{"nrhp_refnum":"11000278","name":"Forestburgh Town Hall","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"305 Cty Rd. 48","address_restricted":false,"city":"Forestburgh","county":"Sullivan County","state":"NY","lat":41.53801425800003,"lon":-74.75057738099997,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2011-05-11","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Social History"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A small wood-frame town hall at 305 CR 48 in Forestburgh, Sullivan County, New York, built in 1929 by Bruno Goldberg as an exact replica of the 1895 town hall that burned in 1928. A 1924 privy is also included.","why_significant":"It is presented as the most important and symbolic public building in a small, rural town and as an intact example of a vernacular public building type common in Sullivan County. Its form recalls one-room schools and meeting houses. It served as the town's meeting place for elections, town meetings and courts until 1980.","narrative":"Forestburgh Town Hall is a small, rectangular, wood-frame building on County Route 48, surrounded by forest in the center of a sparsely settled Sullivan County town. It measures thirty by twenty feet, with novelty siding, a front gable roof, a center entrance and a single open room heated by a stove. Five narrow voting booths line the rear wall. The building dates to 1929, when builder Bruno Goldberg replaced the 1895 town hall destroyed by fire the year before. Officials ordered an exact replica, and the new hall matches the original in size, form, windows and materials, with only small changes such as a concrete block chimney. Forestburgh had gone nearly sixty years after its 1837 founding without a town hall. The simple gabled form resembles one-room schools and meeting houses found across rural New York. The hall hosted elections, town meetings and courts until 1980 and remains a source of local identity. A 1924 privy is also included in the listing.","period_of_significance":"1924-1960","architect_builder":"Bruno Goldberg, builder","architectural_style":"No style (vernacular)","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Described as virtually unchanged since construction; a new town building replaced it for meetings in 1980, and current function is listed as social/various.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:50:47.888884-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NY/11000278.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/11000278/e5636fbd2a-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/11000278/e5636fbd2a-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Bkswrites","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Forestburg_(NY)_Town_Hall,_1929.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Bkswrites</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Forestburg_(NY)_Town_Hall,_1929.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/75322359","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forestburgh_Town_Hall","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5469221"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/new-york/sullivan-county/forestburgh-town-hall-11000278/"}