Erica Keberle
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erica@anatolehouse.com
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There’s just something about old houses that gets us every time. Patina, proportions, and a maybe slightly eccentric circulation that somehow makes perfect sense once you call it home. Nooks and crannies and rooms that refuse open concept as a concept. After more than a century, a house has earned the right to be a little particular. There is a certain freedom in a house that knows exactly what it is. The Grand Dame of Oak Street sits like a queen on her hill above Narrowsburg - an antique farmhouse with old soul, big views, and coffee within walking distance. She is classy, but not precious. More than a century of people have lived here, changed things, changed them again, and left their mark. There is a richness that only comes with time, an accumulation of history and architectural wisdom. Old houses seem more comfortable in their own skin. They just know how to be houses.
Most days, you’ll enter through the back of the house, directly into a bright, flexible room where an oversized picture window frames the rolling hills beyond. Part mudroom, part studio, part second lounge - its job can change depending on the day. From here, the house unfolds through a series of distinct but connected spaces. Muddy boots are not a crisis. Neither is the dog. And there is still plenty of unscripted space for whoever comes next - to decide what happens next, what story they will tell, and what mark they will leave. Alma also pulls off a particularly good Catskills trick: country life without isolation. Walk down the hill for coffee, dinner, art, the farmers' market or a festival, then make the gentle climb home past neighbors on porches to your own half-acre. There is room for garden beds, a fire pit, a separate studio. You can aspire to the homestead, or just get wild and grow too many tomatoes. Weave into community life when connection calls, and retreat into home for a little reflection.
A large dining room leads to the parlor. Rooms have jobs. There are places to disappear. The kitchen isn't trying to be the living room, allowing a dinner party to casually migrate over an evening.
The kitchen keeps its vintage wood cabinetry, freshly finished in a warm greige, along with a generous butler’s pantry and laundry room for hiding life's beautiful mess. A full bath completes this level. Throughout, tall ceilings and abundant natural light give the rooms an unexpected sense of scale. But the killer wood floors are the heartbreaker: worn, imperfect, and carrying the kind of patina that simply cannot be manufactured or recreated. A grand staircase with an old wood banister winds upstairs, smoothed by decades of holding hands.
Upstairs are four bedrooms, a full bath, and a hall linen closet. The primary has room for a king-size bed plus a large dressing room, while the remaining bedrooms can flex between guests, work, and whatever life brings next. And the views only get better as you climb. By the time you reach the primary bedroom, rooftops and treetops give way to the rolling hills surrounding town. An unfinished basement below houses the mechanical guts of the house, with additional room for storage.
For an in-town house, Alma has room to roam. Just over half an acre slopes gently away from the house, with a stone patio for dining outside, a fire pit for lingering later, and plenty of lawn left over.
Out front, a broad staircase makes a grand approach to the rocking-chair porch, complete with gingerbread detailing and a front-row seat to the neighborhood below.
A large garden shed rounds out the practical side of things. And then there’s the garage. Windowed, insulated, wired with electric, and set on a concrete floor, it has lived a few lives already - rumored to have once housed a horse, and later, a recording studio - so it’s heard some things. Today, call it a workshop, art studio, gear room, garden headquarters, or somewhere to park the Harley.
Narrowsburg has an established and growing creative streak. The Delaware Valley Arts Alliance has anchored the local arts community for 50 years, with galleries on Main Street and year-round programming at the historic Tusten Theatre. Riverfest takes over town each summer, the Big Eddy Film Festival brings independent film every fall, and gallery openings, live music, screenings, and the weekly farmers' market keep the community in circulation. And this creative migration isn't particularly new. Artists, designers, makers, and restaurateurs have been finding their way to Narrowsburg for decades. Vogue was writing about the town's creative set more than a decade ago, while Condé Nast Traveler has traced the wider area's revival back a generation to Narrowsburg. Today, there’s an easy mix of the creative and the everyday: coffee, restaurants, boutiques, vintage, art, and the Delaware River, all clustered around a Main Street that still feels like a Main Street. Even the walk from Oak Street to town has some personality, with outsider art destination Ruffed Grouse Gallery - a close neighbor specializing in folk, self-taught, and contemporary art - on the way into town. When you want to wander farther, hike the Tusten Mountain Trail, get on the Delaware, head to Barryville or Callicoon for an afternoon, or catch a show at Bethel Woods. New York City is under two hours by car, making Alma equally plausible as a weekend escape or a full-time change of pace.
An antique farmhouse with a century of stories and a front-row seat to Narrowsburg.
Erica Keberle
/
erica@anatolehouse.com
/
There’s just something about old houses that gets us every time. Patina, proportions, and a maybe slightly eccentric circulation that somehow makes perfect sense once you call it home. Nooks and crannies and rooms that refuse open concept as a concept. After more than a century, a house has earned the right to be a little particular. There is a certain freedom in a house that knows exactly what it is. The Grand Dame of Oak Street sits like a queen on her hill above Narrowsburg - an antique farmhouse with old soul, big views, and coffee within walking distance. She is classy, but not precious. More than a century of people have lived here, changed things, changed them again, and left their mark. There is a richness that only comes with time, an accumulation of history and architectural wisdom. Old houses seem more comfortable in their own skin. They just know how to be houses.
For an in-town house, Alma has room to roam. Just over half an acre slopes gently away from the house, with a stone patio for dining outside, a fire pit for lingering later, and plenty of lawn left over.
Out front, a broad staircase makes a grand approach to the rocking-chair porch, complete with gingerbread detailing and a front-row seat to the neighborhood below.
A large garden shed rounds out the practical side of things. And then there’s the garage. Windowed, insulated, wired with electric, and set on a concrete floor, it has lived a few lives already - rumored to have once housed a horse, and later, a recording studio - so it’s heard some things. Today, call it a workshop, art studio, gear room, garden headquarters, or somewhere to park the Harley.
Narrowsburg has an established and growing creative streak. The Delaware Valley Arts Alliance has anchored the local arts community for 50 years, with galleries on Main Street and year-round programming at the historic Tusten Theatre. Riverfest takes over town each summer, the Big Eddy Film Festival brings independent film every fall, and gallery openings, live music, screenings, and the weekly farmers' market keep the community in circulation. And this creative migration isn't particularly new. Artists, designers, makers, and restaurateurs have been finding their way to Narrowsburg for decades. Vogue was writing about the town's creative set more than a decade ago, while Condé Nast Traveler has traced the wider area's revival back a generation to Narrowsburg. Today, there’s an easy mix of the creative and the everyday: coffee, restaurants, boutiques, vintage, art, and the Delaware River, all clustered around a Main Street that still feels like a Main Street. Even the walk from Oak Street to town has some personality, with outsider art destination Ruffed Grouse Gallery - a close neighbor specializing in folk, self-taught, and contemporary art - on the way into town. When you want to wander farther, hike the Tusten Mountain Trail, get on the Delaware, head to Barryville or Callicoon for an afternoon, or catch a show at Bethel Woods. New York City is under two hours by car, making Alma equally plausible as a weekend escape or a full-time change of pace.
