Main-Partition Streets Historic District

Saugerties' historic business core lies along Main, Partition, Market and Jane Streets, where 83 structures form a compact, small-scale commercial district above the mouth of the Esopus Creek. Most are two- or three-story brick stores with apartments or storage above, built mainly in the second half of the nineteenth century. The village grew from a small mill hamlet after businessman Henry Barclay established an iron works and paper mill in the 1820s, and later relied on bluestone shipping, brickmaking and tourism. Surviving landmarks include a 1780s public house, the 1827 Phoenix Hotel, the Exchange Hotel, and two churches in round-arched styles. Two storefronts have complete galvanized sheet-iron facades shipped from Mesker Brothers of St. Louis, and several Victorian buildings carry named, dated rooftop pediments. Bluestone sidewalks remain in front of most shops. Limited twentieth-century growth left few modern intrusions, so the streetscape still conveys a nineteenth-century riverside village.