Cobleskill Historic District

Cobleskill Historic District occupies the center of a village of about 5,000 people in Schoharie County, where Routes 7 and 10 cross as Main and Grand Streets. The district mixes shops, houses, churches, a railroad depot, an old school and a fairground. Its commercial focus includes the 1874 Italianate Hotel Augustan, a row of late 1860s brick storefronts, an 1871 firehouse and the 1802 Bull's Head Inn, the oldest building in the village. Nearby streets hold square Italianate villas, Queen Anne and Second Empire houses, board-and-batten Gothic cottages and a few Greek Revival buildings. Few have lost their original wood tracery, porch spindles, shingles and brackets to artificial siding. The 1900 railroad station and the fairgrounds add to the character of the area. The fairgrounds keep a complete set of late 19th-century stick-style exhibition buildings, barns and a grandstand. Modern intrusions and a fire-cleared lot detract in places, but the quality of the surviving buildings is the reason for the district's recognition.