High Falls Historic District


The High Falls Historic District corresponds roughly to the downtown section of the hamlet of that name in Marbletown, New York, United States. It is a area around the intersection of state highway NY 213, Main Street, Mohonk Road. While the canal had the greatest effect on the small community, it has not been the only economic force acting on it over the years. It is considered a "distinctive example of mid-19th century semi-urban land use planning."

Geography

The district is an irregularly shaped area centered on the junction of Bruceville, Mohonk and Route 213, mostly following lot lines. It follows Mohonk up to the Delaware and Hudson Canal Museum, in an old church, then its boundary goes east to rear lot lines, then south to the town line at Route 213 with neighboring Rosendale.
It includes most properties along the south side of Route 213, and some along Bruceville almost to where it meets the creek. East of there it includes the former canal right-of-way, its empty bed extant, all the way down to the former aqueduct abutment. It goes no farther along 213 than the split between it and its former alignment, now Main Street. It includes the properties in the commercial area along the north side of Main Street and Firehouse Road and the canal as it goes uphill, with some of its locks, and then reaches its western extreme at a thin wedge along the canal's earlier route along the north side of Main.
Within these boundaries are 33 buildings, only four of which are considered non-contributing to the district's historic character. There are also five structures, all former canal locks. The buildings range from the late 18th century to the mid-20th, and the canal infrastructure was mostly built in the middle of the 19th. The entire area is developed except for the short stretch of canal north between 213 and the creek, which is wooded.

History

High Falls takes its name from the nearby feature on the Rondout, where the creek cuts through a large rock formation and goes over a large waterfall. It was an attractive source of water power, and millers were drawn to it from colonial times. The first bridge to nearby Stone Ridge, on the main road through the valley between the Shawangunks and Catskills, was built during this time. The stone Jacob DePuy House, from 1797, reflects this era and retains much of its original fabric.
In the early 19th century, a cotton and woolen factory in the hamlet made it a center of local manufacturing, serving many of the farms in the surrounding area. This set the stage for the construction and opening of the canal in 1828. The D & H was built to transport anthracite coal from Northeastern Pennsylvania to New York City via Kingston, where it was transferred to ships plying the Hudson River.
High Falls would be important not only for its location at a key water crossing, spanned by a John A. Roebling aqueduct, and frequent layover on the canal, but for the natural cement discovered at nearby Rosendale during the canal's construction, which needed the millpower. As the canal remained in operation for the remainder of the century, it would transform the hamlet from an isolated rural community to a bustling, yet small, industrial town, especially after the canal was expanded in 1850 to handle bigger barges. In addition to the facilities built by the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company, such as a lock tender's house and general store, small stores and shops were built nearby to take advantage of the canal traffic. They and the hamlet's street and block layout still exist today, a testament to that period.
Development declined along with the canal's fortunes, and the district has changed little since the canal ceased operations in 1899, other than the state's relocation of the portion of Route 213 that goes through it in 1956. Its post-canal future began thirty years earlier. The road extending down from the Shawangunks had made High Falls a point of embarkation via carriage for canal or rail travelers destined for Mohonk Mountain House atop the ridge. This may have helped it establish itself as a vacation or weekend destination of its own, a reputation it still enjoys today. The nearby hills and fields and their mountain vistas are home to many second homes for residents of New York City and its downstate suburbs. The shops and stores are now boutiques and restaurants that cater to them on weekends and in summertime.

Significant contributing properties

Three locks and two other structures from the canal are included in that property's National Historic Landmark designation. Several properties within the district are notable; none have yet been separately listed on the National Register.