Storm King Art Center

Spring is right around the corner. Or, it’s here already, depending on how you look at things. We haven’t had much snow, and the temperatures have been downright balmy most of the time. Nonetheless, many seasonal attractions in the Catskills and Hudson Valley won’t be open until April. So we’ve decided to include two Upstater Destinations this week: Hudson Highlands Nature Museum, which you can enjoy now, and Storm King Art Center, which you can enjoy in the spring.

Hudson Highlands Nature Museum, whose mission is to ”create responsible caretakers of our environment,” has two locations. The Outdoor Discovery Center is located in Cornwall, and it focuses on bringing visitors outside to observe the wonders of nature surrounding them. The Center’s programs usually start at 10am, and they have programs scheduled for the winter months. Learn about the Awesome Opposum on February 25th. Or, sign up for the Maple Sugar tours at the Center throughout the month of March, which is prime maple sugaring season. The tour place through the Center’s sugar bush forest, and tours end at the farmhouse for a maple sugar taste test. Dress appropriately. The grounds can be muddy in March. But once winter wanes and April rolls around, the salamanders will be out in full force. You can learn about them and then go in search of them during the Center’s Weekend Nature Program on April 1st.

George Potanovic, Jr.

The museum’s Wildlife Discovery Center is in Cornwall-on-Hudson, and it is the home of the Meet the Animals series, which takes place Saturdays and Sundays at 1pm year-round. There are also a variety of other winter weekend learning programs. Check the website for dates and times. The Quest Hiking Trails are a great way to explore the indigenous flora and fauna of upstate New York, but the trails don’t open until April. Meanwhile, there are plenty of other opportunities at both the Cornwall and Cornwall-on-Hudson locations to get outside before spring rolls around.

George Potanovic, Jr.

Purchasing a membership to the Hudson Highlands Museum is a nice way to save on admission and support a great organization,  but even if you’re not a member (membership gets you in free to a lot of events), admission prices are affordable. Most programs and activities are $5 for adults, $3 for children.

If you’ve never been to the Storm King Art Center, you’re in for a treat. Flanked by picturesque Storm King and Shunnemunk Mountains, the Art Center is a stunning 500-acre outdoor sculpture park, containing around 100 pieces from a multitude of acclaimed artists.

Storm King Art Center

This year marks Storm King’s 50th anniversary, and the art center’s5+5: New Perspectives exhibition celebrates this milestone with ten artists’ sculptures new to Storm King. So even if you’ve experienced Storm King before but haven’t been  in a while, it’s worth the trip back to see the new additions to the park. Additionally, the park is exhibiting The View From Here, which illuminates the rich history and evolution of Storm King through photographs, maps, archival documents and other media. The exhibition also touches on the conservation techniques of artwork that is constantly exposed to the elements, something many of us take for granted while observing these amazing pieces.

Storm King Art Center

Storm King Art Center is currently closed for the season but will reopen on April 4th. Admission is a bit steep: $12 adults and $8 for kids grades K-12 and free admission for children under 5. Your best bet for seeing the park on the cheap is to go on the last weekends in June, July and August, when the art center offers pay-what-you-wish admission for all visitors. Bikes are available for rent at Storm King for $10 an hour (2 hour minimum), or $40 for the day. Just don’t try to bring your own bikes; they won’t let you ride them through the park.

The view of the house from the pool compound.

It wouldn’t be right for us to have a Town of the Week on the Hudson and not have a property with a river view. You can’t escape the view in this house, not that you’d want to. Situated on a hillside, every single room has a breathtaking view of the river.

There’s a great sense of flow in this house, with the kitchen, dining room and living room creating a connected space great for entertaining. Wall-to-wall windows in the dining room bathe everything in light. Second floor gallery looks out onto the first floor dining room, and a deck wraps around the entire house.

The property is situated on a ridge at the end of a private drive. Below, there’s a pool and a pool house with changing rooms and a kitchenette. Pine Ridge is a residential street, but the nearest house is down the ridge a piece, so the house is fairly secluded.

Plus, the detached garage has a bonus room. It’s unfinished, very bare bones, but it’s good for storage or a makeover into an extra living space.

The Realtor’s website gives you the option of taking a virtual tour of the house, which gives you a good idea of just how spectacular the Hudson River views are, and how the interior blends with the exterior environment to make it an impressive get-away to nature.

The price was reduced by $20,000 recently, and FYI: The owners are in the midst of a tax grievance.

View of the Newburgh Beacon Bridge

4 Pine Ridge Road, Cornwall-0n-Hudson (Vanessa Saunders) GMAP
Asking Price: $550,000
Beds: 4
Baths: 3 full, 1 partial
Square Feet: 3488
Year Built: 2000
Land: Unknown
Taxes: Unknown
Features: Hudson River views, pool, fireplace, bonus room above the garage

Yes, it’s a split-level ranch on a cul-de-sac, but this slice of classic suburbia is loaded with great features: fireplace, a spiral staircase, private balcony off the master bedroom, even a whirlpool bath in the master of the four bathrooms. It’s bedroom-to-bathroom ratio is 1:1. That seems just about right.

And there are lots of skylights, which (long as they don’t leak) can be a good thing, both environmentally and aesthetically… aside from an uptick in the amount of dusting and vacuuming you’ll have to do thanks to those revealing sunbeams.

The kitchen is great (we seem to be quite enamored with granite counter tops this week, aren’t we?), and we like the hardwood floors. It sits at the end of a cul-de-sac, close to the village shops and restaurants — so, suburban but walkable. It’s also very close to the Donahue Park on the Hudson River, shops and Thai food.

But boy oh boy those taxes: $11,564. Oh, Cornwall. Why must you be such a cruel temptress?

3 Bay View Terrace, Cornwall-on-Hudson (RE/MAX – Donna Brunnel) GMAP
Asking Price: $324,000
Beds: 4
Baths: 4
Square Feet: 2716
Year Built: 1963
Land: .43 acres
Taxes: $11,564(!!)
Features: Whirlpool in master bedroom, walking distance to village, skylights, fireplace, deck

via Wikipedia

Cornwall-on-Hudson is the kind of village that we think of when we close our eyes and ask, “What’s a quintessential upstate town look like?” It’s scenic, it’s on the river, and it’s a haven for great small businesses and gorgeous homes.

Located about 50 miles north of NYC and right on the Hudson River, Cornwall-on-Hudson has become a popular bedroom and second home community, and for good reason. It’s close to a NJ Transit station and a Metro-North station, and surrounded by culture and nature: Black Rock Forest and Storm King Art Center, for starters. The village is extremely pedestrian- and bike-friendly, so you could conceivably kiss your car good-bye and get around purely under your own steam. Cornwall encourages that kind of behavior. It’s just below Newburgh, and across the river from Beacon, but feels very small town.

Property taxes for Cornwall-on-Hudson real estate are high, around $7,000 on average, which quite a bit higher than nearby communities such as Vails Gate or New Windsor. But you can expect to find plenty of decent houses in the $300,000 range, plus many a luxury property and an affordable one here and there, too. Cost of living is high here, but usually there’s a reason for that. In this case, it’s because Cornwall is so sought-after.

Riverview Park, Cornwall-on-Hudson/via City-Data

Cornwall-on-Hudson is home to two K-12 private boarding schools, New York Military Academy (NYMA), located right in the village, and Storm King School, just a few miles up Bear Mountain. Both are excellent schools, but if you’re more interested in public school education, the website www.greatschools.com gives Cornwall public schools a decent 8-of-10 scoring. The U.S. Military Academy at West Point is also about 5 miles away.

New York Military Academy

There’s a great community outdoor pool right in the village of Cornwall, open from May through the end of the summer. It’s a great family attraction and also features a wading pool for little ones and a nice playground. The Cornwall Library is right next door and offers tons of events and activities for the public, many of them for free.

Cornwall also has lots of restaurants, and one of our favorites is Painters. Painters not only has great food, but it’s also an art gallery featuring works by local artists. The Inn at Painters offers seven rooms if you want a cozy place to stay, right in the heart of the village. It books fast, though, so call well in advance for reservations.

Storm King Art Center

Just a few miles away up Bear Mountain Road lies the Storm King Art Center, a premier outdoor sculpture park and an absolute must-see. They are closed during the winter but will be open again in the spring. The paths that lead you to the sculptures are a great stroll, and bikes are available to rent so you can ride through the park, instead. Be warned, though: Storm King will not let you bring in your own bikes “for insurance purposes,” or so we’ve been told. We learned that lesson the hard way. Bike rental is $10 an hour, 2-hour minimum, or $40 a day.