LAND OF RURAL CHARM
The Town of Copake is a historic farming community nestled into a picturesque landscape of rolling hills, wide fertile valleys, and the Taconic range to the east. The Roeliff Jansen Kill and Bash Bish Brook sustain the shimmering lakes and ponds. The original Mohican people call these homelands Tachkanick, meaning “land of flowing waters”.
Copake’s built environment reflects a 250-year history of farming, industry, and rural and smalltown living. The Bicentennial Historic Markers and this Heritage Guide will lead you in discovering key historic residences, farmsteads, churches, train depots and civic structures—including eight in the National Register of Historic Places—that capture the past and are vital to its rural heritage today.
Formed in 1824, the Town of Copake consists of four hamlets —Copake, Copake Falls, West Copake and Craryville— each with its own history and character. The town’s name is derived from Achkookpeck, meaning “Snake Pond”, the original Mohican name for what we now call Copake Lake.
HAMLET OF COPAKE
Main & Church Streets at Empire Road
This area was settled in the 1700s by tenant farmers of the Livingston Manor (1686-1850). Then Copake Flats, the hamlet developed on the main north-south rural road (State Route 22) and became a commercial and residential hub. By 1878, there were “two hotels, two stores, a carriage-shop, three blacksmith-shops, a Methodist Church, a shoe-shop, a tin-shop, a harness-shop, a schoolhouse, and about thirty dwellings.”
1. Copake Memorial Clock 1944
Church & Main Streets at Empire Road
The clock was built at the hamlet’s primary crossroads to memorialize the death of Copake native Steven McIntyre in World War II. The four-sided copper pedestal clock features stained glass panels that read: Lest We Forget, For Those Who Served
The iconic clock has been adopted as Copake’s official emblem and has come to symbolize the sacrifices of all Copake citizens in recent war efforts.
2. Copake Methodist Church 1854
1669 Church Street (County Route 7A)
The church is an outstanding local example of the Greek Revival style and the traditional craftsmanship of rural carpenter-builder Jude Snyder. It is a onestory timber framed building that features an Ionic order portico and a two-tiered belfry. The surrounding Copake Cemetery contributes to the historic setting.
3. Copake General Store c.1834
171
Main Street at Church Street
Built originally as a Methodist Church, the building was subsequently moved to its presentday location at the town’s center where it was converted to a store. Severely damaged by fire in c.1888 it was rebuilt without its original bell tower. The building has served as a general store for most of its history and was re-established in 2017 as the Copake General Store.
4. Copake Grange Hall 1902
628 Empire Road
The Copake Grange was established by local citizens as part of the National Grange Movement, its purpose to advocate for the rights and needs of farmers and promote social fellowship. Grange Hall has been in continuous use for over 120 years housing member meetings, community educational and entertainment activities. Events include lectures, plays, traveling shows, movies, musical performances, community dinners, and dances—placing it at the center of town life.
5. Copake Union Free School 1921
624 Empire Road
The former two-room schoolhouse opened in 1921 serving students in grades K-5. By 1931, Copake became part of the Roeliff Jansen centralized school district, but the “little schoolhouse” remained to serve the first three grades. It retains much of its historic form and layout. The school building was sold in 1981 and has since been converted to new use. It remains a place of identity and pride for the community.
6. Copake Railroad Depot 1876
32 County Route 7A
A rare surviving example of a rural depot, it was built in 1876 as a small one-story passenger station and expanded in 1913 to include an attached freight house. The building features original board and batten siding, and a gable roof with deep overhanging eaves. The railroad expanded farmers’ reach into the New York City market, driving the growth of the local dairy industry.
7. Sweet-Sherman Homestead Historic District c.1845
614 Center Hill Road (County Route 7A)
Among Copake’s earliest family-owned farms, this homestead is what remains of the original 240-acre property. The site features a Greek Revival farmhouse and rare intact collection of mid-19th century barns. Built by Fyler Sweet and his wife Dorothea Decker, the farm was carried on until 1923 by grandson, Frank Sherman, its last resident farmer, founding president of the Copake Grange, and a local Progressive Era leader.
COPAKE FALLS
County Route 344 & Valley View Road
The hamlet lies at the base of the Taconic Ridge. For most of the 1800s, it was a “thriving hub of industry around iron ore production.” With the arrival of the Harlem Valley Railroad in 1852, the village developed alongside the Copake Iron Works. Today, Copake Falls is the gateway to Taconic State Park and Bash Bish Falls, as well as the Harlem Valley Rail Trail.
8. Taconic Inn c.1857
108 Route 344
Built originally as the G. Kesselbrock Hotel, it became the Taconic Inn under Fred Holsapple’s ownership from 1899 to 1946. The railroad drove Copake’s growth as an outdoor recreation destination. The inn offered lodging and meals to tourists, sportsmen and traveling salesmen, frequented during the late 1930s and early 1940s by famed baseball legend, Babe Ruth. Today, the inn remains a popular local gathering spot.
9. Former Copake Falls Methodist Episcopal Church 1892
8 Miles Road
This modest Late Victorian-era wood church features a steeply pitched roof, tall lancet windows, and a soaring belfry tower expressive of the Gothic Revival tradition. The changing ethnic and religious composition of the iron works workforce in the 1880s led to establishment of a Methodist church on land donated by the owner of the Iron Works. The church closed its doors in 1955, was acquired by the Town of Copake in 1982, and restored in 1983 for its current use as the Roeliff Jansen Historical Society Museum.
10. Church of St. John in the Wilderness 1852
261 NY Route 344
This historic Episcopal Church is a fine example of a rural Gothic Revival style church designed by Richard Upjohn, noted architect of Trinity Church on Wall Street in New York City. Funded by owners of the Iron Works, the modestly scaled wood frame and clad building was built on a steep rise overlooking the village. The church has long played a vital part of village life.
11. Isaac Chesbrough House c.1845
33 Valley View Road
This house was built for Isaac Chesbrough, one of the first ironmasters and a later partner of the Copake Iron Company. The house is an excellent and substantially intact example of vernacular Greek Revival-style domestic architecture featuring a fully pedimented front-facing gable, corner pilasters, and hip-roofed porch.
12. Copake Iron Works Historic Site c.1845
35 Valley View Road
Established in 1845 by 19th century industrialist, Lemuel Pomeroy, the Iron Works operated until 1903. The site today includes the remaining vestiges of a former mining and smelting operation, recognized as one of the most intact rural ironworks in the region. New York State acquired the abandoned site in 1926 when the Taconic State Park was formed. While the ancient forest was felled to feed the mighty blast furnaces, the landscape has since reverted back to forest.
WEST COPAKE
County Route 7 & Cross Street
Family farms thrived here throughout the 1800s. The Upper and Lower Rhoda ponds were winter harvested for ice, used to keep agricultural products chilled for market. In 1878, the hamlet had “half a dozen houses, a summer hotel, a store and post office, and a nearby church.” Beginning in the 1920s, farmland was sold and developed for new summer camps.
13. West Copake Reformed Church 1882
2692 County Route 7
The church was organized in 1758 as Dutch Reformed and was likely then a mission station of other nearby Reformed Churches. Early records go back to 1783 and were written in Dutch. The first, non-extant church building was erected in 1834-35, and was later replaced by the current larger wood framed church erected in 1882 which is still in active use today.
14. Astor Guest Cottage 1902
County Route 7 & Cross Street
Henry Astor III, grandson of New York magnate John Jacob Astor, was married in 1871 to Malvina Dinehart from one of Copake’s oldest farming families. He withdrew from New York society to live in West Copake as a gentleman farmer with his new wife. They built “the most luxurious house of its time” in c.1871 and the Victorian guest cottage in 1902. “The Big House” was destroyed by fire in the 1940s, while the guest cottage survives today.
CRARYVILLE
State Route 23 & County Route 7
The hamlet grew around farms and the county’s main east-west road, the former Columbia Turnpike (now State Route 23), that conveyed agricultural and industrial products westward to ports along the Hudson River. The Harlem Valley Railroad line extended into Craryville by 1852. In 1878, the hamlet of Craryville had “about fifteen dwellings, two stores, one hotel, two wagon and blacksmith-shops, a shoe-shop, and railroad depot.”
15. Craryville Train Depot c.1855
State Route 23 at County Route 7
This wood rural depot is a rare surviving example from the mid-19th century. The adjacent c.1830 Greek Revival residence served as the Station Master’s house. The railroad connected rural Copake and New York City, spurring the growth of the dairy industry and Copake Lake as a summer destination. Passenger rail service was discontinued in 1972.
16. Cottages, Copake Lake Lakeview Road
In 1913, it was “the most popular resort of its kind” in the county. Forty summer cottages occupied the lake’s eastside, built upon former farmland. The waters were “abound in fish of all kinds.” Copake Lake Country Club was built in the 1920s and became a summer resort enclave for New York City’s Jewish community. The area has since grown to become a popular residential community.
© 2024 TOWN OF COPAKE HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMITTEE
230 MOUNTAIN VIEW ROAD, COPAKE, NY 12516
MAJOR FUNDING FROM THE RHEINSTROM HILL COMMUNITY FOUNDATION
SPONSORED BY COLUMBIA COUNTY TOURISM
QUOTES FROM “GENERAL HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY, NEW YORK”
CAPTAIN FRANKLIN ELLIS, 1878, EVERTS & ENSIGN, PHILADELPHIA, PA
IMAGES COURTESY OF THE MICHAEL FALLON COLLECTION AND ROELIFF JANSEN HISTORICAL SOCIETY
DESIGN BY ALEX KNOWLTON AT ACNE DESIGN LLC, COPAKE, NY
