Welcome to Willow Vale Farmhouse, a 1790s farmhouse on just under 3 acres along a quiet country road in Pine Plains, Dutchess County, with 700 feet of frontage on the Shekomeko Creek. Over four years, the owners worked with a team of craftspeople to meticulously restore the home, preserving its historic character and bringing professional designer acumen to all the details. Inside, 3,065 square feet include 3 bedrooms, 3 full baths, and gracious rooms with new Venetian plaster and beautifully restored old growth Heart Pine wide plank floors throughout, warmed by multiple wood-burning fireplaces. Outside, a durable metal roof and new copper gutters cap the restoration in materials that will weather handsomely. A historic barn retains its hand-hewn beams to serve as a studio, collector’s garage, or party barn. The setting is quintessential Hudson Valley, a pastoral landscape of open farm fields and winding creek.
In the kitchen, wide plank floors hand-painted in a harlequin pattern run beneath a beadboard ceiling, and a matte black La Cornue gas range stands against statuario marble counters and custom-built maple millwork. Mullioned windows look over the verdant backyard to nearby cornfields, and an antique butcher block island, skirted in a vintage Moroccan kilim, gathers everyone together. Beside it, a dining area sits near tall French windows. A generous living room opens toward the terrace, and a light-soaked sunroom overlooks the front lawn. The library features a working wood fireplace, made for winter afternoons or cozy evenings with a glass of wine. A dining room with its own sitting area completes the main floor, along with a full bath finished in Belgian terracotta tile. Upstairs, the primary bedroom is warmed by a fireplace and expansive stone hearth, with a second bedroom across the hall. Nearby, the largest bath combines an antique clawfoot tub, Rohl fixtures, and custom Schumacher shower curtain with a marble sink in a matching skirt. The third bedroom occupies its own private wing above the kitchen, with a private full bath.
Willow Vale Farmhouse has a celebrated and historic past. Decades ago the house operated as Mon Blason, an inn remembered as the first haute cuisine French restaurant in the Hudson Valley, run by chef & author Charles Virion, who cooked for Orson Welles and the Ringling brothers. It was also the home of Theoni Aldredge, the Oscar- and Tony-winning costume designer whose work included the 1974 film The Great Gatsby starring Robert Redford.
Outside, a broad bluestone terrace sets the stage for long summer dinners and conversations, and a hot tub waits for chilly nights. The park-like lawn runs down to the Shekomeko, where two artesian-fed swimming holes turn summer afternoons into small adventures. A fire pit draws everyone outdoors on autumn evenings, and the barn, the oldest structure on the property, holds possibilities all its own.
Minutes away in the village of Pine Plains, Stissing House, the 1782 tavern where chef Clare de Boer’s wood-fired cooking ranked on The New York Times list of America’s most exciting restaurants, leads a small but serious dining scene that includes Champêtre, the French bistro from chef Michel Jean. Above the village, a hiking trail winds up Stissing Mountain to a historic fire tower with 360-degree views over Thompson Pond and out toward CT, MA, and VT. Culture is close too, from performances at The Stissing Center to contemporary art at the Wassaic Project and films at the century-old Moviehouse in Millerton, just 12 minutes away. Rhinebeck and Hudson are half an hour by car, and NYC about two hours. Amtrak from Hudson or Rhinecliff and Metro-North from Wassaic run straight to Manhattan. A fall weekend might mean coffee on the terrace, a home-cooked brunch with fresh produce and meats from local farm stands, a hike up Stissing Mountain, and an evening of stories and laughter by the library fireplace, with the sound of the creek just beyond the lawn.