Town of the Week: Callicoon

  |  September 10, 2012

Oh, there’s so much more to Callicoon that Mark Ruffalo sightings. It’s a beautiful hamlet in the town of Delaware, along the eponymous river, with a famed farmers’ market and a sweet downtown, bisected by the railroad tracks. There’s a great old hotel right in town (see above), and another bonus: a great movie theater. The name is apparently some bastardization of both the Dutch and some Native American dialect for turkey. And, yes, we did see quite a few wild turkeys along the road. It’s about two hours and 15 minutes from the city by car, or you can take the Short Line bus there. It’s not to be confused with Callicoon Center, another, even tinier spot down the road, which has one store and a bandshell where the Callicoon Center Band plays in the summer.

Now, the farmers’ market is actually very important, as this area of Delaware County is seriously rural, and good produce can be hard to find. It’s nice to have Danish modern arm chairs and all, but if you want a truly delectable tomato, you’ll need the market. It’s also a local social spot. Our one hesitation is the iffy cell phone service — we had a lot of trouble getting on the line, at least downtown. But that may be a draw for some folks.

You can tell a lot about an upstate New York town by its used furnishings offerings. In some towns, they have antiques stores. In others, vintage shops. In some, thrift stores. In others, junk shops. One of the things we like about Callicoon is that is has all four kinds of stores — it caters to locals as much as wealthy New Yorkers.

And that’s reflected in the real estate prices. This week there are around 25 properties for sale, with an average listing price of $311,000 — plenty of attractive spots for less than $200,000. So, bargain hunters, stay tuned this week.

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