Lindesay Patent Rural Historic District (Boundary Increase)

Covering 9,200 acres in southwestern Cherry Valley, Otsego County, New York, this rural district follows the boundaries of the Lindesay Patent, granted in 1738 and surveyed in 1739 into ninety-two lots of about 100 acres each. That grid still shapes property lines, field divisions, stone walls, hedgerows and the road network, and about a quarter of the patent keeps boundaries close to the original survey. The district contains the village of Cherry Valley, which serves as the service center for surrounding farmsteads, along with working dairy farms and mostly timber buildings in Federal, Greek Revival, Italianate, Queen Anne and other styles. It counts 563 contributing resources, including 554 buildings, and 219 non-contributing buildings, mainly sheds, garages and post-war farm structures. Because little new construction has occurred since the early twentieth century, the landscape keeps a nineteenth-century character of a compact village surrounded by open farmland. The relationship of village to farms is the main reason for its recognition.