Open House: 35 Historic Upstate New York Homes
By Chuck D’imperio (Syracuse University Press, 2020) Buy It NowCombining two favorite Hudson Valley pastimes—being nosy about gorgeous houses and taking spontaneous road trips—Open House is both a fantastic guidebook and an absolute pleasure to read for local history buffs. Upstate New York radio personality and Monumental New York author Chuck D’Imperio takes readers on a tour of significant residences in counties across the upstate region. His lively prose includes the story of each building, along with its architectural history, the facts on how to get there, and when the tours start. D’Imperio’s engaging storytelling is peppered with quotes from local historians that put the reader inside each home—from mansions to famed naturalist John Burroughs’s ramshackle Catskill Mountains cabin—at the time when its original inhabitants were making that particular building matter.