“Conservation Dreams Become Reality”
Featured Article in the Lakeville Journal
Conservation Dreams Become Reality
By Debra A. Aleksinas Mar 27, 2024 – The Lakeville Journal
SALISBURY — Robert Boyett’s long-time vision to conserve a large swath of more than 1,000 contiguous acres of scenic pastures, forests and farmland in Northwest Connecticut and Southern Berkshire County became reality earlier this month.
On March 13, Boyett, 82, a retired television producer and Salisbury resident, sold 75 acres off Cooper Hill in Sheffield, Mass., to the Trustees of Reservations for $1.3 million, which will be placed under conservation restriction. The Sheffield land deal was the fourth and final transaction aimed at protecting Boyett’s land holdings from development, made possible through a coalition of eight conservation groups spanning two states, and two Limited Liability Companies (LLC’s) comprising private donors. Through the multi-faceted effort, hastily organized last fall as the Cooper Hill Conservation Alliance, roughly $12 million in transactions were completed, protecting more than 1,000 acres from development.
“Mr. Boyett always wanted to keep the land all together, and this whole group, they worked together for a common goal to make it happen,” said Elyse Harney Morris, owner/broker of Elyse Harney Real Estate, who with co-agent Bill Melnick, helped Boyett piece together a complex conservation plan. Read Full Article Here
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Land Trusts Gain Ground Through Collaboration
Land Trusts Gain Ground Through Collaboration
Ditching the Car and Enjoying the View on a Trip to the Berkshires @nytimes
For the first time in 50 years, a weekend train route is taking passengers directly from New York to the Berkshires. The Berkshire Flyer will run through Labor Day. Good luck getting a seat. Evan Gottesman and his fiancée, Gabrielle Kleyner, were meeting friends in the Berkshires one weekend in early July. The couple, who live in Brooklyn, were trying to figure out how they would get to the rural region of western Massachusetts, which annually draws thousands of hikers, theater lovers, and music aficionados with its mountains, lakes, and myriad cultural centers.
A friend told them about the Berkshire Flyer, a new Amtrak train between New York City and Pittsfield. The couple quickly booked tickets and jumped on the 3:15 p.m. sold-out train from the Moynihan Train Hall in Manhattan on July 8… @nytimes
An Upstate New York Getaway Makes the Most of Its Peaceful Setting
Location, location, location. This property is all about the outdoors: the tranquil rolling hills surrounding it as well as the miles of trails, fields, forests, wetland ponds, a stream, orchards, and cypress groves scattered through its 164.6 acres. While just minutes from the center of the local town, the house is approached through a nearly mile-long drive, passing innumerable trees, old fieldstone walls, and various wildlife.
And what a house! Midcentury modern in style, the place won the American Institute of Architects Design Award recognition in 2017. It’s located about 90 minutes or so from NYC, in Dutchess County, east of Rhinebeck and Kingston. The property is available for just over $6.7 million via Elyse Harney Morris and Holly Leibrock at Elyse Harney Real Estate.
Dirt Article By Laura Euler
Homeowners from NYC and beyond discuss moving to CT during COVID
Newcomers from New York City and Los Angeles bought homes in CT during a competitive pandemic market.East Coast native Schuyler Samperton found her way back to the Northeast, and all it took was a visit with a friend and a near-miss with COVID-19. The Los Angeles-based interior designer closed on a Lakeville home in January, and now uses the Litchfield County property as a second home and office space as she expands her interior design business to Connecticut. So far, she says her time in Connecticut is the perfect contrast to life in Los Angeles. @ctinsider_news
Connecticut Swiss Chateau designed for wife by local architect for $1.745M
Known as “Rubly,” after Mount Rubly in the Swiss Alps, the home contains six bedrooms and five full bathrooms in its 11,477 square feet of living space. According to broker Elyse Harney Morris, the “one-of-a-kind” home offers buyers a chance to be part of its unique story. “Rubly has a romance about it,” she said in an email. “It was built with love for the renowned architect Alfredo Taylor’s wife.”
Modern Berkshires mansion designed by a ‘Gizmologist’ asks $15.5 million
Any home designed with an expert “Gizmologist” is bound to be a head-turner.
Lead listing agent Elyse Harney waxes on about the unexpected softness of the interior of the house despite its use of concrete, steel, and other seemingly harsher materials.
“For a modernist building, the textures of the house are earthy, and you have an immediate sense of time passing. The steel shows the markings from its industrial beginnings, and features like the leather-wrapped desks in the offices are luxurious and understated. Surfaces inside are matte, so the sky and the water outside really bring the sparkle,” said Harney.
New York Post Article by Michelle Sinclair Colman
Canaan and North Canaan, CT:
Once Sleepy, Now Awakening @nytimes
After pulling off a notable second act of reinvention, the Canaans, in Litchfield County, Conn., may be on the verge of a third. For centuries, the neighboring towns of Canaan and North Canaan rumbled with iron foundries that turned out wagon wheels, anchors, and cannons. But in digging mines, firing furnaces, and stripping the hills of trees — all for the important ingredient of charcoal — the industry had left the terrain ragged by the early 20th century. @nytimes
What to Do in Millerton: A 24-Hour Guide to the Sweetest Small Village
With boutique shops, cozy cafés, and bustling restaurants, the Dutchess County neighborhood is a busy community in a small package. Set into the hills of northeastern Dutchess County, Millerton is about as close as you can get to Connecticut without crossing the state border. Though small, the village sits along the soaring Taconic Range and is surrounded by rolling fields, making it an ideal hiking and biking destination.
Day trip to Millerton, the quieter Hudson
Wedged along the borders of Connecticut and Massachusetts in northern Dutchess County, Millerton used to fly under the radar. In the past five years, in-town development from artists, designers, and makers has elevated the profile of its throwback Americana Main Street. Once dubbed “the Williamsburg of upstate,” Millerton has held on to its reputation as an undercover outpost of haute Brooklyn. But locals have grown weary of the hype, and the comparisons.
Pandemic stories: Eight New Yorkers on why they moved to Connecticut
After an “intense” spring in Brooklyn, the Cohans connected with Elyse Harney Real Estate agent Holly Leibrock, who helped them secure a rental near Lake Wononscopomuc in the Salisbury/Lakeville area for the summer of 2020. When their Tribeca and Lower East Side galleries reopened in June on a semi-remote basis, Jane said she and her husband were already shopping for houses in Litchfield County to make the area a more permanent vacation destination.
Litchfield County Boom: Pandemic brings surge of new residents – especially Brooklynites!
Broker Elyse Harney Morris of Elyse Harney Real Estate said she too has seen an exodus from Brooklyn to the state’s northwest corner, calling it “the strongest location out of New York City.” Melnick said there was even a particular demographic for each Brooklyn and Manhattan buyer he’s seen.
Millerton: A Lively Little Town
Ok, two things right off the bat you should know about Millerton, NY. First, there’s no zoo here. You’re thinking of Millbrook, 30 minutes to the southwest. We’ll get to them next month. Second, while you may use such words as “quaint” and “charming” to describe this tiny village of about 900 people located in the town of North East, you absolutely can not use the word “sleepy.” Both Harney & Sons teas and Irving Farm coffee roasters have their main headquarters on the outskirts of the village, as well as cafes on Millterton’s Main Street. Rookie Farm Bakery’s house roast, a custom blend from No. Six Depot is described as “deep, dark, existential.” There’s a sign for Bulletproof Coffee in the window of the Oakhurst Diner. You have never seen a more caffeinated 0.6 square miles in your life.
How This Pastoral Connecticut Town Became an Unlikely Arts Haven
Sharon, Connecticut’s town green is one of those picture-perfect, Norman Rockwell-esque New England scenes. Blink and you’ll miss the diminutive “downtown.” But beyond the charming, small-town core are miles of open farmland, soft, rolling hills, and views that go on and on.
Millerton, New York: Unspoiled Beauty With a New Youthful Energy
The Dutchess County village used to be a place where New Yorkers had second homes. Now many are living the country life there full-time. Continue reading on nytimes.com.
New Yorkers Who Fled to Hudson Valley Are Buying Local Businesses
Proprietors escaping street tensions, coronavirus restrictions are opening shops, renting offices, and transforming aging inns into chic hotels. Andrea Westerlind decided in May that she needed to leave New York City after looters smashed the windows at her apparel and home items store in Manhattan. She moved her company’s operations to Millerton, N.Y., buying a two-story retail building for a new shop and purchasing a home nearby in western Massachusetts. With business now thriving, she says she has no plans to move back to the city.
Litchfield, Conn.: Old-Fashioned and Pastoral
Prices are up in this rural town, where “the Covid stampede has gobbled up a lot of inventory.” Being old-fashioned is a point of pride in pastoral Litchfield, where farms sell raw milk, residents traverse their properties on horses, and houses are older than America itself…
Sharon, Connectictut A Calm, Quiet Town, 15 Minutes From the Train
In 2016, Tracey and Brian Abut bought their first home in Sharon, a bucolic town in northwest Litchfield County, Conn. A year later, they opened The Edward, a wine bar near the town green. This past February, they bought another house in town, which they are renovating.
Salisbury, Connecticut: An Antidote for Cabin Fever
Nina DiSesa and her husband, Brian Goodall, used to own a 45-acre horse farm in Pawling, N.Y., but when they decided to give up riding, they chose a home on five acres near the center of Salisbury, in the northwest corner of Connecticut.
Leaving Home, but Not the Folks
A few weeks ago, boarding school students in the Northeast began moving into their dorm rooms armed with all the usual clatter. The Indian print tapestries, the athletic gear, the odd beanbag chair. But a few of them arrived with some extra equipment: their parents. In towns like Lakeville, Washington Depot, and Sharon, Conn.; Millbrook, N.Y.; Deerfield and North Andover, Mass.; and Newport and Middletown, R.I., some families are buying or renting houses and apartments to be close to their children, who are living in dorms.
