Cragsmoor Historic District
Why it's listed
Cragsmoor is a mountaintop hamlet on the Shawangunk ridge in Ulster County, New York, about five miles from Ellenville. The historic district covers roughly 362 acres and includes 107 properties with 168 contributing buildings, 15 structures, 11 objects and 16 sites, along with 63 non-contributing features. Its resources include summer cottages, a chapel, a library, a cemetery and artists' studios. The hamlet grew from a small settlement of year-round wooden houses, such as Orchard Cottage, built around 1824, into a summer colony of artists and other creative people beginning in the late nineteenth century. Painter E. L. Henry first visited in the 1870s and encouraged relatives and New York associates to follow. The railroad spur to Ellenville, opened in 1871, made the trip from New York City possible. The colony thrived until the 1940s, and Shawangunk stone appears in many of its homes. The district is recognized for this artistic community and its architecture.
Significance in brief: The nomination presents Cragsmoor as the first artist's colony established in the Catskills region, developed from the late nineteenth century to the 1940s around painter E. L. Henry and his associates. It also preserves a few earlier settlement-period houses and a mountaintop setting that shaped the community's character. The district was certified as locally significant.
Machine-generated summary. This summary was generated by a language model from the official nomination document and has not been reviewed line by line by an editor. It may contain errors. Check the source document before relying on any detail. Source: nomination document (PDF) · National Archives catalog entry. NRHP reference 96000860, listed August 8, 1996. Summary generated October 2026 (model claude-sonnet-5-5, prompt v1.0-2026-10-29, confidence medium).
Key facts
| Address | Roughly bounded by Henry, Cragsmoor, and Sam's Pt. Rds., Hamlet of Cragsmoor, Wawarsing |
|---|---|
| County | Ulster County |
| Listed | August 8, 1996 |
| Reference number | 96000860 |
| Resource type | District |
| Architectural style | Federal; Late Victorian: Shingle, Queen Anne; Late 19th and Early 20th Century Revivals: Colonial Revival |
| Areas of significance | Architecture, Art, Community Planning and Development, Conservation, Education |
| Level of significance | Local |
| Status (as stated in the nomination) | The community is evolving from a seasonal summer colony into a year-round community, with summer homes being converted and new permanent residences built. |
| Acreage | 362 |
| Coordinates | 41.67216, -74.37278 (NPS GIS) |
What listing means for this property
This is a historic district. Buildings within its boundary are either contributing (they add to the district's significance) or non-contributing. Owners of contributing income-producing buildings can claim the 20% federal rehabilitation tax credit; homeowners should look at state credits. National Register districts impose no design review by themselves; a local historic district ordinance, if one exists, does (the difference explained).
General information, not legal or tax advice. Rules change; confirm with your State Historic Preservation Office or a qualified adviser.
Sources and further reading
- National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places database (snapshot May 2026), reference 96000860.
- Nomination form (PDF, National Archives) — catalog entry
- Wikipedia article (used for cross-checking only; text not reproduced here)
- Wikidata Q5180629
- This listing as JSON
Last updated October 2026. Found an error? See the editorial policy for how to report it.