landowner and shows local building styles. Today, it's used as a training facility for police dogs!
• Peachcroft: This farmhouse in Montgomery, built in 1810, was later changed to the Queen Anne Style in 1893.
• Gideon Pelton Farm: This farm in Montgomery combines a 1770 stone house with a later Greek Revival farmhouse.
• Patrick Piggot House: This old farmhouse in Cornwall was turned into a boardinghouse for summer guests.
• Sands-Ring House: This house in Cornwall belonged to an early Quaker settler. Legend says George Washington even ate dinner here!
• Scribner House (Cornwall, New York): This summer home, built in 1910 for Charles Scribner II (a famous publisher), mixes Shingle and Colonial Revival styles.
• Jacob Shafer House: This Greek Revival home in Montgomery belonged to an early settler.
• Shorter House (Crawford, New York): Another Greek Revival home of an early settler in Crawford.
• The Smith House (Montgomery, New York): This Greek Revival house was built on land settled in the mid-1700s.
• Daniel Sutherland House: This Stick-Eastlake style house in Cornwall belonged to a descendant of an early Cornwall landowner.
• David Sutherland House: This 1770 fieldstone house in Cornwall was built by a descendant of one of Cornwall's first landowners.
• Taylor-Corwin House: Built in 1840, this was one of the first houses in Pine Bush and was popular with railroad passengers because of its great views.
• Alexander Thompson House: This home in Thompson Ridge belonged to the son of an original settler and was later expanded.
• Andrew Thompson Farmstead: This 1810 home in Thompson Ridge belonged to another son of an early settler and has stayed mostly the same since it was built.
• Robert A. Thompson House: This 1822 stone house belonged to the settler who Thompson Ridge is named after.
• Tweddle Farmstead: This early 19th-century farmhouse in Montgomery was updated in the Greek Revival style in the 1830s.
• Mary Van Duzer-Sayer House: This 1832 Federal-style stone farmhouse is in Cornwall.
• Jacob T. Walden Stone House: Built in the 1730s, this is the oldest house in Walden. It later became home to the miller who the village is named after!
• A. Walsh Stone House and Farm Complex: This stone Greek Revival house is the main part of a working farm in Cornwall.
• Walsh-Havemeyer House: This rare Greek Revival house in New Windsor overlooks the Hudson River.
• Daniel Waring House: This 18th-century home in Montgomery was later updated to be the only Greek Revival home in Montgomery with columns.
• Wilford Wood House: Built around 1890, this farmhouse in Mountainville is a rare example of a farmhouse built during Cornwall's resort period. It's now owned by the Storm King Art Center.
• Woodruff House (Cornwall, New York): This is a rare 19th-century stone house still standing in Cornwall.

Important Historical Sites

Orange County has many places that played a big role in history.

Revolutionary War Sites

• Edmonston House: This house in Vails Gate was used as a medical facility for the Continental Army (George Washington's army) during the last years of the Revolutionary War.
• Fort Montgomery Site: This is the site of a battle where the Colonial forces tried to stop the British but were unsuccessful.
• Knox Headquarters: This stone house in Vails Gate was built around 1730 and was later used as headquarters by General Henry Knox during the Continental Army's encampment nearby.
• New Windsor Cantonment: This was the very last camp for the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War. It's where George Washington stopped a famous plot called the "Newburgh Conspiracy."
• Washington's Headquarters State Historic Site: The oldest house in Newburgh, this was George Washington's home during the Continental Army's stay. It was also the first property in the U.S. bought by a state government to protect its history!
• Fury Brook Farm: This farm in Sugar Loaf was established in 1731, and horses for the Continental Army were bred here.

Industrial and Transportation History

• Delaware and Hudson Canal: This historic canal runs through Orange County and other parts of New York and Pennsylvania. It was super important in the 1800s for bringing coal to New York City.
• Erie Railroad Station: This old Queen Anne style train station in Port Jervis was built by the Erie Railroad and used for passengers until the 1970s. Now, it's been restored and holds offices.
• New York, Ontario & Western Railway Company Middletown Station: This abandoned but still intact train station in Middletown is from the early 1900s and belonged to a major regional railroad.
• Montgomery Water Works Building: Built in 1895, this building provided water for the village of Montgomery.
• Montgomery Worsted Mills: This 19th-century textile mill in Montgomery is still in business today, though it mainly generates power now.
• Orange Mill Historic District: These are the ruins of a large 19th-century gunpowder mill complex, now scattered around a county park in Newburgh.
• Southfield Furnace Ruin: These are the remains of a 19th-century iron smelting furnace near Tuxedo. Some of the other buildings there are now used as a museum.
• Tuxedo Park Railroad Station: This train station, built in 1885, is still standing and was built around the same time as Tuxedo Park.
• Storm King Highway: This scenic highway, built in 1916, winds along a mountainside high above the Hudson River.

Cemeteries and Burial Grounds

• African-American Cemetery (Montgomery, New York): This mid-19th century cemetery in Montgomery was for enslaved people and their descendants. It has been cleaned and restored.
• Colden Family Cemetery: This is the final resting place for the family of Cadwallader Colden, who was a big landowner and one of the last colonial governors of New York.
• Harrison Meeting House Site and Cemetery: This site in Montgomery was where an early meeting house for Palatine settlers (people from a region in Germany) once stood. It was never rebuilt after a fire.
• Hillside Cemetery (Middletown, New York): This cemetery in Middletown was designed by Calvert Vaux, a famous landscape architect. Many important local people from the 1800s are buried here.
• Newburgh Colored Burial Ground: This cemetery for enslaved people was found during a courthouse expansion in Newburgh.
• Old Town Cemetery and Palatine Church Site: This burial ground in Newburgh holds the graves of early settlers. It features a unique tomb that looks like an Egyptian pyramid and mastaba (a flat-topped tomb).
• St. Andrew's Cemetery (Walden, New York): This cemetery is located in Walden.

Unique and Interesting Sites

• Balmville Tree: This Eastern cottonwood tree in Balmville was thought to be from around 1699! It was a very important spot in Balmville and became New York's smallest state forest. Sadly, it had to be cut down in 2015 because it was dangerous.
• Brotherhood Winery: Located in Washingtonville, this is the oldest winery in the United States that has been open continuously since 1838!
• Dutchess Quarry Cave Site: In Goshen, this site is where artifacts from the earliest known people in the Wallkill Valley were found. They lived there 12,000 years ago!
• Fort Decker: The oldest building in Port Jervis, this was made from stones of an old trading post. It's now a local history museum.
• Huguenot Schoolhouse: This well-preserved one-room schoolhouse in Deerpark is now a local history museum.
• Moffat Library: Built in Washingtonville by David Moffat, a local who became famous, this library has beautiful Tiffany stained-glass windows.
• Palisades Interstate Park: This park is located on the west bank of the Hudson River.
• Paramount Theatre (Middletown, New York): This Art Deco movie theater in Middletown was built in 1930.
• Peale's Barber Farm Mastodon Exhumation Site: This site in Montgomery is where artist Charles Willson Peale dug up a mastodon (a giant, extinct elephant-like animal) in 1806!
• Powelton Club: This club in Balmville has one of the five oldest golf courses in New York and is among the ten oldest in the entire U.S.
• Smith Clove Meetinghouse: This Quaker meeting house in Highland Mills, built in 1803, is still used once a year. It's the oldest religious building in the town and village of Woodbury.
• Sterling Mountain Fire Observation Tower and Observer's Cabin: This fire tower is located in Sterling Forest State Park.
• US Bullion Depository, West Point, New York: Also known as the "Fort Knox of silver," this facility at West Point, built in 1937, used to make pennies and still makes special commemorative coins.
• Gomez Mill House: This house in Newburgh is the earliest known home of a Jewish American that is still standing. Parts of it date back to 1712! It was also home to a famous papermaker, Dard Hunter, in the early 1900s, and now it's a museum.

Historic Districts and Communities

Some areas are special because many of their buildings together tell a story.

• Bridge Street Historic District (Montgomery, New York): This is the oldest group of buildings in the village of Montgomery, dating back to when the area was named after a nearby bridge.
• Church Park Historic District: This area is the heart of 19th-century Goshen, with many old buildings still standing.
• East End Historic District (Newburgh, New York): This district in Newburgh has the most historic buildings of any district in the state! It's full of intact 19th-century homes and buildings.
• Montgomery-Grand-Liberty Streets Historic District: This area in Newburgh features 19th-century homes and churches that belonged to the city's wealthier residents.
• Tuxedo Park: This famous area is known as the first "gated community" in the U.S., meaning it was a private neighborhood with controlled access.
• Union Street-Academy Hill Historic District: This is the historic center of the village of Montgomery, with houses and other buildings from the late 1700s onwards.
• Village of Monroe Historic District: This area in Monroe is the residential heart of the village from the early 1800s. Most of it was saved from a big fire in 1892. Fun fact: the cheese Velveeta was invented here, and it has the oldest Masonic lodge (a type of social club) in New York!
• Warwick Village Historic District: This is the main part of the village of Warwick, with buildings from the mid-1700s to the early 1900s, showing how the area's economy changed over time.

Churches and Meeting Houses

• Blooming Grove United Church of Christ: This Federal-style church was built in 1824 for a congregation that started way back in 1758.
• Canterbury Presbyterian Church: This Federal-style church in Cornwall was used until the early 2000s.
• Church of the Holy Innocents (Highland Falls, New York): This Episcopal church, built in 1841, was designed by Robert Walter Weir. It has a beautiful stained-glass window by Louis Comfort Tiffany, donated in memory of J. Pierpont Morgan, a famous banker who attended the church in the summers.
• Cornwall Friends Meeting House: This Quaker meeting house from the late 1700s is still used today and is the oldest religious building in Cornwall.
• Dutch Reformed Church (Newburgh, New York): This 1835 church in Newburgh, designed by Alexander Jackson Davis, is his only Greek Revival church still standing and largely unchanged. Efforts are being made to restore it.
• First Congregational Church of Middletown: This is one of the oldest buildings in Middletown, built even before the city was officially established.
• First Presbyterian Church of Chester: This mostly intact Greek Revival church from 1854 is the third home for a congregation that began in 1783.
• First Presbyterian Church of Highland Falls: This Romanesque Revival church in Highland Falls was built in 1868 and designed by Frederick Clarke Withers.
• Hopewell Presbyterian Church (Crawford, New York): This stone Gothic Revival church from 1831 is home to a congregation that started in 1778.
• Primitive Baptist Church of Brookfield: Built in 1792, this church in Slate Hill is one of the first two buildings in the town's history.
• St. Andrew's Episcopal Church & Rectory: This Gothic Revival church in Walden, built in 1871, was designed by Charles Babcock.
• St. Mark's Episcopal Church (Fort Montgomery, New York): This church was built in 1923 to serve vacationers coming to the area.
• Walden United Methodist Church: This intact brick Victorian Gothic church in Walden was built in 1893.

Images for kids

• Adams–Chadeayne–Taft Estate.jpg

  Adams–Chadeayne–Taft Estate

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  Balmville Cemetery

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  John G. Beakes House

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  The Boulders

• Isaac Cocks House.jpg

  Isaac Cocks House

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  Cosman Family Cemetery

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  Cragston Dependencies

• Denniston–Steidle House.jpg

  Denniston–Steidle House

• Deer Hill (Cornwall, New York).jpg

  Deer Hill

• Dock Hill Road Extension Stone Arch Bridge.jpg

  Dock Hill Road Extension Stone Arch Bridge

• Lower Dock Hill Road Stone Arch Bridge.jpg

  Lower Dock Hill Road Stone Arch Bridge

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  Olivet Chapel

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  Palisades Interstate Park

• Parry House (Highland Falls, New York).jpg

  Parry House

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  Pine Terrace

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  The Squirrels

• St. Andrew's Cemetery (Walden, New York).jpg

  St. Andrew's Cemetery

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  Stonihurst

• Union Chapel (Cornwall-on-Hudson, New York).jpg

  Union Chapel

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  Upland Lawn

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  Webb Lane House

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  Wyant-Talbot House

• Echo Lawn Estate.jpg

  Echo Lawn Estate

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  Elias Hand House

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  Vermont Hatch Mansion

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  The Kellogg House

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  Milliken-Smith Farm