Amenities

 Twenty-three decades have made a difference in what potential real estate purchasers look for. Today, it may be the age, style and amenities of the dwelling. Is the kitchen modern? Are the rooms spacious? Is there an open floor plan? What’s the distance from work? How close is it to school?

In 1783, there were other important factors. How close is the well? How far away is the outhouse? Is the floor plank or dirt?

I came by an advertisement in the Connecticut Journal for Oct. 8 that year. Robert G. Livingston (1712-1789), the Hudson River patroon whose holdings reached this far east, offered a “pleafant Farm of thirty-two Acres of choice Land.” (You recall “s” looked like “f”  in those days.)

Six acres, Livingston assured readers, should provide 10 or 12 tons of  “excellent Hay” each year. Two orchards had enough apples  to make “about one hundred Barrels of Cider” in autumn. There was good pasture and 50 acres of woodlot. 

Sounds about right for a family to support itself in those days.

The house, of brick and two stories high, had a sound cellar, “a large Garden, with a Board Fence, a very good large Barn, with a Hovel and Barrack.” 

Asparagus, plum and cherry trees grew in the yard.

Just what was needed for subsistence, never mind comfort.

•  •  •

But this offering had a few bonuses, good for extra income.

Located a half mile south of the meeting house, this property also had a two-story dry goods store on the premises, a cooper’s shop, “Chaife-Houfe, and feveral other Conveniences.” A chaise house was to store carriages.

The price wasn’t mentioned.

As Livingston had moved to Dutchess County from Sharon only the year before, it is very likely his homestead.

But Livingston assured he would accept American or Connecticut state notes, soldiers’ certificates of Connecticut or New york and “the Notes of Robert Morris, Efq.”

Perhaps someone in Sharon can identify the location. Is the house still there?

 The writer is associate editor of this newspaper.