Effort aims to preserve Beacon hospital

Craig House land, buildings for sale

By Craig Wolf
Poughkeepsie Journal

 

Darryl Bautista/Poughkeepsie Journal The main building of the former Craig House psychiatric hospital off Route 9D in Beacon is shown Tuesday. A group is trying to find a buyer who would keep the 67-acre property intact.

BEACON -- A garden conservation group is trying to find new owners for the closed Craig House hospital and its classic 19th-century landscape.

The Garden Conservancy, a national nonprofit based nearby in Cold Spring in Putnam County, is working with the broker to find a buyer whose plans would avoid chopping up the historic estate on Route 9D into housing lots.

''I've been working with him to make it available to people to look at who would have an interest in a preservation strategy, something that would keep the buildings and grounds in their present condition,'' said conservancy President Antonia Adezio.

The 67-acre property was placed on the market this year by Putnam Center Inc., a subsidiary of Putnam Hospital Center in Carmel, which is a subsidiary of Poughkeepsie-based Health Quest Inc. that also owns Vassar Brothers Medical Center.

Deal fails to go through

Craig House, a private psychiatric hospital, closed in October 2000. A deal with Milton L. Ehrlich Inc., a New York realty firm that has a local entity called Beacon Terminal Corp., sought to buy the property but the deal never closed.

Robert Morini, broker for Houlihan/Lawrence Inc. in Brewster, has been showing the property. He could not be reached. Adezio said the asking price is $6.5 million.

Mayor Clara Lou Gould said the city government is ''supportive of any activity that can preserve the beautiful aspects of Craig House, which is what we want to do.'' She said city planning consultant David Stolman is trying to draft an approach that would allow some clustered housing development while preserving the lawn and creek vistas.

Adezio said there is a ''broad range of possibilities'' for uses. ''The nut that has to be cracked is an appropriate use of that main building,'' she said. The 1860s ''high Victorian Gothic'' Tioronda building was built as the home of wealthy merchant Joseph Howland. ''It's a significant maintenance situation,'' she said.

It's the scenic landscape that's the hook for the garden group.

''The landscape itself is, to our knowledge, the last remaining intact example of the style of landscape design that was nurtured here in the Hudson Valley,'' Adezio said. ''It reflects the writing, style and belief of Andrew Jackson Downing, taking advantage of the natural setting in plantings for one's home. There's very little of his work visible any more.''

Downing was a noted 18th-century Hudson River landscape architect.