House & Home -

Where We Live

Deborah & William Hillyard
Deborah & William Hillyard
Deborah & William Hillyard
Deborah & William Hillyard
Deborah & William Hillyard
Kinderhook St, Highbridge Rd & Route 66
This walk starts from home and heads up local Route 61 and then back into the village on Route 203.  There are then a number of different walks from which I choose to get me back home.
This walk is often the continuation of the one to the left.  Payne Avenue runs off Route 203 in the village and leads to our local bank.  It is then a short walk to the Fairgrounds before heading home. 
Taking Kinderhook Street then Pond Hill Road before turning onto White Mills Road up to the High Bridge.  Along Highbridge Road to Route 66 which I take south to get home. 
Another walk that starts from home and heads up local Route 61, but this one diverges on Harman Heights Road and North Cross Road.  Then, I head south-east on Route 203 then west on Route 9 before heading over Slate Hill to Route 66 and heading home. 
Routes 61 & 203
Payn Ave & Columbia County Fairgrounds
Routes 61 to 203, Then 9 & 66
Our Village & the Surrounding Countryside
The first part of this page comprises pictures from around the center of the village where we live.  The total population is only 1,770, so it is quite small.  While not a famous village, we do have the Crandell Theatre, which is both the largest and oldest movie theater in Columbia County.  It dates back to 1926.  PS21 is a music and dance space on the edge of the village that operates during the Summer months.  Then, if your taste is for musicals, we have the Mac-Haydn Theatre that, again, operates through the Summer in a purpose built building.  Close by there is the Ghent Playhouse and the Valatie Community Theatre in adjacent villages
This walk starts from home and heads up local Route 61 and then back into the village on Route 203.  There are then a number of different walks from which I choose to get me back home.
The Village Center
Click on the appropriate picture below to go to that section and see a slide show. 
The house is close to the center of Chatham, a small village in Columbia county, in NY State.  It is about 125 miles north of New York City, just off the Taconic State Parkway that runs north from just outside of New York City up to the Toll Plaza at the New York State Thruway, I90, east of the NY state capital, Albany, and west of Pittsfield, MA.  Parkway construction started in 1932, and was completed in 1963. 
The  village is very popular with weekenders from the city; we call them "212s" after the telephone area code for NYC.  We were 212s for nearly four years before moving here permanently.  The village is not far from the Berkshires in Massachusetts, which is a popular cultural center.  We are close to the City of Hudson, which is a major center for antique shops, and Albany, the New York State Capital, is about half an hours drive away. 
There are also a number of areas around the village that we have documented in photographs.  They are various walks we take; some close to home, others a little further afield.  In general, the walks are within a radius of about twelve kilometers, or seven and a half miles, from home.
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