In light of last weekend’s women’s marches, this historic Hudson Valley home once owned by Florence Ripley Mastin — a poet, women’s rights advocate and suffragette — seems apropos.
The $1.17 million property, at 26 Franklin St. in Piermont, NY, was where Mastin lived between 1916 and 1960.
Known as “Four Gables,” the charming Gothic Revival home was built for an Erie Railroad manager in 1840, on a hillside overlooking the Hudson River and the historic Piermont railroad station.
The house is anchored by a veranda that overlooks the river.
It sits on 1.3 acres,adjacent to a nature trail/park that runs from Nyack to New Jersey.
The veranda also overlooks a stone-walled garden with apple trees, perennials, a planted herb garden and mature plantings. Inside, the home features original marble fireplaces and pocket doors that divide the living room and dining room. Perhaps the best description of the home comes from the poet herself:
“Up a green hillside where a garden stood,
O many years ago, on lichened stove,
Jack-in-the-Pulpit lives in a leafy wood
Preaching to thrushes . . . lilies pace alone
With dim blue hoods, old nuns at last secure in their still chapel.
Here the myrtle makes patterns for contemplation, and the pure
White Star of Bethlehem in splendor breaks
The mold of ancient leaves. Herein there lies
For the disillusioned heart a vanished peace.
The downward gazing eyes will meet the eyes
Of fern or chickadee and sip of grace.
To this green hill the weary heart must come
To find at last an alter and a home.”
The listing broker is Richard Ellis, of Ellis Sotheby’s International.
