The C.1738 Meeting House in Palisades: $1.895M

  |  April 26, 2024

It’s Friday again—and with a lack of five-figure properties, Upstater is declaring it Fancy Friday. Today we are in Palisades/Snedens Landing, Rockland County, at The Meeting House, aka The Big House, built in 1738.

In case you’re wondering, yes, the home carries legends of visits by George Washington, his wife, Martha Washington, and the Marquis de Lafayette. In fact, the current owner is the fourth-great-granddaughter of Lafayette’s aide-de-camp.

The home itself is stunning, with a sandstone exterior and a sprawling front porch that’s 93 feet long.

You could literally run a 30-yard-dash from one end of this porch to the other. But who’d want to? Porches are for sittin’ and sippin’ lemonade, watching the world go by. We love the way the sun plays on the stone; the mossy green shutters and Early American iron holdbacks are stunning, too.

The front door’s transom and sidelights are 18th-century originals. The entry has a terra-cotta floor and plenty of gallery space on its walls.

This room has a smoky red ambiance, with a cut-stone fireplace built into a wall that’s a masterpiece of woodworking.

The beamed ceiling in the previous room is repeated in the dining room, which also has its own fireplace rimmed in Delft tiles.

This parlor has mint-green walls and a soaring, tongue-and-groove ceiling that’s dramatically backlit. And it has a brick-lined fireplace.

The kitchen has more rustic details, like this brick cooking fireplace.

But no worries: You don’t need to cook in the fireplace, since there’s a lovely, chef-style, stainless-steel gas range across from the center island.

This reading room is more traditional, with knotty pine flooring and a fireplace flanked by bookshelves built into the floral-papered walls.

The house has four bedrooms and four baths in 5,509 square feet of interior space. This bedroom has knotty pine floors  and dormer windows.

This bath has wallpaper that could use an update, along with a vanity and a long dressing table.

This bedroom has terra-cotta-colored walls.

This bathroom has stone walls and tons of nooks and crannies.

This green bedroom’s got a built-in cupboard that the bed snugs against. It’s next to a deep-silled window that serves as a handy bookshelf.

The attic has been stripped of character fully renovated into a carpeted, multi-room space.

The whitewashed rear of the house is a clean backdrop for the backyard, which includes a pergola.

A bluestone-topped stone wall runs around part of the pergola’s dining area. The house is on a 1.7-acre lot; another 2.7 acres adjoining the property is available for an additional $995,000, and the buyer of this house has first refusal on that purchase. Living in Snedens Landing has its perks, too: There’s a tennis club and access to lots of community fun.

If the front of this house looks familiar, it’s because it resembles The Old ’76 House—where Major John Andre awaited sentencing for spying for the British during the Revolutionary War. In fact, Major Andre likely passed this home on his way to being held at the ’76 House, just five minutes from here and now well-known for great meals.

If the c.1738 Meeting House in Palisades sets your heart on fire, find out more about 201 Route 9W, Palisades/Snedens Landing, from Richard Ellis with Ellis Sotheby’s International Realty.

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