Relocation of old Columbia County toll building supported by state
HILLSDALE — State officials on Thursday submitted a request to relocate a “rare and significant” Columbia County building from New York’s turnpike era 30 feet to protect it from traffic and road hazards.
The Columbia Turnpike East Tollhouse, on the north side of Route 23 in the town of Hillsdale, sits on a turnpike that was an overland route between western Massachusetts and the Hudson River that was active between 1799 and 1906. The wood-framed tollhouse was built for the tollkeeper and, until 1906, was fronted by a tollgate that could be raised and lowered to restrict the movement of road traffic, according to a news release from Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office.
The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2016, and the request proposes moving the building to protect it.
The New York State Board for Historic Preservation reviewed and approved the new location as similar in character to the original site. The move, spearheaded by the Friends of East Gate, would include and retain the building ’s original features, orientation and historic interrelationship with the road. If approved, the tollhouse would also come under the purview of
the National Park Service.
The update comes along with the board’s recommendation to add 13 properties to the State and National Registers of Historic Places. Of those, the tollhouse was the only one in the Capital Region, though the list includes two sites in the Midhudson Region: the Tioronda Estate-craig House Historic District, a historic Gothic Revival house that sits on 69 acres in Beacon and the town of Fishkill; and the Westminster Presbyterian Church in Yonkers, which has been a hub for the area’s Black community since the late 19th century and a regional focal point for the civil rights movement.
Such listings can assist owners in revitalizing properties, making them eligible for public preservation programs and services, such as matching state grants and federal historic rehabilitation tax credits, Hochul’s office said.
Once recommendations are approved by the commissioner, who serves as the state historic preservation officer, the properties are listed on the New York State Register of Historic Places and then nominated to the National Register of Historic Places, where they are reviewed and, once approved, entered on the National Register.