Vernacular Architecture: Six Stone Houses in Roxbury

Catskills Folk Connection is proposing to study six 19th century stone houses in Roxbury, not only to document their history, their construction, and their builders, but also to understand more about their occupants' lives and what the houses may have meant to them.

Right now, Catskills Folk Connection is in the process of contacting the owners to obtain permission to study each house's historical documents, its exterior and possibly its interior, and to interview current residents/owners about the house.  The houses are:

1803: The Stone Tavern Farm, at the head of Meeker Hollow.

1806-1812: The Hardenburgh House, on Route 23 between Grand Gorge and Prattsville.  

1808:  The Underwood House, on Route 30 between Roxbury and Margaretville

1813: The "Stone Jug", at the intersection of Burroughs Memorial Road and the Hardscrabble Road

1828: The Walter Stratton House, on New Kingston Mountain Road, just above the Manhattan Country School Farm

1829:  The More family house, just off Route 30 north of the hamlet of Roxbury.

On a recent Catskills Folk radio program on WIOX (91.3 FM and wioxradio.org)  I discussed these houses briefly, and promised more as our study progresses.  I noted that the two story houses have what is known as a classic Georgian facade consisting of a center door flanked by two windows on the first floor, with five windows placed symmetrically above.  It is hard to drive either the main roads or the back roads of Delaware County without seeing many houses with this facade which can indicate an interior central hallway or an entry with a central winding stairway.  

These stone examples are early and may give some insight into whether or not such houses were built as two story houses all at once, or if they started out smaller.  Two of the one story stone houses have the Georgian facade, one the earliest stone house and the other the latest.  In between the other two one story stone houses have off center entries, related to a different interior plan.  The Walter Stratton House is an example of the "hall/parlor plan" in which the entry goes directly into the parlor, with a large "hall" or kitchen on the other side.

How were the houses built and where were the materials sourced? How do the six stone houses resemble or differ from other houses built in the area? Who lived in these houses?  How did the occupants change them to meet their current needs?  What kind of uses did they make of the spaces inside? 

These are some of the questions we will be trying to answer in our study of the six stone houses in 2017.  If you have information you would like to share about any of the six houses, don't hesitate to contact me at vscheer@juno.com or 607-746-3521 or by mail at 761 County Highway 2, Delancey, NY  13752.  Anything we can find out about these fascinating houses is welcome! --- Ginny Scheer, Folklorist