Saugerties Village Hall is located at 43 Partition Street, Saugerties NY 12477.
Phone: 845‑246‑2321.
Description [‡]
Portions of the text below were selected, transcribed and/or adapted from a copy of the original nomination document (National Register of Historic Places) for the Main-Partition Streets Historic District.
Saugerties is an incorporated village located on a low plateau above the mouth of the Esopus Creek on the west shore of the Hudson River. The creek, dropping sharply, provides a site suitable for hydropowered industry. The primary village streets are laid out along old routes leading inland from the landing and early mills. The confines of the creek on the south and of the edge of the plateau have directed village development away from the river to the northwest. A second, smaller stream, the Sawyer's Kill, runs to the river along the northeastern boundary of the village.
The core of the nineteenth-century business district is still intact, lining both sides of Partition Street and Main Street, which intersect in the center of the commercial area. A few stores on adjacent Market Street, which once led to an old turnpike road, are included. Only the core of the business and commercial section of the village is included in this district. With few exceptions the district consists of nineteenth-century two or three-story brick stores with apartments or storage on the upper floors and storefronts opening directly onto sidewalks at the street level. Main Street is very wide. Two churches, a U. S. Post Office, three minor residences, three nineteenth-century brick barns, a nineteenth-century frame barn, and a few incidental sheds and garages are included. Modern intrusions are few. Eighty-three structures are included in the district. There are a few empty lots which are used for parking. The village of Saugerties owns ample municipal parking space near Partition Street which should be very useful in the planned revitalization of the district.
The streetscape, typically "small town" and modest in scale, still gives an impression of the last century. Closer examination of individual structures shows some storefront remodeling with modern materials and a few inappropriate signs. Both a sign ordinance and a design review ordinance are under consideration by the village. Despite some street-level alterations to building fronts, the district is otherwise well preserved. While pediments, cornices, lintels, doorways and storefronts represent all periods of village growth from the late eighteenth century to the twentieth century, most buildings are from the last half of the nineteenth century. Locally quarried bluestone sidewalks installed in the nineteenth century front most of the shops.
The compact business section is different from adjacent residential areas which feature well-kept older houses, many of frame construction on individual lots. Some of these residences are historic buildings which will be eligible to be included in future individual or historic district nominations from the village. Potential historic districts exist at the west end of Main Street, on Market Street and on the east end of Main Street. Individual historic buildings are located on the south end of Partition Street.
‡ Dunn, Shirley W., Main-Partition Streets Historic District, nomination document, 1980, National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places, Washington, D.C.
Nearby Towns: Germantown Town • Red Hook Town • Red Hook Vlg • Tivoli Vlg •