Hand-Hale Historic District

Two neighboring country estates on River Street in Elizabethtown, in the Adirondack foothills, make up this 23-acre district. The Hand property centers on a formal brick Greek Revival house built in 1849 and a law office dating from before 1830. Next door, the Hale property includes a rambling frame house of 1814, greatly modified between 1850 and 1870, along with a law office, a barn complex of about 1850 and a caretaker's cottage. The Branch River runs through the grounds, and broad lawns and tall trees frame the buildings. The estates belonged to attorneys Augustus C. Hand and Robert S. Hale, whose influence reached well beyond Essex County. Hand served in Congress and on the state's highest court, and his descendants included Augustus Noble Hand and Learned Hand, noted federal judges. Hale also served in Congress. The buildings retain original interiors, including law libraries, and illustrate how law was practiced on the Adirondack frontier in the nineteenth century.